Saint-Sulpice bar to close
The Saint-Sulpice bar, a hub of the Quartier Latin since belle lurette, is closing at the end of February and no announcement has been made of what will become of those venerable graystones. Expensive condos, or a hotel?
-
Kate
Reply
qatzelok 09:58 on 2023-01-31 Permalink
A Museum of Nightclubbing?
Kate 10:03 on 2023-01-31 Permalink
They’ve struggled for nearly two decades to find a museum vocation for the building that used to be the Bibliothèque Saint‑Sulpice so I doubt they would be able to manage a museum for the bar of the same name.
Ephraim 11:28 on 2023-01-31 Permalink
@Kate – If I remember correctly from the Centris listing, the building with the bar actually owns the land all the way back as well, so it’s a rather long lot
DeWolf 12:09 on 2023-01-31 Permalink
It would be nice to see a project that carved the complex up into smaller spaces for a variety of businesses, while keeping the back garden and opening it up to the alleyway (which is technically a street, avenue Joly) to create a public plaza. With its various lanes and small streets branching off St-Denis, the Latin Quartier has the potential to be a kind of fine-grained neighbourhood with a lot of interesting nooks and crannies, kind of like Kensington Market or Yorkville (though hopefully less upscale).
Kate 12:21 on 2023-01-31 Permalink
It looks that way on the map, Ephraim. That’s an atypically squared-off block.
When dipping into newspapers from the 1930s, I found some pieces on a plan of the era to build a classical concert hall behind the Bibliothèque Saint‑Sulpice, and – looking at the map – they had the room for it there. In the event, Place des Arts came about decades later in another location, and the classical hall decades after that, and now the Bibliothèque is slowly falling apart in place.
H John 14:37 on 2023-01-31 Permalink
The co-owner, Maurice Bourassa, explained this morning to Paul Arcand that he wants to create student housing.
https://www.985fm.ca/audio/537598/les-comportements-ont-change-face-aux-bars-maurice-bourassa
Kate 15:36 on 2023-01-31 Permalink
It’s a natural location for student housing, but I wonder whether many students would be able to afford the expense.