The Toronto bathhouse raids, and their subsequent protests against police, were a catalyst for the city's Pride Week. Here’s a look at where each of the four bathhouses once operated, and what occupies those spaces today.
As Toronto’s Pride Month celebrations come to an end, it’s a good time to take a look back on the historic catalyst for what has now become one of the biggest Pride celebrations in the world: the 1981 Toronto bathhouse raids.
The raid and its preceding six-month investigation into what officers described as “indecent acts” and alleged sex work cost roughly $5M — about $14M in today’s dollars. With just under three hundred men arrested, it was, at the time, the largest mass arrest in Canada. And yet, most of the charges laid that night were eventually dropped or dismissed.
The sites of the four bathhouses are full of history, but with only some still standing, they’re easy to miss. Here’s a breakdown of where each of the four raided bathhouses once operated, and what occupies those spaces today.Toronto’s Club Baths, also known as The Club, was just one part of a chain of bathhouses across the US and Canada. It opened in the summer of 1973 inside a now-135-year-old, four-storey building on Mutual Street, comprised of two halves of a semi-detached build.
The 231 Mutual Street building is still standing today and is home to a similar business: Oasis Aqualounge, “a sexually progressive social lounge.”Address:Initially opened as the Roman Sauna Baths in 1964, it was, at the time, one of the biggest and most modern bathhouses in the country. After a fire in 1977, the space, which was located in the heart of downtown Toronto, on Bay just south of College Street, was renovated and expanded and reopened as Roman’s II Health and Recreation spa.
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