There are two large murals by Nick Sweetman that cover both sides of Bathurst street as it passes under the 401 highway. The murals are a collection of animals – birds, frogs, cows, cats, foxes, bats, tigers, and more. This blogpost is a selection of images from those two walls.
A walk down Coxwell Avenue with a few diversions along the way…..
below: Part of larger mural painted by Al Runt that covers most of the exterior of a building on Gerrard near Coxwell.
The “Soller” part of the title of this post is a direct reference to artist Rowell Soller. As it turns out he was touching up one of his murals on Coxwell when I walked past.
below: This large painting is on the same building as the mural in the photo above. It is a collaboration between Soller and Flips. If you see a painting in Toronto that has those curls and swirls, it was probably painted by Flips.
below: “The choice is yours”
below: Coxwell and Gerrard (south part), looking southeast. A quirk in the map, a jog in the street. For reasons no longer clear (probably something to do with the history of the area), Gerrard is divided by Coxwell into a southern and a northern section. This is the southern part where it is Gerrard to the west of Coxwell but Eastwood Avenue to the east.
below: The sign says Fairford Avenue, which is partially correct as it is Fairford to the west of Coxwell, but Gerrard Street to the east. Confused yet? The 506 Carleton streetcar runs on Gerrard as far east as Main Street and west all the way to High Park… but it has to make two turns at Coxwell to stay on Gerrard.
below: Signs of summer!
below: Bowmore Road Junior and Senior Public School is just east of Coxwell. It was built in 1923.
below: Does anybody still refer to Toronto as ‘The 6ix’? It was popular ten years ago when Drake used it in a song but I haven’t heard it much recently.
below: Another Coxwell mural, another collaboration between Rowell Soller and Flips (from 2022).
below: … and yet another, this time with yellow curls
below: More Soller painting, this time on Queen East close to Coxwell, a woman in blue.
below: Emdaabiimok Avenue is now the name of the lower part of Coxwell, south of Queen. In Anishinaabemowin, Emdaabiimok translates to “where the road goes to the water”
below: There are a lot of tiny houses on Coxwell!
below: There is also this tall skinny house that has a footprint of only 16′ x 16′ (just under 5m x 5m). It has one bedroom and is built on stilts. It is accessed from the sidewalk by a bridge. Originally it was painted in blue, red, green, and yellow squares and rectangles and really did look like it was made of Lego blocks. If you hear of someone referring to it as the Lego House, that’s why. This pale blue and dark grey mix looks much better!
below: Like most other places in the city, there are always changes to be seen whether it is a complete reno of a house or the addition of a rooftop terrace.
below: If you walk (or drive) slightly farther north on Coxwell, you might see this car. Its collection of colourful and sparkly decorations has slowly grown over the years to the point where there isn’t much room left!
subtitle: A little wander down King Street East (and area) with a look at both the past and present .
…Starting with a cup of coffee and a CONTACT exhibit – photos by Jamaal Owusu-Ansah titled “Hints of Orange” at the Black Canary coffee shop on Sherbourne Street just north of King, showing until 5th June (but coffee and goodies still available after that!)
“I don’t care what the weather says anymore, It’s iced coffee season”
below: Looking west on King from Jarvis with the steeple of St. James Cathedral rising above.
below: King Street has been a vital part of Toronto since the beginning. It was one of the original roads laid out in the late 1790s in the Town of York (which became Toronto in 1834). At that time it ended at Berkeley Street.
below: south side of King street, looking west from Sherbourne
below: The southwest corner of King and Sherbourne streets.
below: More views of the King and Sherbourne intersection – this time the northeast corner with the newer condos rising above. The old bank building became part of those condos.
below: In 1972 when this photo was taken, 230 King Street East was a branch of the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC). It was built in 1908.
