The Drake Hotel is a hospitality venue on

Queen Street West Queen Street is a major east–west thoroughfare in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It extends from Roncesvalles Avenue and King Street in the west to Victoria Park Avenue in the east. Queen Street was the cartographic baseline for the original eas ...

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

Ontario Ontario is the southernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Located in Central Canada, Ontario is the Population of Canada by province and territory, country's most populous province. As of the 2021 Canadian census, it ...

, Canada, near Parkdale. In addition to a 51-room

boutique hotel Boutique hotels are small-capacity Hotel, hotels that provide more personalized service than typical hotels. They typically have fewer than a hundred rooms, and are considered more "trendy" and "intimate", often due to their location in urban ar ...

, there is a restaurant lounge, corner café with street-level patio, Sky Yard roof top patio, and the Drake Underground basement nightclub and live performance venue. The Drake Underground primarily features indie acts, though past performers include M.I.A.,

Billie Eilish Billie Eilish Pirate Baird O'Connell ( ; born December 18, 2001) is an American singer-songwriter and musician. She first gained public attention in 2015 with her debut single "Ocean Eyes (song), Ocean Eyes", written and produced by her broth ...

and

Beck Beck David Hansen (born Bek David Campbell; July 8, 1970), known mononymously as Beck, is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer. He rose to fame in the early 1990s with his Experimental music, experimental and Lo-fi mus ...

History

The venue was opened in 1890 as ''Small's Hotel''. At the time, the area was a major

Canadian Pacific Railway The Canadian Pacific Railway () , also known simply as CPR or Canadian Pacific and formerly as CP Rail (1968–1996), is a Canadian Class I railway incorporated in 1881. The railway is owned by Canadian Pacific Kansas City, Canadian Pacific Ka ...

hub near what was then one of the wealthiest neighbourhoods in the city. In 1949, the hotel was acquired by new owners who expanded the building and renamed it ''the Drake''. The hotel eventually fell into decline.

James Earl Ray James Earl Ray (March 10, 1928 – April 23, 1998) was an American fugitive who was convicted of the murder of Martin Luther King Jr. at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, on April 4, 1968. After the assassination, Ray fled to London and ...

described visiting "a bar around the corner"—likely the Drake—while living as a fugitive on nearby Ossington Avenue in 1968. In the 1970s, it fell into use as a

flophouse A flophouse (American English) or doss-house (British English) is a place that has very low-cost lodging, providing space to sleep and minimal amenities. Characteristics Historically, flophouses, or British "doss-houses", have been used for ove ...

like many hotels in North American cities. Other uses in the 1980s, and 1990s include a

punk Punk or punks may refer to: Genres, subculture, and related aspects * Punk rock, a music genre originating in the 1970s associated with various subgenres * Punk subculture, a subculture associated with punk rock, or aspects of the subculture s ...

bar, and

rave A rave (from the verb: '' to rave'') is a dance party at a warehouse, club, or other public or private venue, typically featuring performances by DJs playing electronic dance music. The style is most associated with the early 1990s dance mus ...

den. In October 2001, the hotel was purchased for by Jeff Stober, who planned a Toronto equivalent of the

Hotel Chelsea The Hotel Chelsea (also known as the Chelsea Hotel and the Chelsea) is a hotel at 222 West 23rd Street in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. Built between 1883 and 1884, the hotel was designed by Philip Hubert in a styl ...

where creative individuals would work and live. After in renovations were completed, the Drake re-opened in February 2004. The current ownership has since expanded, opening a hotel in Wellington, Ontario, other restaurants in Toronto and the Drake General Store retail stores.

References

Notes

External links

*
Live concert photos from the Drake
{{Authority control Hotels in Toronto Restaurants in Toronto Music venues in Toronto Nightclubs in Toronto

History

See also

References

External links