175 Dundas Street, Scandrett's



 


Reid's before...
 


Reid's Crystal Hall 2015
 


 

Scandrett's

John and Joseph Scandrett, two brothers from London township still in their twenties, entered the grocery business in 1860 in partnership with their brother-in-law, Frederick A. Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald would eventually become President of Imperial Oil and the London Furniture Manufacturing Company. The Fitzgerald family name remains associated with oil money even today. After fourteen years operating at the market, the Scandrett-Fitzgerald partnership was reorganized, and John Scandrett, now on his own, moved to 175, Dundas Street. In 1883, John Scandrett commissioned famous London architect George F. Durand, who also designed the façade of the London Club, to create an impressive, artistic store front. Inspired by the style known as Queen Anne Revival, the façade is an architectural gem in the downtown core, displaying twenty-two separate panels with flower decorations. John's sons, John B. and Joseph W., inherited the business and remained at 175 until 1924. The Scandretts dealt not only in fine foods, teas, coffees, champagnes, liquors and wines, but also in decorated crockery (in which fine foods were preserved). Fine crockery was big business at this time, and many high-end grocers would sell their own crockery decorated with what could be considered as early versions of trade logos.

Reid's Crystal Hall, an important store selling crockery a few doors down Dundas Street was the site of a horrific tragedy that hit the city in 1907. The building of I.W.J. Reid and Company, known as the Crystal Hall, collapsed carrying the adjoining property down with it. Seven people were killed and many others grievously injured.

In the late 1970s, following extensive interior renovations, the upper floors at 175, Dundas Street were named the "Left Bank" in order to remind Londoners about Durand's original artistic ambitions for this building.

Address

175 Dundas Street
London, Ontario
N6A 1G7


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