Headlines appeared last spring warning that Toronto was faced with the possibility of losing one of its most literary institutions and landmarks, the small literary publishing house Coach House Books, located on bpNichol Lane just north of Robarts Library.
Now magazine’s headline was “Tearing Down the House,” while the Globe and Mail headline shrilled “Last of the Coach-House Factories.” The outrage was directed at a plan by Campus Co-op, the student housing co-operative that owns the building in which Coach House Books operates. But the present executive of Campus Co-op told The Varsity that those fears were baseless.
Campus Co-op is a mainly student-run organization that has been buying housing to be used for students at and around the University of Toronto since 1936. Since that time it has grown to include 31 homes accommodating over 300 students.
Campus Co-op’s dilemma is that the rent received from its aging Victorian houses does not cover the costs involved in renovating them. Last year a rejuvenation plan was adopted which would see several Huron St. buildings replaced with a new residence, thereby bringing in revenues to be used in the renovation of existing buildings. This affects Coach House Books because, since 1968, they have been renting the coach houses, the garages behind the co-op’s Victorian buildings.
Coach House started as a community printer that would-and continues to-take risks with new writers of both fiction and prose. Coach House prides itself on attention to detail when it comes to the printing of books, something they can afford to do themselves, given that their presses are on-site in the coach house. This means that their writers see something almost unique in Canadian publishing: their books being printed in the midst of the editing process.
As Andrew Kaufman, a writer published by Coach House, explained at the recent annual general meeting of Campus Co-op: “Coach House takes chances and gives writers an opportunity that other larger presses would not.”
It was at this meeting that a delegation from the press, led by founder, publisher, and ‘head coach’ Stan Bevington outlined a preliminary proposal that would involve the press buying the majority of the buildings that they occupy. This would solve the fears raised over the past few months that redevelopment plans for the area would force the press from their home in a detrimental way.
As it now stands, Coach House is in the process of preparing a formal and legal offer for the purchase of the land which needs to pass a number of governmental hurdles such as zoning and property severance. Robin Lobb, a Co-op member, sees the present discussion between the Co-op and the press as “a wonderful concept that we’d all like to push into an offer.” Co-op president Peter Oakham re-iterated that “the idea of selling the houses is that if it can be resolved in an amicable way it’s a boon for both.”
In the end Campus Co-op does not want the atmosphere of disagreement and uncertainty over the past few months to be seen as a situation where a larger group, the Co-op, would have forced the expulsion of a smaller one, the publisher.
Rather, they see the argument as being one involving no Goliath, but two Davids, and the Co-op said that the publicity unfairly vilified them as wanting to bulldoze their buildings and toss out the press. It appears now that cooler heads have prevailed, and that the two groups will be able to co-exist in the lane behind Huron St.