Photo from City of Toronto Archives, Fonds 2032, Series 841,
Betty’s (once the Betty Ford Clinic – or just the Betty Ford? – until the original Betty Ford issued a cease and desist order) has moved to Queen St East. The King location closed in 2022 after 30 years on the premises. The building, and its neighbour, 234 and 236 King Street East, are listed as city heritage sites. In 1888, the red brick building was constructed as a warehouse for a bedding manufacturer, Chaney and Co Bedding. And yes, they are empty because a developer plans to build a condo tower here.
below: Duke Mews is a short lane running west from Princess, back towards Sherbourne. It is just north of King Street, between King and Adelaide. Once upon a time, Adelaide Street was called Duke Street.
below: West end
“You are the love of my life”
.
below: Looking east towards Ontario Street at a view that won’t be available for much longer. The buildings that were once here have been demolished and the site is awaiting redevelopment.
below: This is the brick facade that was retained when the Drug Trading Building was redeveloped (into offices and workspaces, not condos). It was originally built in 1942 (and expanded in 1946). The Art Deco elements on the entrance were also saved. This was the administration building for the company -factories were on the other side of Ontario Street. In 2022 this was the Sun TV building even though the transition to a taller repurposed building was already underway . The Drug Trading Company had been founded in 1896 to supply independent pharmacies with medications and other products.
below: Looking northeast from Duke Mews – past the empty lot and the edge of The Shift to farther along Adelaide Street.
below: Now looking southeast from Duke Mews towards King Street. A small sliver of that property along King will become a park.
below: The facade of the three storey red brick building at Princess and King is being saved.
below: Once upon a time, the Crow Bar restaurant was on the corner of Adelaide and Princess. It closed in 2016 and in more recent years, the corner was a parking lot.
This 1972 photo is from the City of Toronto Archives, fonds 2032, series 841, file 38, item 7. Fonds 2032 is from the Toronto Planning Board and series 841 is a large collection of photos taken of intersections around the downtown core in 1972.
below: Another restaurant of the same vintage nearby on King Street, the Patrician Grill, just closed
below: Interior of the Patrician Grill, at the same location since 1953.
below: Looking southeast at King and Berkeley. Metrolinx has cleared the whole block between Berkeley and Parliament for Ontario line subway construction.
below: Looking southwest at King and Parliament at the hoardings around the block that Metrolinx has taken over.
below: Brick buildings on the northwest corner of King and Power Streets. They are actually the back of 93 Parliament Street – built in 1908 for the Aluminum and Crown Stopper Company as factory and warehouse. They manufactured supplies for bottlers.
below: King and Power 1972 with a Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce on the corner.
City of Toronto Archives, fonds 2032, series 841
below: Also King and Power, but in January of 1937 when there were houses on Power Street. This photo is from a large collection of photographs taken in 1936 and 1937 of housing in this area. A large number of the houses are in awful condition, poorly built, and condemned by the city.
below: If you then turn around and face east, this is the view that you get. It’s in black and white and I bet that it could pass as a vintage photo even though I took it a few days ago (except the modern cars might give it away).
below: Another City Archives fonds 2032, series 841 photo from 1972. It’s not a direct match to the photo above, but the building on the corner of King and Power (356 King East) is the same one. It wasn’t looking too healthy in 1972! It is nice to see something that has improved with age (and some TLC). This photo happens to show the row of buildings on the north side of King adjacent to number 356.
below: There are four leaf clovers hiding in the greenery in this Rowell Soller mural beside Sackville Park
below: If you have ever walked or driven this section of King Street East, you may have noticed the bright pink exterior of Cam’s Muffler/Thruway Muffler!
below: Repairs and updates are in progress on the ramps between the Gardiner Expressway and Don Valley Parkway that cross over King Street. The concrete supports were painted by Shalak Attack and Bruno Smoky a few years ago.
In 1901 King Street was extended as far east as the Don River. Because of the curvature of Lake Ontario, King Street swings north and merges with Queen just before the river.
I’ll end this blog post with three bits of cuteness, all are sections of the large Uber5000 mural on the Queen Street wall of the Toronto Humane Society, one of the last buildings on Queen Street before the Don River. Uber5000’s little yellow birdie is such a happy fellow!
below: People walking on Queen Street West. Do you think that they realize that a large yellow eye is watching them from behind? This is the eye of a very large painting of a cat, probably a Japanese cat.
