As if driving in the city wasn’t a big enough headache already, the city’s commuters just lost yet another place to pump as one of the few remaining downtown gas stations has shuttered for good.
I can’t help but hear Queen’s “Another One Bites the Dust” playing in the back of my head every time I pass (on foot, of course, because I can’t afford gas in the first place) by one of Toronto’s fleet of now-closed downtown gas stations.
Once plentiful enough that you could reasonably brave rush hour traffic without the fear of emptying your tank in a standstill at King and Spadina, gas stations seem to be falling like dominoes lately, forcing drivers to the far reaches of the city just to fill up their tank.
Back in 2022, both the Esso and Circle K locations at King and Strachan and Church and Dundas closed down to make way for residential developments, and last year, the latter location was transformed into a presentation centre for the impending development that caused its demise.
Now, yet another option for downtown drivers has bitten the dust, so to speak.
The Esso and Circle K location at the intersection of Harbord and Major has officially shut down permanently.
This comes on the tails of its across-the-street neighbour, Her Father’s Cider Bar, announcing that they, too, were closing permanently. If one thing’s for sure, it’s that Harbord Village will look different this summer.
The closure of the gas station leaves fewer than 10 remaining locations from Dufferin Street east to the DVP and Bloor Street south to the waterfront.
