The once regal Empress Theatre is literally falling apart. The city has put fences up to ensure passersby are protected from falling concrete. However according to one of the owners of the cafe across the street, teenagers are jumping over them.
“The tags go up and the city comes to clean them off and they go up again,” says Kyo Lim, the co-owner of Shaika cafe.
The fences were put up by the city because large pieces of the building’s façade are at risk of falling onto the sidewalk, according to an auditor’s report compiled for the borough of CND-NDG last September. It describes the theatre as being in an advanced state of deterioration.
It’s not only graffiti artists who are attracted to the decaying theatre. The Empress is featured in Youtube videos and in articles on websites such as 514 blog and Urbanx, a site devoted to the popular pass-time of urban exploring. The hobby lures artists and photographers from all over the world to abandoned buildings that have interesting histories, unique architectural features and creepy atmospheres.
“The first time I went in, it was because I’d heard about it from a friend who told me there was a way to get in,” says Brandon, a 16-year-old art student at FACE and an NDG resident whose real name is not being used because he is a minor.
“I checked it out with friends and there was a set of doors by the fence and another wall and then we saw that one of the doors was unlocked, so we took a peak and decided to come back another time.
“It’s really beautiful inside. You go up the stairs and turn right and there’s graffiti and an area that opens into a big theatre. It’s very grand. It’s large, it doesn’t look like it from the outside but when you go into the theatre room it’s magnificent,” he says.
Brandon, along with six of his friends, has been inside the Empress three times. The kids have explored the basement and have gone all the way up to the roof using a ladder.
“It’s not the safest looking ladder but it works,” says Brandon. “On the roof you can see Girouard park, you can see the canal, you can see downtown, you can see everywhere.”
Brandon says one of the times he and his friends went into the old theatre in February they didn’t explore much because the floor was a sheet of ice.
“If you didn’t hold onto something, you would fall,” he says. “There is a small light source from the roof on the second floor but otherwise it is pitch black.”
The last time Brandon tried to get into the Empress was in March. He says the door was bolted shut.
“I thought of climbing the [drainage] pipe several times, but it didn’t seem very possible. If you can get to the fire escape, you can go inside from the entrance on the roof,” he says.
Brandon is on the right track, says Will MacKenzie, an experienced urban explorer who has been inside every abandoned building in the city. He says he thinks climbing up the pipe might work.
“Part of the fun of urban exploring is finding your own way into the building or area that you are curious about, so if I gave hints or clues on how to get in I’d be breaking the code,” says the 27-year-old. Mackenzie credits the photographs he took while exploring as a teenager with helping launch his career as a cinematographer.
“I went there [to the Empress] as part of a school project for an architecture course at Concordia. Instead of taking photos I used images that I found online. The building was just too damaged by fire and water infiltration.“
Mackenzie says it used to be easy to get into the Empress. He doesn’t believe the city’s attempts to secure the building by chaining the doors and locking them will do any good.
“The owners of these buildings often barricade windows or hire 24-hour security guards but even that doesn’t keep people out. People can always find a way in if they really want to,” he says.
Joseph Baron lives close to the theatre on Old Orchard. The 38-year-old father of two says he’s seen signs of break-ins. When the side door is pried open, he says the city comes and chains it up again. He also says the windows low to the ground near the back alley keep having to be boarded up.
“I have concerns about the structural integrity. I’ve seen water pouring out of the window in the front. I know there is tons of water damage,” he says. “It doesn’t look safe to be near it.”
According to a report compiled for the borough of CDN-NDG close to a year ago by the architectural firm Cardin Julien, Baron is right to be concerned. The report describes dangerous cracks and fissures in the building’s walls and masonry as well as holes in the floor and on the roof. There are broken windows everywhere.
“It is evident that a lot of water penetrates the interior wall of the façade and contributes to the degradation of the interior,” according to the report. It goes on to say that at least one part of the building’s interior is at risk of falling off and “destroying the floor underneath it.”
The once-beautiful theatre is described as dirty, wet and humid. The air inside is “noxious for all those who enter.” Asbestos can be seen scattered on the ground amidst the debris.
Among other recommendations, the report concludes urgent work needs to be done in areas where masonry is about to fall.
The Empress has been slowly crumbling ever since a fire ravaged the heritage building in 1992. The city of Montreal acquired the almost 100-year-old theatre in1999 and the borough of CDN-NDG became the owner in 2011. There have been many attempts to renovate the theatre over the years and do something with the building. All of these attempts have failed.
In March, the borough of CDN-NDG announced it would start to work with the Société d’habitation et de developpement de Montreal (SHDM) to transform the theatre into a mixed-use space featuring affordable housing, a commercial component and an element focused on artistic expression.
“The big question everyone has is when is it going to happen?” says Scott Browning the owner of Atelier Microscott, a computer repair store located a block away from the theatre. “It’s safe to say the city isn’t interested.”
“Every few years I hear a rumour, ‘oh yes, it’s happening now,’ but nothing is going to happen for two years,” he says.
“We’re typical NDGers. We’re numb to the fact that anything’s going to happen. If you tell me that you know of something, my response will be tell me something new because we’ve all heard that for years.”
There may be a new urgency to getting renovations done. Urban exploration has resulted in numerous deaths around the world and here in Canada. In 2017 a 15-year-old Montreal boy was hospitalized after falling through a hole in the old malting factory in Saint-Henri.
“The risk and the challenge,” make the old theatre tempting, says Brandon. He says he won’t go back to the Empress again after hearing about all of its dangers, but he is thinking of trying to scale Silo 5 in the old port.