The mural, the JapanTown mural on the side of the Sanko Trading Company, has been re-painted. The previous mural dates from 2013/4. A blog post with photos of what that looked like in 2015 is at: Sanko Wall. This blog post should give you an idea what it looks like now.
The group of artists (‘The Summit’) who painted the mural also made a video for youtube: The JapanTown Project No. 5
… a few selections from what is/was on view at 401 Richmond last week. Some of these exhibits were in their last days and may no longer be viewed.
below: A Space Gallery, Jason Bearg, ” aen nistwayr mayshkotoonikayhk/First Story” (until 11 July 2026) large, round, illuminated artworks cover one wall of the gallery.
below: More Jason Baerg – this is part of a larger piece.
A Space hallway windows, Alaa Al-Shawa
below: Isabel M. Martínez’s exhibition “I Was Thinking About All of This and All the While I Kept Walking Further and Further, in Wider and Wider Circles”. These are prints.
below: Another printmaker has shown some of the steps in the decision making process when developing a print. My apologies to the artist for not noting his/her name.
below: A painting from “Colour of an Object” by Walter Procsa – where colour is the language of emotion and “Contrasting hues are thoughtfully arranged to create both tension and atmosphere” (from the words on the wall of the gallery).
below: A similar look to the painting above is this little diagram. It was achieved in a very different manner if the title, “Colonization and Extinction Rates” is to be believed. Lines produced by graphing a mathematical equation or two. The slope of a straight line is rise/run. If you think that the darker orange shape is a parabola, then any quadratic equation will do.
If the title is “real”, this is piece by Richard Ibhgy and Marilou Lemmens might be a representation of the equilibrium model of island biogeography where the immigration of new species to the island is balanced by the consequent loss of species. The x-axis here is the number of species and the point where the black shape turns grey is the equilibrium point where colonization = extinction. But, and it’s a big but, graphs by other people of the same data aren’t exactly like this one.
below: Molly Steels, “Within a Surface”, an exhibit that showcases the work that she did during her 6 month artist residency at Gallery 44. Strips of birch bark matched with black and white photos of people in a lake.
… or paired photos with an element removed on one side that appears in its original form on the other.
below: One photo from “Cute Paranoias” by Jake Santos – This small photo was displayed surrounded by a lot of white space. It is another Gallery 44 exhibit.
An exhibit of a different kind….
…. from Shaw to Crawford
Two very different CONTACT Photography exhibits and a short walk between them.
“Aphasia” is a photography exhibit now on at Youngplace (on Shaw, just north of Queen) Here, photographer James Andrew Rosen “… explores themes of impermanence, decay, and the non-linear process of healing after a traumatic experience…” In medical terms, aphasia is a disorder that affects how you communicate. All aspects of communication are impacted by this neurological disorder – the ability to speak, write, and understand both spoken and written language. The cause is damage to the brain because of a stroke or other physical injury.
Rosen presents his photos in groups, all arranged horizontally. The exhibit runs until the end of May
It is a short walk from Youngplace down to Queen Street either via residential streets or the alleys that run behind them.
“City of Light” at the Lyceum on Queen (at Crawford) is a collection of photos taken by Martin Reis, in Paris France. It too was part of the CONTACT Photography Festival but unfortunately its last day was the 18th of May.
below: The street art wheatpaste with the cats holding bouquets of flowers (in the center of this image) is the work of Tweet Street Art who is from Melbourne Australia. Perhaps you recognize some of the other graffiti and street art in these photos?
