Article content

Comment

The Princess of Jilly’s emerges onto Broadview Avenue a little after noon. With flowing brown hair and a pierced lip, she wears thigh-high boots over jeans, a Harley-Davidson T-shirt and a leather jacket. From her headphones blares Metallica.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or Some stayed for hours, some stayed for years: Quick sale forces tenants out of Broadview Hotel and Jilly's strip club Back to video

She unfolds an umbrella stroller and deposits her son, a tow-headed, smiling tot of 2 1/2 years. They are headed to his play group.

“Everyone calls me the Princess of Jilly’s,” she says. “My real name is Laura.”

Five years ago Laura, 27, joined the staff at Jilly’s, the strip club at Broadview and Queen Street East. She rented a room at the Broadview Hotel, above Jilly’s, for $500 a month. Then she fell in love with the hotel’s maintenance manager and moved into the “penthouse suite,” the square tower on the fifth floor.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or

“I used to be a waitress.” she says. “Then I had to stop because it wasn’t an appropriate environment for a pregnant woman.”

I ask about living in the hotel.