The Broadview Hotel

The Broadview Hotel reopened in July 2017 inside a restored 1891 Romanesque Revival landmark at Queen and Broadview, on Toronto's east side. The building spent over 40 years as Jilly's, a strip club, before Streetcar Developments converted it into a 58-room boutique hotel with a rooftop patio overlooking the Don Valley.

The place

The hotel occupies 106 Broadview Avenue at the corner of Queen Street East, the gateway between downtown Toronto and Riverside/Leslieville on the east side of the Don River. For decades the building marked the neighbourhood's roughest edge rather than its most desirable address; its restoration has tracked the area's gentrification, with the hotel's rooftop now one of the more visible vantage points over the Don Valley and the skyline to the west.

The concept

Built in 1891 by entrepreneur Archibald Dingman as Dingman Hall, the building was the tallest structure east of the Don River in its day, later renamed The New Broadview Hotel in 1907 and run as the Lincoln Hotel through the 1930s. From the 1970s it housed Jilly's, a strip club and live-music bar that became a Queen East fixture for over 40 years before closing in 2014. Developer Streetcar Developments bought the property and carried out a full restoration, preserving the Romanesque Revival exterior and reopening it in July 2017 as a 58-room boutique hotel, now overseen by Archive Hospitality and Dream. Rooms range from 275-square-foot King Traditional to a 700-square-foot Dominion Suite, each with a record player and curated vinyl.

Dining & wellness

A ground-floor restaurant and lobby café/bar run through the day, and the rooftop patio serves Pan-Asian small plates and cocktails with unobstructed downtown views, a draw independent of hotel guests. The hotel is pet-friendly and offers parking and a 24-hour business centre, but has no spa or pool.