Cumberland Terrace

I’m sometimes overcome with the desire produce a web series entitled «Shopping Mall Time Machine» focused around The Cumberland Terrace.
The moment you walk into this establishment in downtown Toronto you’re transported to an early-80’s Des Moines mall, withering in the wake of the 1979 energy crisis.
Trampled by lessening demand in Iowa’s service industry, few establishments have been able to endure in The Cumberland.
What remains is an occult casserole of ethnic fast food eateries, inoperative escalators and establishments so arbitrary in nature that I am forced to conclude that a programmer must have written a randomization algorithm to select the collection of shops that currently occupy this mall.
The primary category of patrons to The Cumberland Centre is the homeless, but not just any homeless. These homeless range on a spectrum from somewhat mentally erratic to psychologically turbulent.
On the occasional February night that experiences an Environment Canada Severe Polar Cold warning, the Cumberland Centre still lives up to its original 1974 slogan: «The Nicest Way from Yonge to Bay» (mostly because the alternative is hypothermia, but no matter).
Unfortunately, it seems they took this slogan a little too literally because after 9pm none of the 5 sets of doors on the North side of the Cumberland Centre will let anyone in. This means that «Yonge to Bay» is the only path you’re able to travel when faced with the unfortunate predicament of finding yourself within the Cumberland Centre at night.
On the bright side, it is open 24 hours and everything except for that peculiar Asian furniture emporium (which I strongly suspect is a front for an Opium smuggling operation) is extremely reasonably priced. That, coupled with the fact that The Cumberland has been growing on me (albeit like a tumor) leads me to my verdict. Two stars.

I have no idea why this mall is in Yorkville. The food court isn’t too shabby in terms of choice, but the overall atmosphere is so ghetto. Old and decrepit, seats are dirty and smelly too. Also, you can feel the subway running beneath you (unlike the food court in The Bay concourse near Church and Bloor) which is attached. The only two saving graces to this mall is that it’s attached to the The Holt concourse, which has lots of nice stores and The Bay concourse and the TTC and also has a solid soup and salad place above ground. Otherwise, pretty crappy mall. Better just to go south to Eaton Centre.

Yorkvillians, the Terrace Rules.

For all of the great, high-​end shopping in Yorkville, it surprises me how poor the malls are.
I’ll get to Hazelton Lanes another day. At least it’s saved by intersting if labyrinthian design, an amusing selection of stores that outstrip my payccheque, and the Whole Foods i visit for exotic peppers when I need a chili fix.
Cumberland Terrace is a sad, weird place. The best that can be said about it is that it connects with the Holt Renfrew Plaza, and thereby the Ba and other spots when you need to stay dry.
Retail floors feature fly-​by-​night clothing and décor stores; a music store devoted to Broadway’s finext, and a selection of fast food joints, notable mainly for being increasingly off-​brand.
I’m not aware that this was ever a happening place. A condo mercy killing might be in order.

Cumberland is the Eeyore of shopping malls in Toronto. It’s sad and decrepit and very much stuck in a bygone era. I once had the misfortune of having lunch in its bowels and was serenaded by a homeless man who was all bluster, spittle and F-​bombs. Needless to say, I did not enjoy my lunch that day.
There’s an Asian furniture/​decorations? store in there and the proprietor comes very close to you and spits as he tells you that whatever you’re looking at is cheaper than a box of candy. Has happened to me twice. Not kidding.
I use this mall as thoroughfare to get from Yonge to Bay on a very cold day to avoid the cold blasts outside but even in those few, warm mins inside Cumberland I get hit by a blast from the past. Nostalgia isn’t always fun.

Ah Cumberland Terrace. My coworkers and I lovingly refer to you as dirt mall.
Cumberland Terrace looks exactly like the (already at that point) run-​down-​outdated mall that my mom used to take us to get groceries at in the mid 80s. Exactly. So it fills me with nostalgia. More importantly, it is filled with ad-​execs and young suits grabbing some lunch in the food court at lunch hours. The food is horrible mall-​food-​court variety, no name restaurants, delis, clothing stores that sell items for less than $ 10, knock off purses.
Most importantly, you can walk across Bloor from my office, Go into the HBC concourse at park and emerge at Holt Refrew all via Cumberland Terrace. Perfect if you want to shop, or hit the TD Bank without seeing the outside world (snowing.)
Bonus Points
— Suits! (what can I say — I work in a jeans and Tshirts office)
— There is a science/​puzzles/​smartkids store
— There are TWO shoe repair guys
— There is a fun Tibetan store that sells things like singing bowls
— You can visit a myriad of things without having to go outside.
Minus Points
— don’t get me started.

