Stanley Street (Montreal)

Stanley Street

Rue Stanley
Length	1 km (1 mi)
Location	Between Doctor Penfield Avenue and De la Gauchetière Street
Coordinates:	45.49967°N 73.574308°W / 45.49967; -73.574308
Construction
Inauguration	1845

Stanley Street (officially rue Stanley) is a north-south street located in downtown Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It links Doctor Penfield Avenue in the north and De la Gauchetière Street in the south. Molson's Bank was located on the street and at one time employed Joachim von Ribbentrop.^{[citation needed]}

History

The intersection of Stanley Street and Saint Catherine Street in 1930.

Corner of St Catherine and Stanley Streets looking east (1915)

Opened in 1845, the street owes its name to Edward Smith-Stanley, 14th Earl of Derby (1799–1869), the former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

From the 1970s, the street had been the centre of Montreal's gay village. Open since 1974 and still operating from its basement location on Stanley Street until its closing in 2009, the gay bar Le Mystique was raided by police in 1976, leading to riots. Starting in the early 1980s, Montreal's gay village relocated further east.