292 Elgin Street

How Creepy was my Clown?

 On Thursday, Febuary 8 1940. Loblaw's ran a full-page ad in the Ottawa Journal, announcing that their new Elgin Street location would open at 2:00 PM the following afternoon. This would bring the number of Loblaw's stores in the Capital area to seven, including the locations at 139 Rideau Street, 1273 Wellington, and the four stores on Bank (206, 317, 724 and 1115.) Compare the drawing in the ad to the storefront as it appears in the above photo today...

 Not spot on, but close enough. The windows have been replaced and the glazing truncated on the north end of the storefront to accommodate an entrance to the basement. The four sidewalk-level vents are now hidden by black tile, and unless it grew an extra pair along the way, the artist skimped on the number of sandstone accents in the late-deco-ish motif above the doorway.

 The ad copy and an accompanying article tell us that the store was purpose-built on land purchased by Loblaw's. It had a floor area of some 5,000 square feet and employed fifteen, all locals, all with previous experience at other Loblaw's stores. Dedicated to product freshness, hygiene and convenience, the store would pay special attention to its selection of meat and produce, in a setting "decorated in a cheerful shade of pastel brown[!] with silver trims that add an extra gleam of attractiveness to the white fixtures. The indirect lighting affords a soft and well diffused illumination that is as restful as it is adequate." Steam heating was also a thing.

 The Elgin Street Loblaws lost its lease in early 1972. #292 became home to a succession of restaurants including the Royal Palace (so a friend tells me), the Stage Door (I'm pretty sure) and the palm-court styled Penguin (where I worked, albeit briefly.) The basement, "292-B" became a venue in its own right. Of the Roxy (heyday the early 1980s), Tom Stewart writes...

"[Club operator] Paul Symes had the courage and foresight to book hardcore bands Black Flag and Saccharine Trust into the Roxy – a basement room at 292-B Elgin Street with a low ceiling and (thankfully) even lower lighting. For many in the national capital’s music scene, things would never be the same. Sure we’d seen punk bands before, but this was the real thing – California hardcore at it’s most ferocious. Henry Rollins sang half the set holding a hapless local in a headlock, his maniacal gaze daring the audience to approach the stage and risk the same fate."

 Other acts of note included Mark E. Smith and the Fall, the Lounge Lizards, Mission of Burma, the Violent Femmes and the Virgin Prunes — Of the last mentioned, I'll admit to walking out ten minutes into their show. The Stray Cats were playing in Hull the same night — less artsy whining and a lot more fun ;-)

 292-B is now the Bytown Tavern, the home of Yuk-Yuk's comedy club, just downstairs from Hooley's Pub... currently sporting a seasonal "creepy clown" doorway treatment. Nice teeth!

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 It comes to my belated attention that the story of 292 Elgin Street was well researched and delightfully written up earlier this year by Ottawa's respected young historian, Chris Ryan. I'm relieved to see that nothing I've written here is contradicted by his findings.