If I believe what is scrawled and scribbled on walls, there’s a lot of love out there…. but not all of it is “happily ever after”. Unrequited love can be a sad thing as Mickey has learned.
below: “Look around, love around”. Like philosophy, it can be interpreted as you wish. It’s like “vague posting” on social media.
below: I hope that you all have a “baby love dove”! It sounds very romantic!
below: Elevate love
below: “Love your neighbor”
below: I will file this one under ‘love’ as well
below: And this one as love too – although it could be lust or just admiration? Nah, the hearts give it away. Alex probably knows the answer.
below: “I’ve always known it was you” is another rather ambivalent statement. Yes, you are the one and only for me or, yes, you’re the one who stole my phone…. It could be the start of many narratives!
below: And of course, there is always the opposite of love
Some text reads like the words of a motivational speaker…
below: … such as this one, “You are sacred, you are worthy”
below: “You’re almost there”
below: “Fear less, create more”
below: “Hope is tax free”
A few graffiti sayings sound like they could have been written by your therapist.
below: Take seriously each other’s vulnerability”
below: “Practice being brave”
below: “We need each other”
Some get philosophical (or at least try)
below: “No moment more fleeting than the present”
below: “Tears in the Rain”
Or more political…
below: “To be wealthy and honored in an unjust society is a disgrace.” … although at least one person has made it known that they disagree.
below: “We are poor because they are rich.”
There are some warnings on those walls and fences too!
below: Poor Laura!
Sometimes there is just a bit of whimsy
below: Henry has left his mark here.
But, as we all know, many have no meaning at all…
below: … unless someone has decided to name themselves Potato 300
What would you say?
After I got off the subway at Bloor but before I got to the street, the first construction change of the day hit me in the face (luckily not literally!). Bloor Street East is now a mess.
below: “The Bay” sign has been removed from the old store. Founded in 1670 to control the fur trade in the area, the Hudson Bay Company used to lay claim to being North America’s oldest continuously operating company. The company went bankrupt late in 2025 and all of their stores have closed including this one. The complex (includes 34 storeys above) was opened in 1974 and was referred to as the Hudson Bay Centre. Now it is just 2 Bloor St. East. The next question is how does one re-purpose a large windowless space on a busy street? (personal aside – I started by honeymoon at the Plaza II which was the original hotel in the complex. I won’t tell you how long ago that was, but the Quebec Nordiques were in a playoff game that day).
below: Upwards at Yonge & Bloor
Of shorts and strawberries, and hoping for spring . So far it’s been a cool (or rather cold) May.
Shorts!
below: On the south side of Bloor is another concrete building from the 1970s, the Manulife Centre, which has undergone a transformation at street level in recent years.
below: Found on the City of Toronto archives website, a photo from its early days. (As another aside, after graduating from high school, I worked for a few months at a store in the basement – back in the day when Ashleys, Creeds, and Birks had stores there. Bay Bloor Radio may be the sole survivor?)
source: Fonds 200, Series 1465, File 750, Item 14
below: A contrast between the Manulife Centre and the new towers on the south side of Bloor (east and west of Yonge)… even the upper levels of the Hudson Bay Centre can be seen in the distance.
below: A little farther west on Bloor…. another concrete building with recessed windows. Very much the style at the time!
below: Northwest corner of Bay & Bloor with yet another concrete building from the 1960s and 1970s (1200 Bay Street was built in 1966). The last time that I walked here, the lower levels were boarded up and painted black. Now they are hiding behind a large expanse of Tiffany Blue. There are rumblings of an 87 storey tower being built here. Dutch Dutch developers Kroonenberg Group and ProWinko filed a development application with the city to build such a tower back in 2020.
below: Looking west on Cumberland Street
below: But there are things that don’t change – like cars getting stuck in an intersection on a red light.
below: Never ending renovations at the Royal Ontario Museum
below: It has been sitting empty for years. The McLaughlin Planetarium closed in 1995 after the provincial government cut its funding. It wasn’t even thirty years old at the time; it opened in 1968. It is a big cement box with a large dome on top and is not very photogenic! It was sold to the University of Toronto back in 2009 but it is only now that redevelopment is about to occur.
below: Backside view. This post has been difficult to write – so many changes. One of the reasons that I started this blog was to document the changes happening in the city. I hadn’t expected those changes to be quite so relentless. Never ending. A perpetual motion machine of changes. Are we tired of winning yet? This picture is already out of date – there are photos of the demolition popping up online now that show the dome broken open and disappearing.
