Ontario Abandoned Places will be rebranded as Ominous Abandoned Places

McCormick's Biscuit Factory

Being Demolished Commercial in London, Ontario, Canada

Aug 06 2010

 |  6795
 |  6
Recent status Being Demolished
Location # 1835

Thomas McCormick's sweet dream during the Industrial Revolution

Thomas McCormick emigrated from Ireland about 1849. In 1858, he began manufacturing confectionary in a factory located on Clarence Street in London. McCormick was in direct competition with another confectioner, Daniel Simmons Perrin who had established his own business just four years earlier.

The McCormick company was incorporated as the McCormick Manufacturing Company Limited in July 1879.

Thomas McCormick died in 1906.

In 1914, Thomas P. McCormick, son of the company(a)s founder Thomas McCormick, moved the London business from downtown to the Dundas location. McCormick had spent many years researching the latest manufacturing technology and incorporating it into his new "Sunshine Palace". At the time of its opening, it was the most modern and fireproof biscuit factory in all of North America.

The operational capacity of the McCormick Biscuit and Candy Factory

The building contained 1.5 million bricks, eight hundred tons of steel, one hundred thousand bags of cement, forty-five thousand square feet of glass thus earning the nickname “Sunshine Palace” (making up 68% of the exterior walls), and 150,000 square feet of maple flooring and made from concrete and steel and constructed to be fireproof.

The production at the new factory was impressive. 135,000 pounds of candy and 100,000 pounds of biscuits were produced daily. At the time as many as 1000 workers were employed in the factory.

This is how the factory was utilized:-  

Floor level

                                      Use

First floor

Storage for flour, sugar, administrative office, and bakery


 

Second floorProduction of crackers along with lab used to hold chemicals
Third floor

Production  for chocolate, employee cafeteria


 

Fourth floorProduction of candy, with vents and skylight, used to cool off the candy
Fifth floorDistributed into 2 parts. One for jelly bean production and meeting area for executives

Various holders throughout the years

In 1926, McCormick’s Manufacturing was purchased by its competitor, D.S. Perrin and Company Ltd., and became the Canada Biscuit Company. The Canada Biscuit Company was sold during the 1940s to George Weston Ltd. In 1990 the company was acquired by Culinar Foods of Montreal, and in 1997 by Beta Brands Inc.

Mccormick factory shut down in the summer of 2008 while it was still being operated by Beta Brands. At that time approximately 100 employees lost their jobs.

Today, the abandoned Mccormick factory, located at 1156 Dundas Street lies vacant, dark, with a lot to see and explore.

Current status of the McCormick Biscuit Factory

A highly fragile roof, with holes in between that, has a constant risk of falling pieces, and a basement could be fully flooded depending on the time of the year.

Currently under the private ownership of Sierra Construction of Woodstock, with restoration costs of around 9 million. The back of the factory was mostly destroyed to construct a new housing complex.

Comments

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7 months ago

If anyone is planning to go in the next couple weeks, feel free to reach out. Have been trying to get some friends to go with me into this hellhole with no avail...

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8 months ago

Pretty good spot, went today and basement was mainly frozen but not to bad that it was difficult to walk on. Lots of windows and holes in the walls so be careful at night with a flashlight. There wasn’t any squatters in at the time i went

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4 years ago

Awesome spot

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4 years ago

The basement isn''t even scary lol that homeless guy may not have wanted you to go there ;). There is a thrashed bathroom / employee change rooms near the front door stair case. Other wise it just really dark and simular to the other floors above. I couldn''t go the first time as there was like 4 inches of water in that change room, so I walked along the lockers as far as I could. My second trip there wasn''t water so I went through. There is actually a couple sets of stairs that go down

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5 years ago

Anybody ever been to the basement? I''ve gone twice but only since construction started, ran into a nice homeless man who told us not to go in the basement that it was what nightmares were made of and that he wouldnt even go during the day, a few other people I''ve met have said the same thing, wondering if anything is down there or it''s just as creepy as the rest of the place?