This mall really needs a face lift. It really shows it’s age.
The food court options really aren’t that great. The retailers are mostly independent small businesses which is great except they don’t seem to drive the traffic to this plaza that it needs. Cumberland Terrace really just feels like a flow-​through for people wanted to get from the subway to the Holt Renfrew area.
A good store to hit though if you’re passing through is Game and Hobby Zone. Who doesn’t like a toy store?

DONT GO TO MEGAWRAPS if you are chosing a place to eat. I went and the service was horrible. I had to repeat myself to the woman over 7 times when paying how i wanted to pay.
Also, my chicken in my wrap wasnt fully cooked. I had to throw it out i couldnt eat it. Ive been to mega wraps before in other locations and never had a problem but this one just sucks!

Cumberland Terrace was something in the late 1970s and 1980s. Opened in 1974, done up fashionably in orange and brick brown, Cumberland Terrace was a place… no no… the place to shop for upmarket clothing, furniture at DeBoer’s, drop the princely sum of $ 5 for a pair pantyhose at the gaily named Legs Beautiful, lunch in open indoor cafes to the soothing sounds of a steam calliope, and generally enjoy the fruits of Toronto’s building boom and transformation from hog town to corporate ground zero. All those Montréal corporate HQs had fled the insanity of the PQ and took up residence in Toronto, bringing with them good jobs and plane loads of Montréal people accustomed to, you know, dressing well. It was also the home of the Toronto Film Festival for several years too.
Hazelton Lanes opened in the late 1980s and robbed a lot of Cumberland Terrace’s thunder. The second floor was closed to retail and now seems to house an ESL night school. The first floor cafes where ladies lunched have been replaced by places that sell wraps, juice, and egg salad sandwiches. You can still find spots of orange and brown.
Cumberland Terrace still remains the cheapest retail space in Yorkville/​Bay/​Bloor. Rates are about ¹⁄₁₀^th what you’ll find over in Yorkville proper. It kind of hangs on, in a way, as retail welfare.
There have been several plans, I believe, to knock it down, build a mixed use condo/​retail center etc. but the limiting factor is the subway runs right under the plot. You can build over it but you can’t put a parking garage under your condo. Who buys a condo without a parking space?
Anyway, Cumberland Terrace pretty much acts as a way to get from the Yonge station to the Bay station on foot without having to go outside.

I couldn’t find the specific megawrap store that I wanted to review, but since it’s in the Cumberland Terrace food court, I will be putting the review here. I would feel bad if there had been other restaurants in the food court that were decent, but there aren’t.
Since I’ve started working at Bay & Bloor, I’ve given this food court sooo many chances. I’ve tried the italian place, the shawarma place, the gourmet foods place and the worst of them all… the mega wraps place.
Don’t even go to this food court, it’s such a waste of time. They don’t even take debit. The pasta’s places’ pasta tastes like it’s supposed to be a dessert, the shawarma places’ shawarama is way too salty and worst of all… the mega wrap place. They serve diced carrots and pasta in chicken broth and call it chicken noodle soup. They have fruit juice for $ 4.99… but when I asked what fruits they only had apple or orange. When I decided against getting it, the owners rolled their eyes at me. The lady was going to give me some free toasted pita but when I asked for the soup/​sandwich combo she told her husband in Chinese to take it back. She made the sandwich by scooping tuna on a piece of lettuce and putting it on a piece of barely toasted bread.
By far, the worst experience I’ve ever had, ever… even worst than Pickel Barrel.

Cumberland Terrace is a 70s strip mall in the middle of Yorkville. It’s sort of a hallway and a mall. It runs under Bloor, to Holt Renfrew, and into the underground that connects to the Bay and the Yonge subway stop.
Technically, it’s only the brown brick piece from Belair to Bay and then the mall from Bay to Yonge. It’s getting a face lift soon to match the rest of the neighborhood which has undergone may transformations in the past few decades.
I’m o the fence about it. Part of me loves the orange tables in the food court, juxtaposed against Swarovski upstairs, but I think they could also use a bit of a facelift to fit in.
Stay tuned for a hella lot of construction.