A Brief History of the Horseshoe Tavern

There is no live music club in Toronto with more history attached to it than the Horseshoe Tavern. Beyond just longevity, the Queen West institution has played a central role in each generation of Toronto’s music scene since the ’50s, and continues to thrive. Even more impressive is that it’s managed to maintain its unique country-bar-in-the-city identity, adjusting only slightly with each passing of the torch.The building at 370 Queen West was originally built in 1861, and was initially a blacksmith shop (which is perhaps the source of its later name). It went through several other incarnations for many decades, including a shoe shop and a fancy goods store. It wasn’t until 1947 that a change in Ontario’s liquor laws inspired Jack Starr to convert it into a tavern, which opened December 9 of that year.