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The Riverboat

A black and white photograph of a group of people sitting around a stage inside a club. There is wood panelling on the walls and numerous musical instruments can be seen.

Neil Young wrote a song about this venue, where Joni Mitchell and other folk music heroes got their start.

Listening Live

The birthplace of canadian songwriting, the last days of yorkville, closing time.

In “Ambulance Blues”, singer-songwriter Neil Young reminisces about the "old folky days." In the song, he immortalizes the Riverboat Coffee House, one of the world's best intimate venues for singer-songwriters during the hippie heydays of the 1960s. It was the longest operating coffee house of several dozen venues that lined Yorkville's cobblestone streets, north of Toronto's Bloor Street.

In the 1960s, Yorkville was the Canadian equivalent of San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury or New York’s Greenwich Village.

The bohemian youth culture of the 1950s, combined with relatively cheap real estate, created a haven for counterculture the following decade. Early on, Yorkville's coffee houses appealed to young people below the legal age for drinking alcohol (then 21) by hosting live music.

Back in the old folky days The air was magic when we played The riverboat was rocking in the rain Midnight was the time for the raid — Neil Young, "Ambulance Blues"

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The area became famous for its many opportunities to hear the latest live music.  More than 30 music venues on Yorkville Avenue and Avenue Road operated during this period including the Purple Onion, Penny Farthing, and the Mynah Bird.

This critical mass of creative energy took on a formative life of its own. Musicians gravitated there, both to hear, and to be heard. 

Can you think of a music venue in your city with a famous sign outside? The Riverboat's eight-foot wooden sign remained on the railing outside of the popular music venue until it closed in 1978. Zoom in on the venue's wooden sign to get a sense of the wood grain, and spin it around to check out all sides.

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Keyboard controls: Use arrow keys to rotate the object and page up/page down to zoom.

Sign courtesy of by Ali Jennings, rendering commissioned by Heritage Toronto.

 A black and white photograph of a street with large groups of people crowding the sidewalks along Yorkville avenue.

Click here to travel through time

In its heyday, Yorkville was a haven for hippies, folk music and smoky bars, but today, the area is home to luxury shopping and galleries. See how this community looked in the 1960s versus today.

Photograph by Reg Ignell, courtesy of Toronto Star Photo Archives, 1968.

Photograph by Vik Pahwa, 2019.

Poster in pop art style with muted rather than vibrant colours. In the foreground on the right is a man in side profile with shoulder length hair and wearing a dark jacket.

Poster honouring Neil Young's album 'After the Gold Rush' winning the Slaight Family Polaris Heritage prize in 2016.

Illustration by Jud Haynes.

Canadian legends such as Neil Young, Joni Mitchell , Gordon Lightfoot , Buffy Sainte-Marie , Leonard Cohen, Ian & Sylvia, and Bruce Cockburn shaped their music early on in the Yorkville music scene. In this sense, Yorkville became the birthplace of Canadian song and the Toronto Sound of the 1960s.

Some of the greatest lyrics in Canadian history were written on the streets of Yorkville and in the basement of its coffee houses and clubs.

Within a few short years, Yorkville had famously became a lightning rod for concerns about the corruption of youth and the immorality of “hippie” culture.  Spurred simultaneously by public health concerns, traffic concerns and development proposals, Yorkville's organic counterculture was threatened.

In May of 1967 a "love-in" was held at Queen's Park in support of shutting down traffic on Yorkville Avenue. Performances by Leonard Cohen, Joni Mitchell , and Buffy Sainte-Marie were attended by over 4,000 people.

Woman with long hair playing an acoustic guitar sings in front of a crowd in an outdoor park.

Buffy Sainte-Marie sings at the peaceful love-in at Queen’s Park in 1967.

Photo by Bill Dampier. Courtesy of the Toronto Telegram, Clara Thomas Archives and Special Collections, York University.

Night in the city looks pretty to me Night in the city looks fine Music comes spilling out into the street Colors go waltzing in time — Joni Mitchell, Night in the City

In August, peaceful protesters went one step further and organized a sit-in on Yorkville Avenue resulting in the arrest of 50 participants for traffic disruption. Police presence increased - perhaps mainly in response to Ontario MPP Syl Apps' accusation:

Yorkville was a "festering sore in the middle of the city."

Soon a paddy wagon was parked in the neighbourhood on the weekends and a 10 p.m. curfew was enforced for those under 18.

The decline of Yorkville came quickly thereafter with the closure of many prominent venues. The scene moved south and west, towards Markham Village and the University of Toronto campus, where Rochdale College – an experiment in student-run education – had just opened.

The Riverboat outlived the Yorkville's hippie heyday, closing in 1978.

 Outdoor brick building's entryway with stairs going down to the lower level. A sign above the door says " Riverboat. Now Appearing, Murray Maclaughlan, The Finale."

Hearing that it was closing night at The Riverboat, photographer Patrick Harbron quickly made his way down to the sold out venue one last time to hear Murray McLauchlan play. Photograph by Patrick Harbron.

 Man with curly hair and a scruffy beard sings into a microphone with his eyes closed and a harmonica around his neck.

Have you ever been to a closing show at a music venue? Canadian songwriter Murray McLauchlan sings with full emotion, as he closes the Riverboat in the wee hours of June 25, 1978. Photograph by Patrick Harbron.

Dive Deeper

Christopher's Movie Matinee. Directed by Mort Ransen. Montreal: National Film Board, 1968. DVD.

Before the Gold Rush. By Nicholas Jennings. Toronto: Penguin Canada, 1998. Book.

riverboat yorkville toronto

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The Riverboat Coffee House opened in October, 1964 and quickly became part of a prestigious North American circuit that included Detroit’s Chess Mate and New York’s Bitter End. Situated below street level, the club seated 120 people in red booths amid pine walls and brass portholes.

Every seat was in close proximity to the stage, providing an intimate showcase of the top names in popular music, including howlin’ wolf, simon & garfunkel, sonny terry & brownie mcghee, tim buckley, ritchie havens, junior wells, john prine, ramblin’ jack elliott, arlo guthrie, buddy guy, kris kristofferson, john lee hooker, doc watson, tim hardin, jerry jeff walker, janis ian, steve goodman, odetta, seals & crofts and james taylor.s..

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Riverboat Coffee House

Opened in 1964 in the basement of a Victorian row house that once stood on this site, the Riverboat coffee house quickly became one of North America's premier intimate venues for singer-songwriters. On the leading edge of the surging folk and blues music scene, the Riverboat featured performances on its small stage by such legends as John Lee Hooker and Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee, as well as by young performers like Simon and Garfunkel, James Taylor, and Arlo Guthrie. It also provided an early stage for musicians who would become some of the biggest names in Canadian music, including Gordon Lightfoot, Joni Mitchell, Bruce Cockburn, Murray McLauchlan, and Dan Hill. Neil Young immortalized the Riverboat in his song "Ambulance Blues." A legendary music venue of the 1960s and one of the longest running coffee houses of its era in Canada, the Riverboat outlived Yorkville's hippie scene, but closed its doors in 1978.

