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Clarence Street
Between King Street and Dundas Street.
Overview
A Short History
The history of the buildings located on Clarence St. between Dundas St. and King St. can represent the changes in the business industry in downtown London, Ontario. From the buildings’ history you can draw approximate dates for these changes. The buildings on Clarence St. between King St. and Dundas St. was used as warehouses and for manufacturing during the late 1800s until the mid 1920s. From there it changed to an area housing offices and retail stores and services until the mid to late 1990s when people began shopping at malls located elsewhere besides the downtown core. Masonville Place Mall, which is located at the other end of the city, opened in 1985 and expanded to 70 stores and services in 1991. Masonville Place and this area of Clarence St. contained a similar number of stores and services. Downtown London has an interesting business history because of the changes it has gone through from manufacturing to retail and office spaces to a neglected area of the downtown area. The ever-changing population, size (in geographical terms) and main meeting place of people has affected the area.
The next three sub pages breaks down the history of Clarence St. between King St. and Dundas St. through three themes of the different types of businesses that have been in the area. The three themes/types are hotels, manufacturers and retail shops. The pages provide information on the themes and the businesses, which have operated out of the plots that fit into each theme.
Located below are two maps. First, shows where Clarence St. is in downtown London, Ontario. Second, highlights the individual plots that have been on Clarence St. since the 1880s. On the left hand side of the box, after the addresses, is the name of a businesses that had been located at the address and the years.
City of London Directories
These two documents contain the information that has been compiled by performing checks in the City of London Directories every 5 years. The more current information is every 5 years but not all of the directories from the late 1800s were available. This means the entries for the 1880s are not as often. The documents are not exact copies of the information contained in the directories. The majority of abbreviations have been taken out to be replaced with complete spelling and punctuation has been added in.
City of London Fire Insurance Plans 1881-1922
This document contains a typed version of the business information that is written in the buildings on the City of London Fire Insurance Plans from 1881-1922 for the area of Clarence St. between King St. and Dundas St. The full Fire Insurance Plans can be found here through Western University's Map and Data Centre.
Downloadable Documents
Please download these documents to view the information contained. The documents are designed to be used as resources if you are interested in studying the history of downtown London, Ontario and wish to have an overview of the types of businesses that have operated in the area since the 1880s.
Street History by Year
Street History by Address
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