[PHOTO] The old Metro Theatre

[rfmcdonald]

The old Metro Theatre, the last porn theatre in Toronto, is set to reach the next stage in its evolution. I blogged in August 2012 about how there was some interest in remaking it into an arthouse movie theatre, but that fell through. A June 2014 report suggested that the place was set to be made into a gym. As observed in May by the Toronto Star's Katrina Clarke, the Metro Theatre will become a rock-climbing gym.

Where there were once sweaty naked bodies, there will soon be sweaty, not-quite-naked bodies.

The longstanding mystery surrounding the future of Toronto’s last porn theatre was solved on Wednesday when the owner of a rock climbing business announced he’s moving into the Little Korea space.

“We’re taking something that was a little bit seedy and scummy and making it available for families, kids, friends to go and hang out,” said Matt Languay, owner of the soon-to-be-built Basecamp Climbing Gym.

The Metro Theatre was built in 1938 and became a skin flick theatre in the 1970s. Its former owner, Karim Hirji, whose wealthy family bought the Bloor St. W. business back in 1979, had been trying to sell it for more than a decade.

“I’ve passed by The Metro hundreds of times and just sort of seen it as this empty, vacant space,” Languay said. “It’s kind of a spot that people walked by instead of looking at.”