A Junos field guide to London's most legendary music halls and watering holes

Victoria Park might seem like an unexpected stop on a tour about London's entertainment history, but Sylvia Chodas says it's one of the most important sites. 

"Believe it or not, this is where the beginnings of the entertainment section in London began," she said. "This was the location of the British garrison in 1838." 

Chodas, who works with the Architectural Conservancy of Ontario and Museum London, regularly leads Londoners on walking tours to explore their hometown history.

Historically, Richmond Street was where most of the community's diversions were, and locals were happy to exchange their services for a soldiers' hard-earned wages, Chodas said. 

"Back then the soldiers would finish their days drills or work and need something to do in the evenings," she says. 

"Opera houses, bars, establishments grew up. The Grand Theatre is still located there to this day, and it's where London's history of an entertainment centre began." 

One London Place, which locals now know as a gleaming office tower, once held an unfinished church where locals could take in a show that included musical interludes by the garrison band. 

The Richmond Hotel

The only pub in town that even comes close to dating back to those early days is the Richmond Hotel. Operating since 1852, the building has been a bar longer than London has been a city (London was incorporated in 1855).

Chodas points out that you can tell how old the building is not just by the date included in the bar's logo. If you look close to the sidewalk on the building's south face on King Street, you can spot yellow brick beneath the crumbling facade. 

"Yellow brick is London brick," she says. "Back in the day, it was the particular colour of the clay. If someone had a house of red brick, you knew they were wealthy because their bricks were imported." 

The Mechanic's Institute

The Mechanic's Institute was built in 1835 and predates the military garrison in Victoria Park. It was where people went before there were libraries, and they could borrow books and learn for free.

At London's Mechanic's Institute, Chodas says it was once rented out for performances as Bennett's Theatre and was even the scene of a murder.

"The manager was not paying the actors," Chodas said. "A fight broke out between the actors and the manager right before the curtain went up." 

Chodas says the actor drew a gun and shot the manager in the face right before the curtain went up. 

"The first words of the drama was 'is there a doctor in the house?' There was not. The manager lay dead," she said.  

Call the Office

Originally built as the York Hotel in the 1870s, it originally hosted people from out of town, just steps away from the train station across the street. In the years since, the York Hotel has become one of London's most storied music spots.

Last June the bar went up for lease and the owner started asking for donations from the public to help run the crumbling venue. 

While the building might be a relic, Call the Office has a legendary history, hostings acts that include Blue Rodeo, the Tragically Hip and the Ramones.

Legend has it, Radiohead once played there for a bargain basement cover of just $10.

Nooner's (formerly known as Smale's Pace)

One of London's favourite lunch spots was actually one of London's favourite concert spots in 1969 when Smale's Pace opened in a converted Bell Canada garage at 436 Clarence St.

It was the place in town to see folk music and hosted acts such as Bruce Cockburn, Stan Rogers, Mae Moore and the Good Brothers. 

Now it's a family-run lunch spot that serves up some of the best deals in town.

The Grand Opera House

The Grand Opera House no longer exists, and is now the site of an office tower at King and Richmond, but in 1880 it was a three-storey Victorian building that housed a Masonic temple and a 1,230-seat opera venue on the third floor.

Its lustre didn't last long; the building was destroyed by fire in 1900.