Toronto in the Seventies

Filled with nuance, humour, and pathos, these photos document the everyday push and pull of Toronto and its citizens during a decade of profound progress.

The 1970s in Toronto were heady days of growth and optimism. With new additions to the skyline including the CN Tower and new places to gather like the Eaton Centre, the city began shifting away from its meatpacking and smoke-belching industry and transforming into a bustling modern metropolis. Social change and immigration followed apace, and “Toronto the Good” shed its puritan reputation and evolved into a grittier, larger, and more multicultural city. In this collection of more than 100 images—most of them previously unpublished—photographer Brian Condron captures a city in flux.

In Toronto in the Seventies, Condron documents the everyday lives of Torontonians as the city boomed: a population with one foot firmly rooted in the past and the other valiantly striding for the future. Captured in these pages are local shopkeepers, Bay Street bankers, streetcar riders in their Sunday best, and fashionable Yonge Street partygoers. There are auto garages, greasy spoons, schoolyards, and streetscapes, all fixed in time. Unexpected juxtapositions and artfully captured coincidence fill the frames and demand scrutiny. Overall, there’s a sense of something happening in Condron’s photographs—a city hurtling toward the future while the rhythms of daily life seemingly stand still.