Here are a few highlights of the trends revealed by my annual survey of the street-level businesses on Bloor Street in Toronto between Spadina and Christie and the data from city directories dating back to 1950. (I do not yet have enough data for the Christie-Lansdowne sector to discern any trends.) (You can explore the data yourself on this page.)
Here's an overview of the composition of the businesses on the strip in 1950, 1995 (the first year of my survey), and 2025.
Here is the detailed evolution of the number of businesses in several categories.
The number of businesses selling prepared food (e.g. restaurants and cafés) was fairly stable from 1950 to the early 1970s, and then increased steadily up to 2019; it declined in 2020, and has increased slightly since then.
The number selling personal care items and services (hairdressers, spas, nail salons) peaked in the late 1960s, reached a low point in the mid-1980s, and then increased steadily to 2013, leveling off since.
Businesses offering personal adornment (jewelry, tattoos, threading) steadily increased in number to the mid-1980s and then declined. None remain in the Spadina–Chritie sector.
Art, books, music, and video stores peaked in numbers around the turn of the century, and have declined since.
In the 1950s, around 40 locations were occupied by medical businesses, many of them individual doctors. The number declined rapidly during the 1960s and 1970s, as individual doctors moved out of street-level locations, leaving drugstores, dentists, and opticians.
In the late 1960s, realtors occupied 11 spaces on the strip. Their number declined to zero in the mid-1990s.
Stores catering to the automobile occupied 10 or more spaces on the strip in the 1950s and early 1960s, but their number steadily declined to zero in the early 1980s. Througout the 1950s, thre were five gas stations on the strip.
Businesses selling prepared food are mainly restaurants, cafés, and establishments I classify as purveyors of "fast food". The number of restaurants has increased steadily. Cafés were almost nonexistent until the mid-1970s, increased in number in the mid-1990s, and since then have fluctuated in number. Fast food outlets started to appear in the mid-1970s; their number has declined in recent years.
Korean restaurants first appeared in the early 1970s. Their number increased rapidly to 2008 and has fluctuated since. (One that started in 1973, Korea House Restaurant, remains in business in 2025.) Japanese restaurants first appeared in the late 1980s, and their number steadily increased to 2015, with a decline since then.
Indian restaurants also first appeared in the early 1970s. They have had a steady presence since, except for 2016–2018. Italian restaurants came in the mid 1980s and went in the mid 2010s.
Many restaurants do not last long. The next chart shows, among the restaurants first observed in any given year, the number that survived to each subsequent year. For example, of the 13 restaurants first observed in 1994, 11 remained in 1995, 9 in 1996, and 2 in 2025 (Imonay House Restaurant and Tacos El Asador).
Many cafés do not last long either, as the next chart shows.
A distinctive feature of the stretch of Bloor Street between Bathurst and Christie is the large number of businesses catering to speakers of Korean. I put a business in this category if it has significant signage in Korean. ("Significant" is subjective. I try to be consistent. The data prior to 1995, taken from city directories, do not allow me to reliably assign ethnicities. The numbers for these years relate to businesses still operating in 1995.) The number of businesses in this category grew substantially from 1995 to 2005, and has steadily fallen since then, from a peak of 74 to 37 in 2025. In the late 1990s, a significant number of businesses catered to speakers of Spanish, but since then that number has steadily dwindled.
In every year, some stores are vacant. Not surprisingly, perhaps, the number of vacancies peaked during the 2007–2008 financial crisis (although the number was high in 2006, before the crisis). Between 2020 and 2022 the number was high, but since then it has declined significantly. (The numbers from 2017 to 2023 include five spaces vacant because of the pending redevelopment of Mirvish Village, including the block previously occupied by Honest Ed's. In 2024 and 2025, one space in the block previously occupied by Honest Ed's was occupied.)