below: Museum subway station is getting a new elevator entrance from the sidewalk on University Avenue in front of where the Planetarium is/was.
below: Little blue signs of spring dot the lawn. Emmanuel College (U of T) is in the background. It is affiliated with the United Church of Canada and is one of the members of the Toronto School of Theology.
below: Part of University of Toronto Law School.
below: Annesley Hall, Victoria University, U of T,was built in 1903 in the Queen Anne Revival style. Annesley Hall was the first university residence built for women in Canada and is still used as such. (What?, no changes?)
below: Charles Street West where a few original houses remain steadfast.
below: Still on Charles Street – but it is a perspective that is now very common around the city as everything moves upward, taller and taller. Egos get stoked and massaged as yet another “tallest” tower gets built, only to be outdone by someone else down the line….
below: “La Scala”by by Canadian sculptor and architect William McElcheran. The women are walking up the stairs, or walking around in circles…
below: A peak at what is behind – lots of balconies and stairs and even an upper level addition.
below: St. Nicholas Street runs parallel to Yonge, one street west. It runs south from Charles Street to Wellesley.
below: 81 St. Nicholas is this red brick building with the interesting contrasting brick detail across the top. It was built in 1912 and is known as the Robert Barron Stables. In 1889 Robert Barron built a store at Yonge and Charles. A few years later he added this building, his stables, behind the grocery store.
below: There are stretches of Yonge Street where there are many closed storefronts. This usually indicates that a developer is sitting on a chunk of properties and is in the process of accumulating more… or is waiting for approval to redevelop what he already has. Nothing moves quickly. It’s just sad to see the emptiness and decay in the meantime.
below: Filed under “learn something new everyday” is the fact that there is such a thing as soy milk volcano buns. I assume that they are $7 each and not $70!
below: Charles Street East (just east of Yonge). The large mural on the side of the apartment building is “Toronto & Stadt Frankfurt Am Main” and it was painted by Justus Becker (aka COR). The reflection within the glasses depicts the skylines of both Toronto and Frankfurt and represents the sister city relationship between the two cities. See that orange and white awning? That’s a gelato place – a fabulous gelato place!… and that is where I ended my walk, almost a circle back to Yonge & Bloor.
Kitsch. Such a great word. From the Merriam-Webster dictionary: ” kitsch, the various bits and bobs of popular culture—fuzzy dice, plastic flamingos, cartoon-themed plastic lunchboxes, etc.—that enjoy widespread popularity but don’t hold much cultural esteem.”
And where is a great place to find fine examples of these bits and bobs? A thrift store. Maybe you’ll recognize one or two of them!
below: A snail on a bare baby fairy bum and bears playing accordions, oh the things that people will collect! The bears are from Cherished Teddies which were very big in the 1990s. There were a vast number of them for all occasions, all seasons, and all ages.
below: Can you read this little piggy’s expression? I am afraid that is confuses me, …but the coffee cups are nice. I made a small mistake and googled this image – to my horror, you can get a 12 piece pig/piglet set with the pigs in different “cute” poses, of which this is one, for about Cdn $80 on Ebay. Google it as your peril!
below: This one almost came home with me! The glass that is, not the frog. Sorry Mr. Frog.
below: More confusion – she’s kinda cute in a kitschy kind of way. The little person at her feet though – is this a mother and child? Or is this an angel watching over a child? Mother Nature dressed in lavender and feathers?
below: Wise advice, especially if it comes with glittery pink cowboy boots!
below: He’s not listening; he’s not taking good advice…. he needs to buy some shoes….
below: Another anthropomorphic animal…. a long eared rabbit this time. She’s wearing a hat and a dress and very blue footwear. She’s also wearing a surprised expression that makes you wonder what the goose said or did.
below: I’ve got one hand in my pocket and the other’s carrying something blue….
below: A smart purchase! A steal at $3.99
below: All that Mardi wanted was to be gras…..
below: Maybe it’s the hair? …. but I suspect that no one is going to mistake me for Wonder Woman!
below: Not really kitsch, but that’s a lot of weird looking bikini undies!
