Capital History Ottawa (#colourized): Bowles Lunch

My latest for Apartment613 is on legendary Ottawa diner, Bowles Lunch! 

"The atmosphere was masculine, loud, and often bawdy. Asking a woman to enter Bowles was an insult. Acceptance would cause serious damage to her reputation." (Ottawa Citizen – Dec. 26, 1981)

Read all about it here: Capital History: Bowles Lunch, 1917 to 1957

Rideau St. looking east across Sussex Dr., 1937. Bowles Lunch Rideau St. outlet on the right. [Orig. image via Library & Archives – colourized by Ashley Newall]

Update (2025): Here's a colourization not included in the original story, but which should have been.

Bowles Lunch, 50 Rideau St. (a couple doors east of Union Station), 1921. [Original image via Library & Archives – colourized by Ashley Newall]

And here's the same location around 1957, after it had become a Scott's Restaurant. (Bowles' other Ottawa location – on Sparks St. – ultimately became a Scott's Chicken Villa (i.e. KFC).)

Scott's Restaurant, 50 Rideau St., ca. 1957. [Image via Ottawa Archives]

For more historical colourizations, you can follow my "Capital History Ottawa" on Twitter @CapHistOttawa.