Discover Toronto's history as told through its plaques

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The Penny Farthing

Photo by Alan L Brown - Posted January 2017

Transcription by contributor Wayne Adam - Posted January 2017

Photo by Alan L Brown - Posted January 2017

Photo Source - York University Archives

The cream coloured building in the middle photo above
(110-112 Yorkville Avenue just east of Hazelton Avenue) is the former home of the Penny Farthing coffee house. A 2016 Heritage Toronto plaque, attached to the wall of the building on the left in the photo, has this to say:

Coordinates: 43.670871 -79.392927

Click here for a larger map

In 1963, John and Marilyn McHugh, owners of one of Yorkville's first coffee houses, the Half Beat, opened the Penny Farthing in this Victorian house. For the next seven years, the venue hosted folk, blues, and jazz performances.

Inside, patrons heard such Canadian musicians as Malka & Joso, the Allen-Ward Trio, and The Dirty Shames, as well as international stars including José Feliciano, John Lee Hooker, and Josh White. Jazz artists Jim McHarg, Jim Galloway, and others recorded the album Stompin' at the Penny (1965) here with the legendary Lonnie Johnson. The coffee house also featured a backyard patio with a swimming pool.

The Penny Farthing gave two prominent Canadian artists their starts. A young Canadian folksinger-songwriter, Joan Anderson, who performed here in 1965, went on to international acclaim as Joni Mitchell. One year later, the Stormy Clovers debuted the songs of poet and songwriter Leonard Cohen.

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Here are the visitors' comments for this page.

> Posted November 5, 2017
Unfortunately, this plaque gives the misleading impression that Jim Galloway was on the Stompin' at the Penny album (Columbia, 1965). He wasn't. Galloway had arrived in Canada just the year before, and only joined the Metro Stompers in 1966. He eventually took over the group's leadership in 1968. https://www.discogs.com/Lonnie-Johnson-2-With-Jim-McHargs-Metro-Stompers-Stompin-At-The-Penny/release/10645786. If Heritage Toronto is doing any jazz related plaques/publications, they should vet them through a panel of people who are specialists in this field, such as Ted O'Reilly, Mark Miller or myself.
Ralph R. Coram, Jazz Clubs Visual History Project [email protected]

> Posted February 4, 2017
Worked the Penny one weekend. We did Strawberry Fields. Great food great drugs. 10 years after blew my mind right at the stage. It was the best of times friend. David the old grey horse. What a memory.
David Weiss [email protected]

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