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Toronto Feature: Riverboat

Published Online December 10, 2012

Last Edited July 2, 2015

This article is from our Toronto Feature series. Features from past programs are not updated.

This content is from a series created in partnership with Museum Services of the City of Toronto and Heritage Toronto. We gratefully acknowledge funding from the Ontario Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Sport, and the Department of Canadian Heritage.

Blues Performers at the Riverboat

"A Subterranean Musical Oasis at the Riverboat"

The most famous of all Yorkville's clubs, the Riverboat coffeehouse was a showcase for the biggest names in folk and blues music during the 1960s and 70s. Along with Odetta, James Taylor, Howlin' Wolf and Simon & Garfunkel, it provided a stage for Canadian artists, including Joni Mitchell and Neil Young , who later immortalized the Riverboat in his song "Ambulance Blues."

The Riverboat was a subterranean musical oasis. Situated below street level, the club seated 120 people in red booths amid pine walls and brass portholes. The nautically themed, intimate space served as a launching pad for rising stars like Bruce Cockburn . Gordon Lightfoot , who played to four full houses a night, said playing Fiedler's prestigious coffeehouse was an indication that you'd hit "the big time." When it closed in 1978, Murray McLauchlan and Dan Hill performed at its emotional "wake."

In 1965, Neil Young tried to get gigs as a folksinger at various Yorkville clubs, including the Riverboat, but was denied. "They didn't take me seriously," Young complained. "They used to say, 'Run along, kid.'" So he left town to seek his fortune in California. By the time he returned, he'd become a major star--first with Buffalo Springfield and then as a solo artist. Young finally got to play Fiedler's famous club in February 1969. It was a triumphant homecoming with memorable performances that were recorded and released 40 years later as Live at the Riverboat. ( See Coffee Houses .)

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riverboat yorkville toronto

Canadian Urbanism Uncovered

Throwback Thursday: Yorkville and the death of Toronto’s first scene

Read more articles by Jake Schabas

June 25, 2009 January 21, 2013

Every Thursday, Spacing will bring you a snapshot of Toronto’s past, looking into what took place that day in the city’s history. Throwback Thursday will address how the city has evolved, with an emphasis on issues that remain relevant for development in Toronto today.

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –

It was thirty-one years ago today that The Riverboat, Canada’s most famous coffee house of the time, closed its doors.  Although it shut down in 1978, The Riverboat was in its prime a decade earlier, when Yorkville was the “music mecca of Canada” and the launching point for many international careers in the arts.

Although the Riverboat is the best remembered Yorkville music venue — providing one of the first stages for a long list of young Canadian musicians like Gordon Lightfoot , Joni Mitchell , Neil Young and Murray McLauchlan and the site of a heritage plaque unveiling last week — there were over 40 clubs, coffee houses, and galleries in Yorkville featuring live music in the late 1960s.

At 88 Yorkville Avenue there was the Chez Monique where the Sparrows (later known as Steppenwolf ) regularly played.  Ian & Sylvia were known to perform at the nearby Village Corner and the little known band that went by the name of The Mynah Birds and featured both Neil Young and Rick James together actually took their name from the Mynah Bird coffee house at 114 Yorkville Avenue.  Not to mention the Penny Farthing, known for its swimming pool and bikini-wearing waitresses, the New Gate of Cleve, the Café El Patio and the Flick, Yorkville was a regular musical hotbed filled to the brim with budding artists.

In many ways, Yorkville in the 60s was the Canadian counterpart to Greenwich Village and Haight-Ashbury .  With Margaret Atwood doing readings at the Bohemian Embassy, the Grab Bag convenience store open late into the night selling rolling papers, hookah pipes and munchies and numerous rooming houses populating the district, Yorkville became a tourist destination for people itching to witness or take part in 60s bohemian culture.

The area’s fame, however, was a mixed blessing for Yorkville.  As the influx of spectacle-seeking tourists increased, so too did bumper-to-bumper traffic on the narrow one-way streets.  The escalating congestion prompted local citizens to begin what some current City councillors and journalists might have called the city’s first “war on the car.”  Although overshadowed by the Spadina Expressway fight that happened only a few years later, in the late 60s the young adults and residents of Yorkville began fighting to ban cars on Yorkville Avenue to improve air quality and pedestrian safety.

A local group of arts promoters and social service providers known as the Diggers took up the cause of making Yorkville Avenue car-free at night, first organizing a ‘love-in’ at Queen’s Park on May 22, 1967 for over 4,200 people, followed by a three day ‘sit-in’ on Yorkville Avenue that led to clashes with the police and 61 arrests.  The Diggers followed the ‘sit-ins’ with ‘sleep-ins’ at Nathan Phillips Square in the hopes of pressuring Mayor William Dennison to listen to the Yorkville villagers’ demands.

Facing huge political opposition, even the support of the Yorkville businesses wasn’t enough to sway an obstinate City Hall, which thought of Yorkville’s hippie culture as a “sore on the city.”  Instead, City council decided to step up its police presence, so in the fall of 1967, a paddy wagon was parked at the corner of Hazleton and Yorkville on the weekends and a 10pm curfew was enforced for under-18s by a police foot patrol.  The summer of love marked the turning point in Yorkville’s history where it transitioned from an incubator for Canadian music and arts to a ritzy destination catering largely to the rich and famous.

The following summer, vagabond motorcyclists arrived to sell heavy drugs in the area and began acting as Yorkville’s unofficial police force, known to locals as ‘The Vags.’  A supposed hepatitis epidemic broke out in Yorkville in August 1968 known as ‘Hippie Hepatitis,’ which gained huge press coverage and led to vaccine stations being set up along the Yorkville sidewalks.  This caused a mass exodus of Yorkville villagers to flee to the country and other areas of the city, despite relatively few people actually becoming infected.

Land speculators also facilitated the transformation of Yorkville by letting properties decay so that they could be bought cheaply.  The principle developer behind this was Richard Wookey, who had been buying buildings in the neighbourhood since the mid 1960s.  It was Wookey that eventually built Hazelton Lanes after buying seventy houses in the neighbourhood.  Wookey also arranged the land deal that built the 32-floor Four Seasons Hotel at Avenue and Yorkville.

Today, Yorkville is the third most expensive retail space in North America, with the stretch of Bloor Street from Avenue Road to Yonge Street recognized as the seventh most expensive shopping street in the world.  Along with the 1993 addition of the $3 million Village of Yorkville Park that includes a chunk of the Canadian shield, Yorkville is now better known for celebrity spottings at Sassa Fraz, TIFF receptions and conspicuous consumption rather than for a budding indie music scene or experimental arts community.

