by Richard Young
This is the second article about the Legacy of Wonderland Gardens, London’s former beloved live performance venue, leading up to the unveiling of a commemorative Historical Interpretive Sign/Plaque celebrating Wonderland Gardens’ contribution to London music on Sunday, June 21, at 1:30 pm, at Springbank Gardens.
In this article, brothers Chuck Jr. and Don Jones share their memories of operating the beloved venue
(Source: Interview with brothers Chuck and Don Jones by Barb Botten on December 11, 2023.)
Don was tasked with booking the entertainment at the age of fourteen. He remembers booking an up-and-coming artist named Alice Cooper for $500 in 1967.
“I took care of booking Bob Seger one time, who came with his band, equipment and all, in a cube van and slept in the parking lot,” recalls Don.
Don had a talent for this and continued booking the entertainment there until the mid-1970s, getting to know and becoming friends with musicians from across the country and the U.S. He has kept many of them as long-time friends to this day.
Prominent local musical groups, including Johnny Downs, Ted Pudney, Lionel Thornton, and Neil McKay, performed at Wonderland Gardens in the venue’s early years. Later, local acts included the Hawthorne Good Times Band, led by John Hotson, which participated in twenty-five consecutive New Year’s Eve celebrations. Other local acts included The Bluesmen Revue, A Small Experience, The New Set, and many others.
As musical preferences shifted over time, Wonderland stood as one of the few local vestiges of the big band era. By 1956, the once-gravel driveway leading to the attraction from Springbank Drive had transformed into Wonderland Side Road. The venue continued to host headline acts such as Roy Orbison, Chuck Berry, and Sly and the Family Stone. The Jones brothers remember when Wonderland hosted a two-day Pop Festival featuring Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention in August 1969.
Chuck can finally put to rest the rumour that Zappa engaged in water skiing on the polluted Thames River.
“This did happen, I was the one driving the boat!” he jokes.
In 1982, Don met CBC children’s icon Mr. Dressup (Ernie Coombs), and together they embarked on a twenty-year journey of touring success. Don and Ernie developed a steadfast friendship that continued long after their touring stopped. Following Ernie’s retirement, these two best friends could still be found on the golf course each year, raising funds for Peter Gzowski’s Literacy Foundation.
From 1999 onwards, Don’s primary focus was on the late Stuart McLean, CBC Radio host and best-selling author. Together, they covered Canada coast to coast and the northern United States, playing over 50 live shows each year with The Vinyl Cafe.
The talent kept pouring in, and Wonderland Gardens, in its heyday, was the venue where bands wanted to play.
“I would often reach out to entertainers who were playing in Detroit and catch them on their way to Toronto,” recalls Don.
Sadly, Charles Sr passed away in 1971. In the mid-1970s, Don left to continue with his music promotion business and started Don Jones Entertainment, which remains a powerhouse in the industry to this day.
By 1974, Chuck realized that to keep up with the times, the facility needed to get into the food business. He decided to open up the facility with its 1000-person capacity for company conferences, proms, parties, and fundraising events. He carefully vetted the companies that wanted to rent out the space to ensure that they were solid, upstanding businesses.
Initially, local catering companies would provide the food for these events until Chuck realized that he wanted to expand and offer the food directly.
“I also realized that to remain competitive, we needed to license the facility,” says Chuck. “In 1984, we opened the fully licensed Riverview Restaurant with a one-hundred-person capacity inside and one-hundred-person capacity outside. The restaurant was renowned for its great food, great service, and stunning backdrop looking over the Thames River.”
Wonderland Gardens and the Riverview Restaurant were closed in January 2004 after the City of London failed to negotiate a reasonable new lease for the property. The last evening was a New Year’s Eve celebration with the local band, Hawthorne, playing to a sold-out crowd.
Unfortunately, Wonderland Gardens burned down in 2005, and all that remains of the original venue today is the refurbished outdoor bandshell.
Today, the two Jones brothers are mostly retired and enjoy family time. Chuck and his wife, Bea, are avid birders and house sixteen colonies of the endangered Purple Martin birds. Don and his wife Linda enjoy spending time with their four kids and eleven grandchildren. Don enjoys cooking and is known to make delicious soups and roasts that he generously drops off to family and neighbours.
Don’s sons, Brad and Greg, are successfully running the Jones Entertainment Group, offering a one-stop service to the entertainment business. Locally, they have successfully filled Harris Park with 50,000 fans each year for the past nineteen years for the local charity fundraiser, Rock The Park.
Don and Chuck Jones have vivid memories of Wonderland Gardens and the bands that performed there.
One such memory includes the time that the popular British band The Crazy World of Arthur Brown was booked to play one evening at Wonderland Gardens in 1969. The day before Brown was scheduled to perform, Don received a phone call from the band’s manager informing him that the whole band had quit, and the eccentric and outlandish band leader was on his own. Don flew him in from New York and chartered a plane from Toronto to London to get him to the venue on time.
“He was without his band, his stage gear, and his signature flaming head costume. I quickly improvised. The opening band knew all the songs and agreed to step in for Arthur,” Don recalls. “I found a lampshade, stuffed it full of cotton balls, soaked it in lighter fluid, and duct-taped it to his head. As he stepped onstage, the cotton balls were lit, and Arthur’s outlandish entrance was restored. Unfortunately, the flaming head didn’t have protection for his head, and it was quickly doused after singing his hair. There was a burn on the stage floor after that concert!”
Author’s Note: On Wednesday, May 21, 2026, the Jones Family received the Forest City London Music Awards Lifetime Achievement Award for their contributions to the London Music scene. It’s an honour well-deserved and long overdue.
By Richard Young, Publisher & Content Manager, The Beat Magazine 2025
Richard Young is a retired History teacher who taught with the Thames Valley District School Board for thirty years. Richard published The Beat Magazine, an independent print arts magazine, from 2009 to 2013. In 2025, he revived the magazine as an online publication. He is currently a member of the London Public Library Historic Sites Committee.
His band, The Comic Opera, played at Wonderland Gardens numerous times in the late 1960s and early 1970s. He has many fond memories of the venue.
The Beat Magazine 2025 