I was standing on the 7th floor of the Regent Hotel a few weeks back when a rat the size of my miniature schnauzer blew past. I just managed to stop myself from vaulting on top of John Atkin’s shoulders (the tallest structure in the hallway). John, it turns out, doesn’t just know buildings and neighbourhoods, he also knows rats. As he explained, because they are near blind, rats don’t run around things (like people), they stick to the wall and let their whiskers help them navigate.
These days the Regent Hotel is a step up from living on the street, but only barely—residents fight a losing daily battle with rats, mice, cockroaches and bed bugs.
Just before the rat dashed by, we’d been discussing how the Regent Hotel was quite a ritzy place back when it opened in 1913, situated as it was in the heart of the theatre district. You can still see remnants—the wood floors and the marble staircase, which in the old days would have swept patrons down to the lobby where they could wait for their show to start.
As the Regent’s first brochure boasts, the hotel was five minutes walking distance of all theatres, a half block from the Carnegie Library and one block from the City Hall. It had a café that offered the “choicest that the management can procure,” 160 rooms “all light and airy,” 75 with a private bath and a telephone in every room.
The eight-storey hotel at 162 East Hastings Street, was designed by Emil Guenther and built for Arthur Clemes, who also owned the Pantages Theatre next door.
For more about our tour of the DTES:
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