Although no longer in Yorkville, the last decade in Toronto has seen a similarly vibrant music scene develop in other areas of town.  Spacing editor Ed Keenan’s “ Making a scene ” charts the many Toronto musicians and bands now making a name for themselves and their city much like the revered musicians of Yorkville once did four decades ago.

For a more complete look at the Yorkville music scene of the 60s, see Nick Jennings’ book After the Gold Rush , Stuard Henderson’s Making the Scene , CBC documentary broadcasted in September, 1967 called Yorkville: Hippie Haven and the National Film Board documentary Flowers on a One Way Street

Photos and Video from the Toronto Star File Photos, Toronto Archives (Series 374, File 1103, Item 7) and JP1958

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what a great article! I’ve heard so much nostalgia for Yorkville from middle-aged Torontonians, this helps me get it.

All those high-principled hippies sold out and became the BMW-driving Bay Street bankers selling fancy financial products like subprime mortgage asset-backed securities of today.

Interestingly the traffic congestion on Yorkville was mainly gawkers from around town who came to see the hippie culture, like they were driving through the African Lion Safari.

The last decade? Toronto had a great music scene in the late 80s and early 90s. Probably before that too, but I was underage so I wouldn’t know.

I performed at the Café El Patio and the Flick, with the rock band Manna. If anyone has photos I would love to see them Thanks

Interesting – I also performed at the El Patio in a band called the Evils. I recall that Sal Mineo and the Sparrows were in the audience. I dropped out and went to college in the states – never did get to be one of the BMW driving bay street bankers, though…

I frequented the area between 1967-70 and will always remember it fondly. Spent many pleasant hours sipping cappuccino and mocha while playing chess at the Penny Farthing. Lots of draught beer at the nearby Embassy Tavern or the Place Pigalle on Avenue Rd. Saw many performers at the Riverboat incl. Lightfoot, Mitchell and James Cotton among others. It was great until the bikers, Rochdale crazies and the developers arrived on the scene. Now rapidly fading into a distant past, but I for one will never forget it.

Before that, it was the old Gerrard St. “Village”. Anybody remember that scene?

Mike Cline I would really like to hear from you I’m now good friends with Bobbi Lee he was the house band at the Myna Bird. You can find me on facebook or myspace. Just google Bruce Palait.

I miss “Smokers Paradise”, Used to hang out there smoking “Beedies” and reading “Underground comics” like “Zap Comics” with “Mr. Natural” and “Fritz The Cat”

Those were the days, Just like “Rochdale”, The 60 and 70’s died when Yorkville died.

I have been nostalgia tripping lately and the Star recently listed some Toronto clubs closing like Larry’s Hideaway, Gasworks and The Edge and many other. In this Yorkville piece, the Embassy is mentioned but not the Palm Lounge Room in the basement. The room had tacky plastic palms along each side. I saw Roy Orbison and had front row seats. There were so few of us there.

  • Nov 2, 2014

"Back in the Old Folky Days": The Riverboat Coffee House

Today, standing at 134 Yorkville Avenue, one is surrounded by hair salons, fine dining and Starbucks Coffee in the midst of one of Toronto’s most upscale neighbourhoods. If you could rewind forty or fifty years, and take a trip below street level, you would find yourself in the middle of one of Canada’s most important and influential music venues and the neighbourhood would look a lot different. Walking down the street, perhaps barefoot, you’d see a mix of hippies, beatniks and bikers roaming around. The streets would be lined with taken-over Victorian houses turned into coffee houses, art galleries and hangouts. As you walked down into 134 Yorkville, a large sign reading THE RIVERBOAT would greet you before pine paneled walls and cozy red booths. If you were lucky you might listen to Gordon Lightfoot or Joni Mitchell serenading the crowd.

1964 marked the opening of The Riverboat coffee house and the start of an era of amazing music to come from there, all under the careful watch of owner/operator Bernie Fiedler.[1] Although it wasn’t the first coffee house in Yorkville, it became the most influential. Almost everybody important who came out of Toronto played there. Neil Young, Simon and Garfunkel, James Taylor and more played there, often getting a start at the open mic “hoot nights”. Phil Ochs even wrote “Changes” here![2]

riverboat yorkville toronto

Harry Belefante and Gordon Lightfoot at the Riverboat in 1967. This photo is from York University Libraries, Clara Thomas Archives & Special Collections, Toronto Telegram but I got it from globeandmail.com. No copyright infringement intended!

riverboat yorkville toronto

Neil Young playing at The Riverboat in 1965. Manfred Buchheit took this photograph but I got it from theglobeandmail.com. No copy right infringement intended!

On June 25, 1978, the final set at the Riverboat was played by Murray MacLauchlan.[3] Although the coffeehouse has now been closed for a long time, it is immortalized through the works of many artists, particularly Neil Young who sings of it in Ambulance Blues and who recorded an album there. Additionally, the site has been made into a National Historic Site. Although it has not been preserved, a plaque has been erected.

If you’d like to read more about Yorkville, I highly recommend you read Stuart Henderson’s Making the Scene and Nicholas Jennings’ Before the Goldrush. Each offer a great deal of insight on the music scene and gentrification of Yorkville.

[1] http://www.nicholasjennings.com/magazine-articles/the-riverboat-coffehouse

[2] http://www.nicholasjennings.com/magazine-articles/the-riverboat-coffehouse

[3] http://www.theglobeandmail.com/multimedia/moment-in-time-the-music-dies-at-the-riverboat/article19320760/

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Review: riverboat coffee house: the yorkville scene (soulpepper), riverboat coffee house is a love letter to yorkville’s artistic history.

After a former run, Riverboat Coffee House: The Yorkville Scene has re-opened at Soulpepper Theatre . As part of their concert series programming, it’s a song and dance down memory lane into the iconic era of folk music that blossomed in Toronto’s Yorkville district in the 1960s and 1970s. Featuring performances of songs by legendary folk singers, this show is a love letter to an influential era of artistry in Toronto.

The show focuses on the life and times of the institution that is Riverboat Coffee House . It opened in the basement of 134 Yorkville Avenue in October 1964. It established itself as a small but mighty music venue, with seating capacity for 117. Over the 15 years it was open for business, the Riverboat featured countless iconic performances by artists including Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, Bruce Cockburn, Buffy Sainte-Marie, Gordon Lightfoot, Odetta, Phil Ochs, Simon and Garfunkel, and a seemingly endless list of other prominent artists of the time.

This show was structured like a concert, with a narrative history of the Riverboat woven between songs. Written and directed by Frank Cox-O’Connell , the show did an excellent job of speaking to the history of the Riverboat and, by extension, the broader Yorkville scene that existed at the time. Cox-O’Connell, along with composer and arranger Mike Ross shared anecdotes from interviews they conducted with the Riverboat’s former owner, Bernie Fiedler, which added a layer of intimacy to the narrative.

