Edna and more

Posted: January 9, 2026 in alleys, graffiti and street art, locations, transportation
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TTC streetcar pulling out f Dundas West station and onto street, intersection of Bloor and Dundas West

It had been a grey and slightly damp morning when I was out walking.  As I headed to the subway to go home, the clouds cleared and the sun came out.  So I kept walking north of Dundas West station.  Edna Avenue is the street that runs parallel to Bloor immediately north of the station.

below: Edna Avenue, looking east towards Dundas Street West.

edna avenue, residential street with tall condo at the end, looking east towards Dundas St.,

below:  Edna seems to have a Guardian watching over her.

mannequin or sculpture of a person in a helmet, sitting on the front porch of a house,

below:  There is an alley that runs north from Edna and the sunshine beckoned.

start of an alley that runs north from Edna Avenue, houses, garages, blue sky,

below: T-shirt sale at the One Stop Shop!

truck parked beside building, graffiti on back of truck

below: The sun sets and rises eternally, apparently.

old garage with corrugated metal wall, graffiti on metal that says the sun sets and rises eternally

below: A little Catchoo daisy sticker caught my eye.

cathcoo daisy sticker on a post in an alley

below:  There was also a 33wallflower33 paste-up with a few little catchoo stickers on her gorgeous white outfit.

33 wallflower 33 pasteup of woman in a white coat with furry collar

below: Faded bricks like faded jeans.  They are a little rough around the edges too.

faded blue paint on old brick wall, some bricks cracking and crumbling

below: Chairs, backyard chairs.

laneway views, back of house, two old turquoise metal chairs against house, leaves (autumn) on the ground, small satellite dish on roof,

below: Backyard picnic tables too.

view from lane, backyard with picnic tables, apartment building in the background, sunny day, leaves on ground

looking north up an alley with garages, tree with no leaves, november weather,

 

below: Raccoons on the roof!  Mural by Mel Coleman.

mural in a backyard by alywyz murals, black raccoons on top of a house, with window, greenery beside the house,

below: More backyards – or at least, backs of houses

back of 2 houses, alley view

garage door with blue, teal, and green leafy background and word chill in white cursive

below: Another chair

small table and chair outside, agains beige wall, shadows, autumn leaves on ground, sunny day, alley view

below: Cassette tape (remember those?!) and supersized pencil.  If you had tapes, you always had a pencil handy, just in case!  Back in 2020, this mural was fairly new.   You can check out “faceless in an alley” if you want to see the whole mural before the one wall was defaced.

street art painting on the side of a white garage in an alley, line drawing in black of a person sitting on a bench wearing baseball cap, body is a cassette tape

below: Another ghost from the past – a ghetto blaster proudly carried on his shoulder

part of a street art mural on a garage in an alley, white man with ghetto blaster on his shoulder

below: The mural is an Ex-Vandals piece, or at least references them.  On the left in this image are the words Dino Nod – he was one of the founding members of the Ex-Vandal crew (formed in 1971 in Brooklyn NY).

street art on the side of a garage in an alley, also a small window jutting out from roof, wood,

street art painting, grey dog pumping biceps to show off hi muscles, bulge in muscle

below: Red and green men too.

old wood garage covered with street art murals
garage door with street art, red man with arms folded, maroon man, blue and teal background,

below:  A couple of blocks north of Edna is Glenlake, and here we are looking east towards Dundas.

large tree, vacant lot, on Glenlake, looking east towards Dundas West

below:  Glenlake and Dundas.   When I was double checking Google maps for the names of these streets, I discovered that this used to be a store that sold flowers and other things.  Where there is no grass beside the building, was once a fenced in area with plants for sale.

southwest corner of Glenlake and Dundas, old brick store with large window, looking across Dundas to older industrial or warehouse buildings, brick

below: Just north of the Glenlake/Dundas intersection is the large bridge over the railway tracks that connects Dundas to the West Toronto Railpath.

bridge over the train tracks that connect west toronto railpath with dundas street west, graffiti covered

below: The concrete supports for the bridge were painted with nature scenes many years ago. The weeds have grown up and the artwork has faded.

weeds and grasses growing up around concrete supports to a bridge that once had painting of flowers on it, now faded

below: Blobs, curls (by Flips), stars, and Spy vs Spy

graffiti on building at bottom of stairs

Dundas Street west, graffiti and street art on a building

below: Looking up the stairs (but not walking up – I’ll leave that for another day).

stairs to bridge over the railway, with graffiti on the wall

below: Instead I turn around.  This is a big part of the view that you see as you walk down the stairs – a large, striking, mural by Kizmet32 .

street art mural by kizmet, red faces with white eyes, some blue highlights, 2 faces, very large

below: I now know that these metal utility poles can be used to make “music”.  All you need is a big stick or two.

man leaning against a metal utility pole on sidewalk, a stick in each hand, bicycle lying on the ground beside, banging on pole with sticks

below: Walking back to Dundas West station to finish for the day.

people on sidewalk, walking south on Dundas towards Bloor

paste up graffiti, black ink on white paper, behind a chainlink fence beside a TTC subway station, Urban ninja squadron, visual noise,

below: Slightly off on a tangent – for those of you who follow such things, the Giraffe Building on the northeast corner of Dundas West and Bloor is still there, and still empty.

people crossing intersection of Bloor and Dundas West, giraffe building on the northwest corner, TTC streetcar in the background

close up of spray paint and splotchy graffiti in many colours on an old metal garage door

Comments
  1. goingsoloblog101's avatar goingsoloblog101 says:
    January 9, 2026 at 8:41 pm

    Hi Mary, Happy New Year! I love these photos! I walk by these frequently but they become part of the scenery and are not noticed. How are you doing? When will you be coming out to the west end again?

    ..Nancy

    Reply

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