Buckingham Cigarettes Ghost Sign (former)

The Buckingham Cigarettes ghost sign was once located at 306 Davenport Rd (at Bedford Rd, on the northwest corner) in The Annex neighbourhood of Toronto.

On the west-facing wall of the building that once stood at the corner, there was a ghost sign that read “Buckingham Cigarettes.” The Buckingham brand originated in the United States, but the Canadian branch of Philip Morris & Company Ltd held the trademark in Canada. Advertisements for Buckingham began appearing in local newspapers starting in 1924. The Tuckett Tobacco Company later acquired the Canadian branch and continued production of the brand. In the early 1930s, Imperial Tobacco Canada purchased the Tuckett Tobacco Company and continued to manufacture the Buckingham brand until the mid-1990s.

The three-storey building that once stood at 306 Davenport Rd was constructed around 1904. Its storefront originally housed Lewis Bros Grocers until the mid-1930s. The building continued to operate as a grocery store, changing hands a few times until it was renamed Edward Whitehead Grocery in 1939, which remained in business until the mid-1960s.

In 1968, the building was repurposed as a Beckers store until the late 1970s, when it was transformed into Just Desserts. Tragically, the location was the site of a fatal shooting in 1994. Later, the building became the Tiffany Tea Room Café before being converted into a Subway sandwich shop in the early 2000s. The building was demolished in 2022. Today, plans are in place to develop a 22-storey condo tower known as Designers Walk on the site.