The show included performances of songs by Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, Bruce Cockburn, Buffy Sainte-Marie, Gordon Lightfoot, and Bob Dylan, among others. Highlights of the night included Emily Schultz’s ethereal and mesmerizing renditions of Joni Mitchell’s “All I Want” and “Woodstock”. Alana Bridgewater was doubly powerful, delivering staggering performances of Buffy Sainte-Marie’s “Universal Solider” and Bob Dylan’s “The Times They Are A-Changin'” (as performed by Odetta).

Brooke Blackburn gave rich, soulful performances of Willie Dixon’s “Spoonful” and Sonny Terry & Brownie McGee’s “John Henry”, featuring incredible guitar playing, as well. SATE was a powerhouse on stage, bringing spirited energy and incredible vocals to her performances. Other performers included both Cox-O’Connell and Ross, as well as Fraser Melvin , who covered Bruce Cockburn delightfully, and Raha Javanfar , who gave a sublime, playful performance of Phil Ochs’ “Draft Dodger Rag”.

Riverboat Coffee House: The Yorkville Scene is a charming tribute to a bygone era of urgent folk music that found its footing in Toronto. This show has managed to capture the feelings of inspiration and active listening that once sprung from this scene, and are offering them up to new audiences, all these years later.

  • Riverboat Coffee House: The Yorkville Scene is playing at the  Young Centre for the Performing Arts (50 Tank House Lane) until November 16, 2019.
  • Performances run Tuesdays to Saturdays at 7:30 pm with matinees on Wednesdays and weekends at 1:30 pm.
  • Tickets range from $35 – $95, with discounted tickets available for students.
  • Tickets can be purchased  online , by phone by calling 416 866 8666, or in person at the box office.
  • Run Time:  90 minutes with no intermission.

Photo of Brooke Blackburn and SATE by Daniel Malavasi

Toronto theatre for everyone.

Alan Cross' A Journal of Musical Things

Looking Back on Toronto’s Yorkville Scene of the 1960s

[ Coming up Tuesday the 14th, I’ll be offering a presentation on the history of Toronto music at The Great Hall as part of a Myseum  event. ( Free tickets here .) Will I be talking about Yorkville back in the day? You bet. Intern-in-residence Dorothy Lee has this look back on those years. -AC ]

To some, the Yorkville area by Bay and Bloor was the coolest and most exciting place in Toronto during the 1960’s. There was an influx of creativity and musical talent to the area, and there were musicians from every genre (including folk, rhythm and blues, jazz and rock) who played in coffee houses and clubs in the Yorkville area. By the late 1960’s, there were at least 40 clubs and coffee houses in the area with live entertainment every night .

According to The Toronto Star, “an explosion of youthful literary and musical talent were appearing on small stages in smoky coffee houses, next to edgy art galleries and funky fashion boutiques offering hippie garb, blow-up chairs, black light posters and hookah pipes, all housed in shabby Victorian row houses”. Among some of the notable coffee houses and clubs in the area were the Riverboat, The Purple Onion, and the Penny Farthing.

Many have played at The Purple Onion coffee house including Gordon Lightfoot (as part of a duo called the Two Tones), Joni Mitchell, and Ian and Sylvia; and this is where Buffy Sainte-Marie wrote “Universal Soldier”. When the Two Tones split up, Lightfoot informed the owners of The Purple Onion that he was going solo and asked if they would still hire him, and they did.

The Riverboat was the most famous venue in the area, and featured performances by such artists as Neil Young, Simon & Garfunkel, Buddy Guy, and Tim Buckley; and had visitors such as Eric Clapton and Jack Nicholson (and it was rumoured that Bob Dylan visited the venue incognito). According to music journalist and author Nicholas Jennings, Joni Mitchell wrote “Night in the City” and performed her hit song “Both Sides Now” for the first time at The Riverboat, and Gordon Lightfoot wrote “Steel Rail Blues” at the venue. The Riverboat was open from 1964 until 1978.

Chez Monique’s had a house band called The Sparrows (who were later known as Steppenwolf), Rick James played at the Mynah Bird, and the Ugly Ducklings played at Charlie Brown’s. Other artists who have performed at the Yorkville coffee houses and clubs include Bruce Cockburn, Murray McLauchlan, and Dan Hill.

The music scene in Yorkville was thriving but while many loved the area, others felt the opposite, such as former Ontario MPP Syl Apps who felt that the Yorkville area was a “festering sore in the middle of the city” with many of the area’s visitors openly using marijuana and other drugs, and living what some considered to be an “amoral” lifestyle. The scene was also attracting large crowds of people including tourists, and the congested traffic made the air quality poor and was a threat to pedestrian safety.

On May 22, 1967, several locals in the area lead a “love-in” at Queen’s Park in an attempt to change public opinion that they were simply hippie drug addicts and “vagrants”, and to support shutting down traffic on Yorkville Avenue. More than 5000 people attended the “love-in”, and there were performances by Leonard Cohen and Buffy Sainte-Marie. According to the Global Nonviolent Action Database, there was also “the formation of a human chain in an effort to link the young and old generations together. In this way the hippies were using the nonviolent method of establishing a new social pattern”.

Following this, a “sit-in” (referred to as a “hippie brawl” by The Toronto Star–which it wasn’t, of course) was held on Yorkville Avenue on August 20th, 1967 where 300 locals sat in the middle of the street at 3:00 a.m. blocking all traffic, and approximately 2500 others stood and watched which added to the traffic disruption. Although it was a peaceful demonstration, it led to the arrest of 50 people for creating a disturbance and obstructing traffic.

This was the beginning of the decline of the “hippie revolution” in Yorkville. According to The Toronto Star, there was an increase in police presence in the fall of 1967 and a paddy wagon was parked at the corner of Hazleton and Yorkville during weekends. In addition, a 10:00 p.m. curfew was enforced by police for anyone under the age of 18.

To make matters worse, there were reports of an outbreak of “hippie hepatitis” during the summer of 1968 in Yorkville, as motorcycle gangs began selling heavier drugs in the area which led to vaccine stations being set up on the sidewalks. This led to many locals leaving the area.

A “free university” called Rochdale College also opened in 1968 at Bloor and Huron nearby. According to The Globe and Mail, the college was meant to meet a demand for housing, “all the while offering a free-wheeling social structure to contrast with the stuffy conventionalism of the outside world”. It remained open for seven years until it was closed due to defaulting on its mortgage, and it had gained a reputation as “a drug distribution epicentre ridden with bike gangs and squatters”; or according to The Toronto Star, “a hippie haven with easy access to drugs”.

By the 1970’s, the area began to transition into the high-end Yorkville that we know today. What a difference it was back then!

Here are a few videos of Yorkville back in the 1960’s (and 1970’s).