Have fun! And maybe find a bargain or two while you’re at it!
The intersection of Dufferin and Queen Street West is dominated by the CN railway & GO transit tracks. Large underpasses to the north and to the east define the character of the streets here.
Between 1881 and 1891, the population of Toronto more than doubled, from 86,415 in 1881 to over 181,125 ten years later (numbers are from census data). As the city expanded, infrastructure struggled to keep up as it usually does. It was decided that Queen Street needed an underpass instead of a level crossing. In 1896 the first bridge was built. At this time, Dufferin street ended at Queen to make room for the tracks. Dufferin was now divided into a north and south section.
below: This is a 1898 photo from the City of Toronto archives showing the new railway bridges over Queen Street West. The view is westward. Dufferin is difficult to see in this image but it ends under the railway bridge that is farthest away. Parkdale train station would have been just outside the picture on the left side. It was closed by 1970.
below: Still on Queen Street and still looking west but from farther back from the railway bridge which is now in the distance. The big square-ish building on the right is a Veterinary Surgeon’s office. The ad on the side of the building is for ‘The Sun’ where you could find the highest grade of bicycles, manufactured by G. T. Pendrith. The photo was taken in November 1896.
source: There are many places to find this photo on the internet. This copy came from Wikimedia Commons.
below: Looking east along Queen from Noble Street, past Dufferin to the railway tracks, 1954. The Gladstone Hotel in the distance. There is a Shell gas station on the southwest corner, and although it’s difficult to see, a policeman is standing in the intersection directing traffic.
source: Toronto Public Library digital archives. Photographer – James V. Salmon
below: Southwest corner today …. that Shell station is long gone. A newer condo development fills that corner (built since 2010).
below: The stone wall along the east side of Dufferin looks very similar to that of 1954. The buses have been modernized though – we now have new shiny red hybrids.
The “Dufferin Jog” was fixed in 2010 when another railway bridge was built.
below: Looking north up Dufferin during the construction of the bridge, 2010. This is another image from the City of Toronto archives.
source: Fonds 601, Series 2860, File 4, Item 1 (City of Toronto archives)
below: North on Dufferin today (not exactly the same view as above). Bus lanes, or rather transit priority lanes, have recently been painted red. The red brick building on the east side of Dufferin still remains.
below: There are changes coming to the northwest corner of the intersection. This photo was taken from the corner of Noble and Queen and is generally north looking.
below: Hoardings on the north side of Queen
below: The view behind the hoardings
To the west of the tracks is the Parkdale neighbourhood with its colours and idiosyncrasies.
The Milky Way runs parallel to Queen on the south side. There has been lots of street here and I have blogged about it before, 5 times before as it turns out. The first time was back on 2015 (Walking the Milky Way) and the most recent was in 2023 (Aging on the Milky Way)
below: On the north side of the railway tracks, there is a pedestrian crossing and bike path. There is also a quiet corner with a couple of benches. The rest of the images in this post were taken on that pedestrian crossing.
below: The Turd Reich – a wonderful series of paste-ups of our “favourite” men in uniform. Donald Trump, Elon Musk, British MP Nigel Farage, Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu, JD Vance, and Vladimir Putin have been dressed up as World War II Nazi soldiers. This collection first appeared in London, England about a year ago. They are they creation of Grow Up Art.
below: A hole in the fence, with a well worn and muddy path!
below: Thing 1 and Thing 2, right out of the Cat in the Hat.
below: A little red X marks the spot
below: We are all connected
below: Every man needs a muse. Who is your Venus?
below: “Always remember you’re Heart & Soul, you are Loved 4 ever. Trust me.”
Graffiti by: Catchoo, D7606, Feellings Boi, Geekypet, Sentient Cookie, Sketchrat, TRP613, Urban Ninja Squadron, Visual Noise, Vivvy, Zonr (and others)
as I walk Toronto 