The Ugly Canada Thread

[hipster duck]

Here are some Timmies locations that shouldn't be in the Ugly Canada thread:

Link 1

Link 2

Link 3

[matthew6]

Originally Posted by hipster duck

Here are some Timmies locations that shouldn't be in the Ugly Canada thread:

Link 1

Link 2

Link 3

I always thought it sucked to have a chain operate out of a historic building. I'd rather see an artisnal/hipster coffee shop - and I do realize that has become cliche.

[hipster duck]

Originally Posted by matthew6

I always thought it sucked to have a chain operate out of a historic building. I'd rather see an artisnal/hipster coffee shop - and I do realize that has become cliche.

I'm happy with any store operating out of a historic building as long as they respect the historic character of the building and don't emblazon the front with garish signage. Both the Quebec City and Saint John examples are pretty sensitive to the buildings they're in, although I'm sure that in both cases the city forced them to do so.

[WhipperSnapper]

Originally Posted by SignalHillHiker

The ugliest Tim's in St. John's is mainly because of location. It's a normal suburban drive-through but in the core.





Some of the Tim's out in our Soviet hellscape suburbia are clapboard and actually kind of nice.



The Walmarts and Canadian Tires are all the same - suburban big box areas, excluding a couple of little ones in 1970s areas of the city, but they look normal as well. The most offensive is Stavanger Drive. It's just the most soul-sucking place in the city to go for anything. I make a conscious effort to try to find comparable businesses if the one I want is in Stavanger.


I think our only unusually ugly chain is the Shoppers on Empire with the methadone clinic. It looks like it was build with scrap wood from the trailer park that used to be there.

This wins. Depressing area and dated looks for both the Walmart and Shoppers. Nothing worse than stumbling across a dated chain store exterior.

[FFX-ME]

This location is Dartmouth literally has a Tim Hortons across the street from a Tim Hortons...

https://www.google.com/maps/@44.6714249,...-zkPBsj4eApXxLelsAo6A!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

[FrankieFlowerpot]

I like this Timmie's location in Cabbagetown

https://www.google.ca/maps/place/537+par...4m2!3m1!1s0x0:0xedd5e023000538d3!6m1!1e1

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by FFX-ME

This location is Dartmouth literally has a Tim Hortons across the street from a Tim Hortons...

https://www.google.com/maps/@44.6714249,...-zkPBsj4eApXxLelsAo6A!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

I've seen places in the GTA with that too.

[lio45]

I'm pretty sure I recall seeing a corner in Vancouver that had three Starbucks out of four corners, but maybe there were only two.

[lio45]

King St in Saint John = wow! <3

Note, BTW, in your first link (hipster duck), that there's a McDonald's on St. John St that's in an older building too -- it's been many years since I last ate there, but I believe the entire three-story building is McDonald's dining/eating space, i.e. you can go up and eat looking out of those windows if you want.

[lio45]

Originally Posted by SignalHillHiker

The ugliest Tim's in St. John's is mainly because of location. It's a normal suburban drive-through but in the core.

It would be ugly enough without The Rooms in the background!!

[GeneralLea]

I've known this Canadian Tire for a while, and it's soon going to have a LRT/Subway stop right in the parking lot at the very corner.

https://www.google.com/maps/@43.7139302,...jm9ayCeXQHaQVyW9vLjTw!2e0!7i13312!8i6656


Now, the area is suburban but becoming urban, especially since the housing along Eglinton (mostly 4-5 floor apt buildings) doesn't do any injustice to urbanizing the area.

[SignalHillHiker]

A couple more. A lot - probably most - of the Tim Horton's in St. John's are attached to gas stations, like this one beside Coleman's (grocery chain) in Mount Pearl:



And one of the 1970s Walmarts deeper into the city than the rest - Hamlyn Road location.

It serves the nosey neighbourhood. It always looks like the houses are judging you and wondering why you're there, you don't live there, they don't recognize you.

The Walmart is the next building to the left of these, for example:





The houses must've scared that pole away. My Mom once got her hair cut at a place in that little strip mall on the left. By a 19-year-old. It looked awful; she was upset. Not sure what she expected.

[SignalHillHiker]

Originally Posted by hipster duck

I think the winner is the 3rd pic that SHH posted. Those clapboard, Soviet boxes in dandelion fields are so depressing. And that shot was taken on a sunny summer day. Imagine how it looks in the dead of winter.

Enjoy.













What's worse than 1980s bungalow? Bungalow centipedes.



We're trying, though. We really are. To mixed results. Everytime one burns down or some fortunate soul breaks out of the lower class, this happens...





And some of the areas like this are pretty well gentrified. In St. John's, immigrants tend to elevate the neighbourhoods they move into. You see it in all sorts of neighbourhoods - Stabb Court, Buckmaster's Circle. Formerly infamous, but once they get a critical mass of immigrant families, suddenly their reputation improves. And they even look visibly better somehow. Not sure what the difference is, just better kept I guess.

Stabb:



Buckmaster's:

[Rollerstud98]

Originally Posted by O-tacular

Wow. I find that bizarre that such a tiny floorplate would be built today.

I think it has more to do with the limited space than anything else. Looks like the building is basically road to road really.

I think these dover face houses are right up there for anywhere in Canada as being ugly.
https://www.google.ca/maps/@51.0276954,-...D0%26thumbfov%3D100!7i13312!8i6656?hl=en

[itom 987]

Stabby stabb!

[O-tacular]

Originally Posted by FFX-ME

This location is Dartmouth literally has a Tim Hortons across the street from a Tim Hortons...

https://www.google.com/maps/@44.6714249,...-zkPBsj4eApXxLelsAo6A!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

It's the nexus of the universe!!!

[O-tacular]

Originally Posted by lio45

I'm pretty sure I recall seeing a corner in Vancouver that had three Starbucks out of four corners, but maybe there were only two.

Reminds me of Lewis Black's rant about Starbucks across the street from each other.

I seem to recall Vancouver having two cafe crepe restaurants across the street from each other. Right nearby the ugly big white bunker department store building we've seen on here before. Can't remember if it was a Bay or a SEARS.

[O-tacular]

Originally Posted by lio45

It would be ugly enough without The Rooms in the background!!

Not only that but it's framed between power poles and a Tim Horton's! Like an ugly montage!

[someone123]

Originally Posted by FFX-ME

This location is Dartmouth literally has a Tim Hortons across the street from a Tim Hortons...

https://www.google.com/maps/@44.6714249,...-zkPBsj4eApXxLelsAo6A!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

It doesn't make sense if you think about a neighbourhood setting or a setting where pedestrian traffic moves around easily, but at rush hour this area is jammed with cars. Probably enough to generate a huge lineup at both drive-throughs and enough to make turning around in your car a huge pain. Therefore, two Tim Hortons make sense here.

Dartmouth is certainly not all beautiful but this area is unique in terms of how run down it is and how much fairly central land is just sitting empty. I'm not sure why that is. Maybe some of these were industrial sites that have been contaminated.

[O-tacular]

Originally Posted by Rollerstud98

I think these dover face houses are right up there for anywhere in Canada as being ugly.
https://www.google.ca/maps/@51.0276954,-...D0%26thumbfov%3D100!7i13312!8i6656?hl=en

I think you may have found the ugliest building complex in the city! This needs to be photoshopped!!!

Edit: It's so ugly it can't even be viewed head on! It's censored by streetview!

https://www.google.ca/maps/@51.027692,-1...CW0-_8XXFPQpw4A!2e0!7i13312!8i6656?hl=en