Toronto’s Yorkville: Hippie haven in 1967 (1 4 minute CBC Television clip )

Yorkville in the 1960’s

Yorkville music scene in the 1960’s

Yorkville Hippies (1970’s)

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is an internationally known broadcaster, interviewer, writer, consultant, blogger and speaker. In his 40+ years in the music business, Alan has interviewed the biggest names in rock, from David Bowie and U2 to Pearl Jam and the Foo Fighters. He’s also known as a musicologist and documentarian through programs like The Ongoing History of New Music.

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3 thoughts on “ looking back on toronto’s yorkville scene of the 1960s ”.

Pingback: Yorkville | 1960s: Days of Rage

I lived my nights in Yorkville @ a club called The Gallery. Owner was Paul hell of a nice guy. We had a great time there dancing to a DJ’s music. We never faught or had any problems there just a great fun night until 5am. Miss those days of fun & music.

Please get your information right .. I am Bobbi Lee Justice lead singer for Bobbi Lee and The Scepters and we were the house band at The Mynah Bird from 64 to 67 and the original Mynah Birds that made first recording of The Mynah Bird Song for Colin Kerr .. Neil Young’s version of The Mynah Birds came later and were never the house band at The Mynah Bird from 64-67.. We were!

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How Yorkville's hippie music scene propelled the late Gordon Lightfoot to fame

Lightfoot's loyalties to toronto rooted in 1960's coffee house culture, say historians.

riverboat yorkville toronto

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If you took a stroll past the aging Victorian homes-turned coffee houses that line the streets of Toronto's Yorkville neighbourhood in the 1960s, there was a good chance you might spot Gordon Lightfoot.

The area that's now largely associated with couture shopping and pricey dining options once served as a launch pad for the city's counterculture, hippie movements, and folk music revival that catapulted many artists into stardom, including Lightfoot. 

And as Canadians honour the folk music legend who died Monday , it's crucial to understand the singer-songwriter's roots and loyalties were deeply tied to Toronto, particularly the folk music scene in Yorkville, music historians told CBC Toronto.

"So many musicians were playing there, Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, Ian and Sylvia and Gordon Lightfoot. That was the 60's folk singer-songwriter scene … that's when Gordon Lightfoot started to be heard," said Robin Elliott, the Jean A. Chalmers Chair in Canadian Music at the University of Toronto.

Where Lightfoot rose to fame is a very different Toronto than we know today, Elliott said. 

Folk music thrived at Yorkville coffee houses

In the 1960s, Yorkville's coffee houses were reminiscent of the Haight-Ashbury neighbourhood in San Francisco, which was a centre for hippie counterculture at the time, said Elliott. 

Elliott recalls going to Yorkville as a teenager and seeing houses decorated with psychedelic colours with drug paraphernalia being sold, and everyone was smoking. These coffee houses were dimly lit spaces that housed discussion and music well into the night. 

A man stands in front of a coffeehouse with a sign that says "now appearing" with his name: Gordon Lightfoot.

"The coffee houses drew customers in having live musical acts," he said. At the height of the scene in the late 1960s, artists including Lightfoot would often perform.

"He became well known through his participation, a member of the Yorkville scene," said Elliott. 

In the 2019 CBC documentary If You Could Read My Mind  about Lightfoot and his life, the musician said that "Yorkville was it's own little community." The film highlights the hold Lightfoot had over the coffee house attendees, who were blown away by his vocals and lyricism. 

However, Lightfoot's image at the time was not the shoulder-length grey hair tucked behind his ears that featured prominently in his obituaries this week. He looked like a "slightly older church choir boy" while performing in Yorkville, Elliott joked. 

Later, he "let his hair down" but still within limits, said Elliott. Though he was part of the hippie Yorkville scene, he didn't entirely fit in and wasn't known as a particularly radical member, he said. At this time Lightfoot was known more as a prolific songwriter, rather than a singer. 

But his impact on the neighbourhood and the folk revival movement was strongly felt across the city. Lightfoot was very involved in the Mariposa Folk Festival on the Toronto Islands, which often scouted artists from the Yorkville scene, said Stacy Allison-Cassin, an assistant professor at the school of information management at Dalhousie University.

Allison-Cassin launched a website with students at York University in 2017 on the Yorkville coffee house scene, which includes information about Lightfoot's affinity for the Riverboat Coffee House.

The Riverboat closed in 1978, but housed packed audiences in the mid-1960s. Lightfoot was at a ceremony unveiling a  city plaque to mark the significance of the coffee house in 2009. 

"Such an important part of Toronto's musical history is wrapped up in Yorkville and Gordon Lightfoot was such a big part of that," Allison-Cassin said. 

Lightfoot stayed true to Toronto amid fame

After his bursting onto the Yorkville scene and signing with Bob Dylan's manager in 1964, Lightfoot also crafted music that was distinctly Canadian at a time when many artists weren't looking to emphasize that element of their identity, said Elliott.

It wasn't common to remain in Canada following success, he said.

"The first thing [Lightfoot] did when he had a big success was buy a nice house in Rosedale. And every 18 months or so, he did concerts at Massey Hall, and that's the quintessential Toronto concert hall," he said.

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Jason Schneider, an author who wrote the book Whispering Pines: The Northern Roots of American Music ... From Hank Snow to The Band  told CBC Toronto that Lightfoot represents to Canada and Toronto what Bob Dylan represents to the U.S.

"He flourished right away, and a lot of that was due to his channelling of his life and his environment within Canada, and that offered a completely new perspective on folk music," said Schneider. "What Gordon's songs offered was this clear view of what it was like to live in Canada."

Lightfoot had a humility to him, and was often flattered to have his music played — so continued loyalty to the music scene and city he emerged from is a piece of that, he said. 

Another loyalty for Lightfoot was to the Toronto Maple Leafs — Elliott said Lightfoot was also known to write songs while watching the Leafs play. "So I'm glad that he got to experience the Toronto Maple Leafs finally winning," he said.

"That was a nice sendoff for Gordon. He was a big Toronto Maple Leafs fan."