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5 years ago

demolition has started here so don't know how much longer it's going to be around for. which kind of sucks cause this is one of the ones i was planning for in the spring

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6 years ago

This place is super icy in the winter, as said before. Had a few times where I slipped, and a friend I was exploring with actually slipped and fell down a set of icy stairs, so watch where you walk haha

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7 years ago

If anyone wants to visit this location within the next few weeks just know there's currently road construction going on in the area and it's a bit of a hassle to get around.

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7 years ago

Very easy to get to currently, super icy inside so be careful!

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9 years ago

This place is a soggy, smelly mess. Every floor was practically an ice rink. My friend fell down the stairs.. Bring skates!

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10 years ago

Security is pretty tight around the place. All known entrances are boarded up pretty secure. I'm sure someone will have it opened up shortly though. Hopefully get in one last time before it's re-purposed.

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10 years ago

"Oh yea, we are going to build a seniors home, here's a shiny new dollar." 2 years later "Aww dang, the seniors home wasn't viable, you people let it go to waste too much. It's your fault!! We're building 1 billion storage units instead."

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10 years ago

Wow, they really coughed up a lot of dough.

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10 years ago

Went past today and crews are sealing it up again. Just give it a week.

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10 years ago

Great set Doom. Good write-up and find OAP.

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11 years ago

Thanks Rid! I'm glad it worked out as well as I was hoping; almost a mirror reflection. Too bad some of those puddles give off a really dirty smell or I would have gotten more into it haha.

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11 years ago

Nice set PNK! The water reflections in here really adds to a beat location such as this!

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11 years ago

Very big & pretty dark in some places, especially the basement. It's one of those places where I was there for a long time but still feel like I missed so much.

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11 years ago

Lol, for the last time eh? We'll see.

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11 years ago

That guy in the video with the glasses looks like a real dick!

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11 years ago

looks like the end of McCormicks is on its way. Link posted above to CTV news story

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11 years ago

Same RnRF.. cool creative photos man. I wanna go back too ;-)

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11 years ago

Great additions Dave, Doom and Trail...you've got me considering a 3rd visit...wait WTF....I haven't uploaded my OLD galleries from here yet.....

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11 years ago

I gotta get back into this place.

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11 years ago

I like the depth perception photos..

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12 years ago

There is talk city had a byer but they droped out of deal after they realised how much would cost to clean up aspestos and crap in there, last year the site across the street from this one was burned to , they say was insurance scam so one only knows .

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12 years ago

ya has been talk of insurance scam, the city has been trying for years to rid themselves of this place so wouldnt surprise me .

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12 years ago

It's too bad about the fire. Now this site is too "hot" to ever go back. Now that the "concerned citizens" have the building across the street down. It's full steam ahead on this one.

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12 years ago

I was by here today and couldn't find a way in. all the doors have been welded shut and the police were circling the neighborhood too.

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12 years ago

Nice recent sets DC, AD & DV! Think I need to revisit "Pripyat" soon! ;)

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12 years ago

i am dieing to get back into this place.

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12 years ago

Thanks folks!

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12 years ago

Adriana your shots are great, image 10 is really cool with the water reflection!

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12 years ago

hahaha yes I meant that!!

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12 years ago

Thanks RnR...what i THINK you mean to say though is you plan on potentially maybe hitting this place up at some point at a currently undetermined future date?

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12 years ago

I'm gonna hit this next weekend!! Nice shots Doom

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12 years ago

Thanks phrenzee...it was tough even condensing it down to 40...have so many damned pics of this awesome place. Wish I had been able to capitalize better on the low light in the boiler room. The room beyond that was intriguing but no way to access it safely due to flooding so I laid down on a catwalk and snapped through a small opening between that and an air duct.

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13 years ago

was here April long weekend. Great site. The flour silos were the best. Working on getting a model into this place in the near future.

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13 years ago

We went back last night to film another episode in this location due to how awesome it is. Entry to this building has become a little more difficult. the city and police are watching it more closely. One of the doors in the back is still able to be opened if you pry it slightly. the rest are bolted pretty tightly. Since our first video of this place, it looks as though someone has made an a

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14 years ago

for video of this place check out this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jBH0X9TGh18 i'll have to take some screenshots later and upload them!

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14 years ago

Yes ... when exploring be like a scout - take nothing but pictures, leave nothing but footprints.