An unmistakable Toronto landmark will soon be a thing of the past.
This morning, tedious work began to remove the iconic Honest Ed’s sign at the corner of Bloor and Markham streets.
The gigantic sign will undergo a facelift before being reinstalled above the Ed Mirvish Theatre entrance on Victoria Street later this year.
Designed by Ed Mirvish himself, the current sign is one of multiple signs that has draped over the façade of the discount store since 1984.
The eye-catching sign is made up of nine separate panels and 23,000 lightbulbs, and weighs a few thousand pounds.
Bob Zincone of Pattison Sign Group told CP24 Tuesday that this particular sign was chosen because it’s in the best condition but crews are still taking every precaution to ensure its dismantled with care.
David Mirvish, the son of the Honest Ed, said his father would have enjoyed seeing the crowds of people who have turned up to watch the sign come down.
“He liked sunny days and he liked crowds. He was always afraid he’d have a party and no one would come,” David Mirvish said. “So, he’d love it because a lot of old friends are here and people that knew him. He had fun. He was a lucky person. He was surrounded by people who cared about him and who he cared about.”
But Mirvish said the now world-renowned sign didn’t exactly get off to a good start.
“There were people who lived across the street on the second and third floor of the stores and they said, ‘Ed, we like the sign but can you turn off the flashers at certain hours so we can get some sleep’” Mirvish said with a laugh. “We were good neighbours and we did as we were asked.”
At some point, Mirvish said his father realized that the sign’s collection of lightbulbs was accumulating hefty hydro bills and he decided to find a way to cut back.
“We changed all the bulbs to 15 amp and suddenly our electric bill dropped drastically. Hydro couldn’t understand it. They couldn’t figure out what we had done. So they began to accuse us of taking power from the grid and not paying for it, somehow, bypassing the meters,” he said.
“We had to explain that we were just tired of their bills so we used smaller bulbs.”
Workers tell CTV News Toronto that they expect to be at the building all day and likely into Wednesday.
Once each portion of the sign is dismantled, it will be transported to a warehouse where it will be restored.
“We want to be very careful when taking it down,” Zincone said. “It is going to be a long process but an important process because it is an important part of Toronto history.”
Back in 2013, the Honest Ed’s building was sold to Westbank and is now expected to be redeveloped into a building made up of 850 rental units.
Zincone added that there are loose plans for some pieces of the iconic sign to be integrated into the new development.