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Toronto Then & Now: Riverboat Coffee House to the Hazelton Hotel

Riverboat Cafe Plaque in Toronto

Toronto’s Yorkville neighbourhood is known for its elegant shopping and dining scene, attracting tourists and visiting celebrities with its upscale stores, galleries, restaurants, and bars, many of which are housed in quaint Victorian buildings. However, in the 1960s, the neighbourhood had a different identity as Toronto’s bohemian cultural hotspot, often compared to San Francisco’s Haight Ashbury or New York’s Greenwich Village. It was much more than a hippie haven though. The area was bursting with clubs, coffeehouses, experimental art galleries, and bohemian boutiques, creating an internationally recognized community that attracted artists and musicians. Yorkville became a vibrant village known for its artsy and free-spirited atmosphere along with the counterculture.

riverboat yorkville toronto

The Riverboat Coffee House opened in 1964 in the basement of a Victorian row house in Yorkville. It became a prominent venue for folk and blues singer-songwriter including John Lee Hooker, Sonny Terry, Brownie McGhee, Simon and Garfunkel, James Taylor, and Arlo Guthrie. Major Canadian acts performed there as well like Gordon Lightfoot, Joni Mitchell, Bruce Cockburn, Murray McLauchlan, and Dan Hill. Neil Young even wrote about it in the song “Ambulance Blues.” The Riverboat operated until 1978 and was one of the most famous coffee houses around.

riverboat yorkville toronto

Yorkville underwent a multi-million dollar makeover in the 1970s transforming into a home for posh restaurants and expensive boutiques. In 2007 the Hazelton Hotel, one of Toronto’s most prestigious luxury hotels, opened at 118 Yorkville Avenue. It replaced a series of rowhouses in the area, including the one that once housed the legendary Riverboat. In 2009, Heritage Toronto honoured the Riverboat’s significance by dedicating a historic plaque at the site with the unveiling attended by singers Dan Hill, Murray McLauchlan, and Gordon Lightfoot.

The Riverboat’s former location is now part of the Hazelton, on the west side, but it’s a long way from the protest songs and counterculture of its past.

riverboat yorkville toronto

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Soulpepper’s 'docu-concert’ Riverboat Coffee House: The Yorkville Scene is a celebration of songs, spirit of a heavy generation

This article was published more than 4 years ago. Some information may no longer be current.

riverboat yorkville toronto

Soulpepper Theatre Company’s potent 2017 song cycle Riverboat Coffee House: The Yorkville Scene is currently being remounted at the Young Centre for the Performing Arts. Handout

  • Riverboat Coffee House: The Yorkville Scene
  • Written and directed by: Frank Cox-O’Connell
  • Genre: Song cycle
  • Performers: Brooke Blackburn, Alana Bridgewater, Frank Cox-O’Connell, Raha Javanfar, Fraser Melvin, Mike Ross, Sate and Emily Schultz
  • Company: Soulpepper
  • Venue: Young Centre for the Performing Arts
  • City: Toronto
  • Year: Runs to Sunday, Nov. 17

A few years ago, I spent an afternoon with Canadian music giant Bernie Finkelstein in Yorkville, a 1960s bohemian enclave that isn’t that any more. A much younger Finkelstein had cut his teeth in that scruffy, blue-jean scene, running his management company from a phone booth. He went on to create True North Records. He still manages Bruce Cockburn.

Finkelstein showed me what used to be where, and then told me what’s what. “I know how hard people are working today, to make sure this is a better musical generation than before,” he said over lunch. “And that’s fine by me. That’s the way it’s supposed to be." Then he leaned in closer. “But who among us can say the Yorkville era wasn’t special,” he continued. “Neil Young. Joni Mitchell. Murray McLauchlan. I mean, the proof is there.”

Then he shrugged the satisfied shrug of a person who just said something inarguable. The current “Okay, boomer” catch-phrase dismissal wasn’t yet invented, but if someone wants to throw it in Finkelstein’s face today, they are a much braver person than I am.

Soulpepper Theatre Company’s potent 2017 song cycle Riverboat Coffee House: The Yorkville Scene , currently being remounted at the Young Centre for the Performing Arts, is persuasive evidence that the era was indeed special. On Thursday, 16 songs were performed by an talented, full-throated ensemble of singers and musicians with narration for chronological context. The creators of the show call it a “docu-concert.” I’ll call it a celebration of the songs and spirit of a heavy generation.

riverboat yorkville toronto

Mike Ross and Frank Cox-O'Connell. Handout

The title of the production (created by writer-director Frank Cox-O’Connell and music arranger Mike Ross), refers to a hub venue run by another Bernie: Bernie Fiedler, a charismatic German who settled in Toronto. He originally sold coffee wholesale, but after being advised there was more money to be made selling Brazilian beans by the cup than by the pound, he opened up one small folk club (The Mousehole) before co-founding in 1964 The Riverboat, a long, narrow room in the basement of a Victorian row house.

The 117-seat space, we were told, was a “listening room,” unlicensed for alcohol and less noisy than the boozy clubs for rock and blues nearby on Yonge Street. The drinking age was 21. On caffeine, the kids were tuned in and hopped-up.

The Soulpepper stage was set up with candle-lit tables, with a backdrop upon which song titles and giant archival photos were flashed. “Back in the old folkie days, the air was magic when we played,” Cox-O’Connell and Ross sang on a duet version of Young’s Ambulance Blues . “The Riverboat was rockin’ in the rain.”

Standout performers included Emily Schultz, who hit all the breakaway high parts of Joni Mitchell’s All I Want . Brooke Blackburn, a big-lung growler and committed electric guitarist, handled the Howlin’ Wolf-famous Spoonful . (The geography was jive, though. Wolf played Yonge Street, not Yorkville.)

Bob Dylan’s The Times They Are A-Changin’ was funky and turbo-charged. An all-hands-on-deck take on Lightfoot’s The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald transformed the story-song into a psyche-folk dirge. And by singers Schultz, Alana Bridgewater and Sate, Mitchell’s Woodstock was a siren-song anthem, taken back by the ladies from dudes Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young.

riverboat yorkville toronto

Alana Bridgewater, SATE and Emily Schultz. Daniel Malavasi.

The scripted set-up of Woodstock had to with city officials and police clamping down on the city’s flower-power neighbourhood at the turn of the 1970s. Perhaps Mitchell’s Big Yellow Taxi – “They paved paradise and put up a parking lot” – would have a better fit for Yorkville’s down-falling days.

There were mistakes with the narration. Co-host Cox-O’Connell put The Bitter End folk club in Los Angeles and The Troubadour in New York instead of vice-versa. It was probably a flubbed line, but when Ross, the other co-host, said The Riverboat’s Fiedler was “still Gordon Lightfoot’s manager to this day,” well, that’s just wrong. He was never Lightfoot’s manager.

The Riverboat club closed in 1978 with a concert by Murray McLauchlan, whose Child’s Song ended the main part of this stirring Soulpepper production. Ian Tyson’s Four Strong Winds (strangely identified as 4 Strong Winds in the program) was rendered as a sing-along encore – a sort of Canadiana Kumbaya . A seasoned audience walked away from the theatre a little taller than when they went in. As if to say, “The boomers did okay.”

Riverboat Coffee House: The Yorkville Scene continues to Nov. 17. (Soulpepper.ca)

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Looking Back on Toronto’s Yorkville Scene of the 1960s

To some, the Yorkville area by Bay and Bloor was the coolest and most exciting place in Toronto during the 1960’s. There was an influx of creativity and musical talent to the area, and there were musicians from every genre (including folk, rhythm and blues, jazz and rock) who played in coffee houses and clubs in the Yorkville area. By the late 1960’s, there were at least 40 clubs and coffee houses in the area with live entertainment every night.

