Ontario Abandoned Places will be rebranded as Ominous Abandoned Places

System Soundbar 117 Peter Street

Demolished Commercial in Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Jun 06 2013

 |  1963
 |  0
Recent status Demolished
Location # 8019

This location is a prime example of how the condo corporations are taking over our city of Toronto. A perfectly good vintage designed building removed to make way for another cash cow condo. 117 Peter street was the home of a very successful night club called System Soundbar. This was just the basement and although I never attended this bar, there is great link to a bit of the history of the bar and building in the years just prior to demo. Looks like it wasn't doing too bad at all. http://www.thegridto.com/culture/music/then-now-system-soundbar/

Recent street view is located here: https://maps.google.ca/maps?oe=utf-8&client=firefox-a&q=117+peter+street&ie=UTF-8&hq=&hnear=0x882b34daf2bc0965:0xf4d52ccc1fda9fca,117+Peter+St,+Toronto,+ON&gl=ca&ei=TiGxUYq8E-KWywHd-IHgDw&ved=0CC8Q8gEwAA

Staff report for proposed condominium can be viewed here: http://www.toronto.ca/legdocs/mmis/2011/te/bgrd/backgroundfile-35535.pdf An interesting (quite ridiculous) debate about "shadow" problems this new condo could cause is noted in this report and "Staff analysis of the shadow studies suggests that this can be achieved with a minor reduction in height of approximately 2 storeys from the proposed 36 storey tower." is the remarkable solution ($$$)

And starting at $370,000 you can own a whopping 590 sq ft of downtown Toronto living space in 2014: http://www.century21.ca/Property/ON/M5V_0O0/Toronto/Peter_Street_287-291_Richmond_Street_West/117

These photos were taken on one of the last nights any structure was still standing. Camera data says March 13, 2012, I'm not sure if that is 100% correct.

Comments

Please log in to leave a comment

 • 

11 years ago

Wow....I've spent a lot of mornings coming out of System forgetting what happened for the past several hours.

 • 

11 years ago

D Explore Re: Best nightclub Toronto has ever had IMHO Whoa, whoa, hold on there - you're forgetting about Vampire Sex Bar!

 • 

11 years ago

wait... start from north and zoom towards pizza shop....boards go up first and then south of richmond they are gone...

 • 

11 years ago

Wow superss thats kind of wild. Its like the times over lap depending on what side of the street you are on. Interesting. So in fact it was the whole block, the pizza shop as well as that large black building. 117 is already wrapped up like a giant condo billboard in the one google earth image..

 • 

11 years ago

Look at the street view, go north of Richmond it's still there & there is a building on the opposite corner that looks normal (Aug 2011). Go just south of Richmond & you have a missing Soundbar & a gutted building across from it (May 2012).

 • 

11 years ago

Wow, this makes me sad. I used to DJ at this forward thinking venue from time to time back in it's heyday and was there at the opening. Best nightclub Toronto has ever had IMHO. The sound system, lighting and musical format was years ahead of its time and the vibe will never be duplicated. RIP System.