Toronto is watching its most iconic neon signs flicker out, from Zanzibar to the Rosedale Diner

Neon signs were once a ubiquitous feature of downtown Toronto. A vast stretch of Yonge Street was bathed in the buzzing glow of neon across a near-continuous strip of record shops, strip clubs and arcades. Walk that same street today and the lights have dimmed to almost nothing.

On August 16, the Zanzibar Tavern — the last true neon landmark of what was once the epicentre of neon signage along Yonge Street — was damaged by a three-alarm fire that tore through the building and compromised its roof. The iconic neon sign, which had for decades announced the strip club's presence in the city's visual landscape, took damage from the boot of a climbing firefighter. Broken but apparently not destroyed, the sign is now in serious jeopardy as owners assess the damage.

Regardless of your stance on strip clubs, one could easily argue that Zanzibar's iconic facade is part of Yonge Street's cultural heritage — something the city needs to protect. But Zanzibar is just the latest slice in a slow death-by-one-thousand-cuts of Toronto's once-thriving neon sign culture.

The potential demise of Zanzibar's sign comes just months after the January closure of Filmores Hotel, another longstanding Toronto strip club known for its vibrant neon signage. While the sign is set to be removed as part of a high-rise redevelopment, a 2021 heritage report noted the "iconic nature of the Filmores sign and the increasing rarity of neon signs throughout the city," and added that "the applicant proposes to donate the sign to a museum."

But donating an iconic neon sign for reinstallation elsewhere isn't exactly a process with a great track record in Toronto. The iconic Sam The Record Man sign was relocated following the original Yonge Street building's 2010 demolition. It took roughly eight years for the sign to reappear atop the Toronto Public Health building at 277 Victoria St. — though the reinstalled display was met with a lukewarm reception and has not reclaimed its landmark status.

The losses mount. The Patrician Grill on King St. E. closed its doors in May after more than 70 years of service. The diner's owners said they plan to take the beloved neon sign as a memento of the lost landmark. In 2025, The Imperial Pub closed after eight decades in business, its building subsequently demolished for redevelopment — removing another vibrant neon sign from the cityscape. That same year, William's Shoe Store closed after 75 years in business, and its neon sign has been dark ever since. The Rosedale Diner shuttered on Yonge Street in 2023 after 45 years, taking with it yet another beloved neon sign. Even lesser installations are disappearing: Goldstone Noodle closed in 2024, its neon window strips removed.

Edmonton offers a model for what a municipality can do to prevent extinction. The city's Neon Sign Museum is an open-air collection of preserved neon signs mounted along 104 Street south of 104 Avenue in the Warehouse District. A similar outdoor museum exists in Las Vegas, hosting relics of lost casinos. Toronto previously had a business that functioned like something of a neon museum — Neon Demon — but it shuttered in 2022. There have been past discussions of a proper neon museum in Toronto, though the city has not committed to a timeline or process for creating one.

The question facing the city is whether Zanzibar's sign — and the handful of neon survivors still glowing on Toronto's streets — can be saved before they join the others in the darkness.