According to The Toronto Star, “an explosion of youthful literary and musical talent were appearing on small stages in smoky coffee houses, next to edgy art galleries and funky fashion boutiques offering hippie garb, blow-up chairs, black light posters and hookah pipes, all housed in shabby Victorian row houses”. Among some of the notable coffee houses and clubs in the area were the Riverboat, The Purple Onion, and the Penny Farthing.

Many have played at The Purple Onion coffee house including Gordon Lightfoot (as part of a duo called the Two Tones), Joni Mitchell, and Ian and Sylvia; and this is where Buffy Sainte-Marie wrote “Universal Soldier”. When the Two Tones split up, Lightfoot informed the owners of The Purple Onion that he was going solo and asked if they would still hire him, and they did.

The Riverboat was the most famous venue in the area, and featured performances by such artists as Neil Young, Simon & Garfunkel, Buddy Guy, and Tim Buckley; and had visitors such as Eric Clapton and Jack Nicholson (and it was rumoured that Bob Dylan visited the venue incognito). According to music journalist and author Nicholas Jennings, Joni Mitchell wrote “Night in the City” and performed her hit song “Both Sides Now” for the first time at The Riverboat, and Gordon Lightfoot wrote “Steel Rail Blues” at the venue. The Riverboat was open from 1964 until 1978.

Chez Monique’s had a house band called The Sparrows (who were later known as Steppenwolf), Rick James played at the Mynah Bird, and the Ugly Ducklings played at Charlie Brown’s. Other artists who have performed at the Yorkville coffee houses and clubs include Bruce Cockburn, Murray McLauchlan, and Dan Hill.

The music scene in Yorkville was thriving but while many loved the area, others felt the opposite, such as former Ontario MPP Syl Apps who felt that the Yorkville area was a “festering sore in the middle of the city” with many of the area’s visitors openly using marijuana and other drugs, and living what some considered to be an “amoral” lifestyle. The scene was also attracting large crowds of people including tourists, and the congested traffic made the air quality poor and was a threat to pedestrian safety.

On May 22, 1967, several locals in the area lead a “love-in” at Queen’s Park in an attempt to change public opinion that they were simply hippie drug addicts and “vagrants”, and to support shutting down traffic on Yorkville Avenue. More than 5000 people attended the “love-in”, and there were performances by Leonard Cohen and Buffy Sainte-Marie. According to the Global Nonviolent Action Database, there was also “the formation of a human chain in an effort to link the young and old generations together. In this way the hippies were using the nonviolent method of establishing a new social pattern”.

Following this, a “sit-in” (referred to as a “hippie brawl” by The Toronto Star–which it wasn’t, of course) was held on Yorkville Avenue on August 20th, 1967 where 300 locals sat in the middle of the street at 3:00 a.m. blocking all traffic, and approximately 2500 others stood and watched which added to the traffic disruption. Although it was a peaceful demonstration, it led to the arrest of 50 people for creating a disturbance and obstructing traffic.

This was the beginning of the decline of the “hippie revolution” in Yorkville. According to The Toronto Star, there was an increase in police presence in the fall of 1967 and a paddy wagon was parked at the corner of Hazleton and Yorkville during weekends. In addition, a 10:00 p.m. curfew was enforced by police for anyone under the age of 18.

To make matters worse, there were reports of an outbreak of “hippie hepatitis” during the summer of 1968 in Yorkville, as motorcycle gangs began selling heavier drugs in the area which led to vaccine stations being set up on the sidewalks. This led to many locals leaving the area.

A “free university” called Rochdale College also opened in 1968 at Bloor and Huron nearby. According to The Globe and Mail, the college was meant to meet a demand for housing, “all the while offering a free-wheeling social structure to contrast with the stuffy conventionalism of the outside world”. It remained open for seven years until it was closed due to defaulting on its mortgage, and it had gained a reputation as “a drug distribution epicentre ridden with bike gangs and squatters”; or according to The Toronto Star, “a hippie haven with easy access to drugs”.

By the 1970’s, the area began to transition into the high-end Yorkville that we know today. What a difference it was back then!

Here are a few videos of Yorkville back in the 1960’s (and 1970’s).

Yorkville in the 1960’s

Yorkville music scene in the 1960’s

Yorkville Hippies (1970’s)

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The Riverboat Coffee House In Toronto Ontario, Canada

The Riverboat Coffeehouse

Former Location – The Riverboat opened in October, 1964 and closed in June of 1978.

In February of 1969, Neil Young performed a series of shows here. His album “ Live at the Riverboat 1969 ” is a live recording from these shows. Neil paid tribute to the club in his song “Ambulance Blues,” from his 1974 album “On The Beach” in which he sang “ back in the old folky days, the Riverboat was rockin’ in the rain .” 

“Live at the Riverboat 1969” Track listing

Emcee Intro. / Sugar Mountain Intro. “Sugar Mountain” Incredible Doctor Rap “The Old Laughing Lady” Audience Observation / Dope Song / Band Names Rap “Flying on the Ground Is Wrong” On the Way Home Intro. “On the Way Home” Set Break / Emcee Intro. “I’ve Loved Her So Long” Allen A-Dale Rap “I Am a Child” “1956 Bubblegum Disaster” “The Last Trip to Tulsa” Words Rap “Broken Arrow” Turn Down the Lights Rap “Whiskey Boot Hill” Expecting to Fly Intro. “Expecting to Fly”

Other Notable Acts That Played at The Riverboat Coffee House Include:

2/16/1974 – Bruce Cockburn 3/29/1970 – James Taylor 12/3/1967 – Joni Mitchell 11/12/1967 – Richie Havens 9/18/1967 – James Cotton Blues Band 6/16/1967 – Junior Wells’ Chicago Blues Band 4/13/1967 – Arlo Guthrie 6/17/1966 – Gordon Lightfoot

The Riverboat Coffee House 134 Yorkville Ave. Toronto ON M5R 1C4

The Riverboat Coffee House

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  1. About

    Yorkville experienced a multi-million dollar makeover in the 1970s. Today, it is home to posh restaurants and expensive boutiques, and serves as a fashionable shopping district to tourists and visiting movie stars. Where the Riverboat once stood is now the west side of the Hazelton, Toronto's most prestigious luxury hotel.

  2. Riverboat Coffee House

    The Riverboat Coffee House was a Canadian coffeehouse located at 134 Yorkville Avenue in the Yorkville neighbourhood of Toronto, Ontario, Canada.It was a key venue for folk rock music and singer songwriter music made famous for featuring high-profile acts, and is considered to be "the best-known coffee house in Canada." It opened in October 1964 and closed on June 25, 1978.

  3. Riverboat

    The Riverboat. Coffeehouse in Toronto's Yorkville district. Seating about 100 in the narrow basement of a house at 134 Yorkville Ave, it was opened in October 1964 by Bernie Fiedler and became the best-known coffeehouse in Canada. Fiedler ran the Riverboat until 1977, by which time it was the sole remaining coffeehouse in the area.

