By Pepper Parr
July 24th, 2023
BURLINGTON, ON
A great pub, a fine crowd of regulars. Closing appears to be related to issues related to renewing the lease.
It was built in 1860, originally known as the Zimmerman House, built by the Zimmerman family as a first class resting place for the weary traveller.
By the late 1800’s it was known as the Queen’s Hotel,
She stood the test of time. The site is a prime location and will have a new tenant soon. The owner may already know who the new tenant is going to be.
By the mid 1900s it was known as the Sherwood, and later became the Queen’s Head Pub.
This is the second of some of the great watering holes in the city. Before the pandemic took over the city Craig Craig Kowalchuk put Emmas Back Porch into bankruptcy and walked away from a business he had put a lot of time energy and his own money into.
He could see the writing on the wall.
Shortly after ward 2 Councillor named him a Local Legend and gave him the equivalent of a plaque
Reportedly the landlords, Sherwood Holdings Inc, moved on without offering the Queens Head a chance to counter offer on a renewed lease. Callous. Another win for money over a respectful, livable community. Thank you to the Queens Head owners and staff for so many years of kindness, uniqueness, and affordability; you’ll be missed.
Another one bites the dust. The publisher should go back to an October 2, 2014 article on the Ward 2 debate between Councillor Meed Ward at that time and her closest rival, Kelly Arnott who was adamant downtown businesses were suffering and 23 businesses had left the downtown in 2014.
That article got the record number of comments we have seen, people cared about our downtown businesses survival.. It was not until after the election that we learnt Meed Ward knew as the DBA representative, as did Dean and likely all of Council that a proposal was made on September 8, 2014 for Council approval to expand the boundaries to include a further 27 businesses, likely to replace the 23 Meed Ward argued were not vacant spots. What most don’t know was the old Association funds obtained from the businesses to improve their lot went to city coffers. The amount was never revealed.
The process was the subject of one of our audits that showed like other processes it did not meet the Municipal Act legislated process. Our efforts to get five of these audits before the Audit Committee given their duty to examine compliance with legislation was not successful, despite our Herculean efforts. We will continue to lose good down town businesses until we have an engaged public that cares enough to address the well evidenced issues that have been raised over and over again in the Gazette – we have not got a council that follows the rules that they decide on or a democratic elected government has established and then they push for a trespass by-law without any supportive data or staff presentation to show:
1. it is necessary
2. it is a valid process in terms of the Provincial legislation.
to cut out the voices of those who never give up when it comes to democratic principles.