  4. The Riverboat Coffee House

    In the song, he immortalizes the Riverboat Coffee House, one of the world's best intimate venues for singer-songwriters during the hippie heydays of the 1960s. It was the longest operating coffee house of several dozen venues that lined Yorkville's cobblestone streets, north of Toronto's Bloor Street. In the 1960s, Yorkville was the Canadian ...

  5. The River Boat

    The Riverboat Coffee House opened in October, 1964 and quickly became part of a prestigious North American circuit that included Detroit's Chess Mate and New York's Bitter End. Situated below street level, the club seated 120 people in red booths amid pine walls and brass portholes.

  6. Historic Venue Spotlight: The Riverboat

    The Riverboat was one of the last original Yorkville hot spots to go (officially closing its doors in June of 1978) but not before owner Bernie Fiedler hosted a weeklong wake. The celebration ...

  7. Joni Mitchell Library

    Originally a village itself, located just north of the Bloor Street town limits, Yorkville was annexed by Toronto in 1883. It was a very rural community back then: Cumberland Street, for instance, was nicknamed "Pig Street." ... But by far the most famous of all Yorkville's clubs was the Riverboat coffeehouse, at 134 Yorkville. Owned by Bernie ...

  8. Riverboat Coffee House

    The Riverboat Coffee House was a Canadian coffeehouse located at 134 Yorkville Avenue in the Yorkville neighbourhood of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was a key venue for folk rock music and singer songwriter music made famous for featuring high-profile acts, and is considered to be "the best-known coffee house in Canada." It opened in October 1964 and closed on June 25, 1978.

  9. Read the Plaque

    Neil Young immortalized the Riverboat in his song "Ambulance Blues." A legendary music venue of the 1960s and one of the longest running coffee houses of its era in Canada, the Riverboat outlived Yorkville's hippie scene, but closed its doors in 1978. Plaque via Alan L. Brown's site Toronto Plaques. Full page here. toronto. ontario. alan brown.

  10. Toronto Feature: Riverboat

    Toronto Feature: Riverboat "A Subterranean Musical Oasis at the Riverboat" The most famous of all Yorkville's clubs, the Riverboat coffeehouse was a showcase for the biggest names in folk and blues music during the 1960s and 70s. Along with Odetta, James Taylor, Howlin' Wolf and Simon & Garfunkel, it provided a stage for Canadian artists, including Joni Mitchell and Neil Young, who later ...

  11. Joni Mitchell Library

    Yorkville and the death of Toronto's first scene . by Jake Schabas Spacing Toronto June 25, 2009 ... It was thirty-one years ago today that The Riverboat, Canada's most famous coffee house of the time, closed its doors. Although it shut down in 1978, The Riverboat was in its prime a decade earlier, when Yorkville was the "music mecca of ...

  12. Throwback Thursday: Yorkville and the death of Toronto's first scene

    Throwback Thursday will address how the city has evolved, with an emphasis on issues that remain relevant for development in Toronto today. It was thirty-one years ago today that The Riverboat, Canada's most famous coffee house of the time, closed its doors. Although it shut down in 1978, The Riverboat was in its prime a decade earlier, when ...

  13. "Back in the Old Folky Days": The Riverboat Coffee House

    Today, standing at 134 Yorkville Avenue, one is surrounded by hair salons, fine dining and Starbucks Coffee in the midst of one of Toronto's most upscale neighbourhoods. If you could rewind forty or fifty years, and take a trip below street level, you would find yourself in the middle of one of Canada's most important and influential music venues and the neighbourhood would look a lot ...

  14. Review: Riverboat Coffee House: The Yorkville Scene (Soulpepper)

    Riverboat Coffee House is a love letter to Yorkville's artistic history. After a former run, Riverboat Coffee House: The Yorkville Scene has re-opened at Soulpepper Theatre.As part of their concert series programming, it's a song and dance down memory lane into the iconic era of folk music that blossomed in Toronto's Yorkville district in the 1960s and 1970s.

  15. Looking Back on Toronto's Yorkville Scene of the 1960s

    Among some of the notable coffee houses and clubs in the area were the Riverboat, The Purple Onion, and the Penny Farthing. ... Toronto's Yorkville: Hippie haven in 1967 (14 minute CBC ...

  16. How Yorkville's hippie music scene propelled the late Gordon Lightfoot

    Singer-songwriter Gordon Lightfoot outside the Riverboat coffeehouse in Toronto's Yorkville neighbourhood in January 1968. (CBC Still Photo Collection) "The coffee houses drew customers in having ...

  17. Toronto Then & Now: Riverboat Coffee House to the Hazelton Hotel

    In 2007 the Hazelton Hotel, one of Toronto's most prestigious luxury hotels, opened at 118 Yorkville Avenue. It replaced a series of rowhouses in the area, including the one that once housed the legendary Riverboat. In 2009, Heritage Toronto honoured the Riverboat's significance by dedicating a historic plaque at the site with the unveiling ...

  18. Once Upon a City: Yorkville, home of Toronto's original indie music scene

    Neil Young, Joni Mitchell and Gordon Lightfoot among musical legends who cut teeth in Yorkville's long-gone bohemian clubs and coffee houses. Folk singers Ian and Sylvia, shown here in 1964 ...

  19. Soulpepper's 'docu-concert' Riverboat Coffee House: The Yorkville Scene

    Soulpepper Theatre Company's potent 2017 song cycle Riverboat Coffee House: The Yorkville Scene, currently being remounted at the Young Centre for the Performing Arts, is persuasive evidence ...

  20. 'Docu-concert' tells the story of a legendary Canadian coffee house

    The Riverboat Coffee House, located in Toronto's Yorkville neighbourhood, was at the centre of Canada's folk revival scene during its relatively short 15-year lifespan.

  21. Looking Back on Toronto's Yorkville Scene of the 1960s

    Looking Back on Toronto's Yorkville Scene of the 1960s. by Alan Cross A Journal of Musical Things November 9, 2017 ... The Riverboat was the most famous venue in the area, and featured performances by such artists as Neil Young, Simon & Garfunkel, Buddy Guy, and Tim Buckley; and had visitors such as Eric Clapton and Jack Nicholson (and it was ...

  22. The Riverboat Coffee House In Toronto Ontario, Canada

    The Riverboat Coffee House. 134 Yorkville Ave. Toronto ON M5R 1C4. Required fields are marked. Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame. The venue was below street level, and seated 120 people. Every seat was close to the stage, providing an intimate showcase.

  23. Folk haven Yorkville changed Gordon Lightfoot before its own ritzy

    Gordon Lightfoot, left, talks with artist Robert Markle at the Riverboat in the Yorkville neighbourhood of Toronto on January 3, 1967 in this handout photo. HO - York University Libraries ...