Location: railway bridge over Woodbine Ave., just north of Gerrard St.
This underpass was transformed this past summer. Raidi’aal Encompass, by Toronto based graffiti artist IAH Digital (Mediah). It was done as part of StreetARToronto Underpass Program.
The Tower Automotive building is on Sterling Ave. in the Junction. This ten storey building was built in the 1920s. Tower Automotive went bankrupt in 2005 and the building has been empty ever since. A number of years ago there was talk of turning it into studio space but for a temporary art installation or two, nothing has been done with this heritage building.
A chainlink fence surrounds the north part of the site.
….. but part of the fence was down and nobody was working on the site, so in we went.
Some of the graffiti on the west side of the building:
moving around the building
on the east side of the building
The sign says “Draft of Subdivision Proposal, 158 Sterling Rd. – Castlepoint Studio Partners Limited has made an application to subdivide the property at 158 Sterling Road into 7 blocks in order to create a mixed use development that will have building heights ranging between 2 – 17 storeys.
The Heritage Trail murals are a series of murals depicting the history of Scarborough. The project began in 1990 and consists of 12 murals at different locations along Kingston Road (old hwy 2).
Just west of Midland Ave are two of the murals.
Half Way House painted in 1990 by John Hood at 2052 Kingston Road, the NW corner of Midland & Kingston Rd. It is a picture of the Half Way House inn (and stage coach stop) that stood at this corner. It’s name comes from the fact that it was halfway between the village of Dunbarton (now a part of Pickering) and the St. Lawrence Market in Toronto. In 1965 the building was moved to Black Creek Pioneer village.
Just farther to the west is another mural. ‘The Bluffs as Viewed by Elizabeth Simcoe c. 1793’ was painted by Risto Turunen in 1992. It is on the side of the building located at 2384 Kingston Rd, now Wong’s Martial Arts. Elizabeth Simcoe was the wife of wife of Lieutenant-Governor John Graves Simcoe, the first Lieutenant Governor of Upper Canada.
The property beside this mural is now vacant and is enclosed by the type of blue temporary fencing that you see around many construction sites all around Toronto. If there was a building there, it has been demolished, otherwise there is no work being done there at the moment.
Both Adelaide St. East and Richmond St. East pass over King Street as they converge into Eastern Avenue. Recently the concrete supports that help hold up these overpasses have been painted in bright, bold pictures. The murals are entitled ‘Frozen Memories’ and they were designed and painted by street artist Shalak Attack with help from Bruno Smoky and Fiya Bruxa.
Each pillar has a large face on the side that faces King Street and a picture that depicts something representative of Corktown on the other sides.
These murals are a part of the StreetARToronto Underpass Program or “StART UP.”
Enoch Turner established Toronto’s first free school in the Corktown area in 1848.
Two of the main industries in Corktown were bricks and beer. One pillar pays homage to the people who worked in these industries, including this bricklayer.
This mural is a another tribute to the early days of Corktown. Sailing ships, maps and compasses are for the immigrants that came here. The first church built in Corktown was Little Trinity in 1843. It’s stained glass window is shown here.
other views
A mural near Church and Wellesley
Most of the mural.
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World Press Photo 14,
a traveling exhibition of prize-winning photographs assembled by World Press Photo.
At the Allen Lambert Galleria, Brookfield Place until October 21st
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These pictures were taken from drones that were flying over playing fields. The shadows of the players look like they are the people.
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Photo on the far left is “A flock of Guillemots (Uria aalgae) in a snowstorm in Vardo, Norway” by Markus Varesvuo of Finland.
LEFT: Survivors of typhoon Haiyan march during a religious procession in Tolosa, on the eastern island of Leyte. One of the strongest cyclones ever recorded, Haiyan left 8,000 people dead and missing and more than four million homeless after it hit the central Philippines. Photo by Philippe Lopez of France.
CENTER: A woman reacts in disappointment after access to see former South Africa President Nelson Mandela was closed on the third and final day of his casket lying in state, outside Union Buildings in Pretoria, South Africa. Photo by Markus Schreiber of Germany.
RIGHT: A group of blind albino boys photographed in their boarding room at the Vivekananda mission school for the blind in West Bengal, India. Photo by Brent Stirton of South Africa.
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Near the corner of Queens Park Crescent and Grosvenor Street is the Ontario Police Memorial.
It was dedicated in May of 2000.
The names of fallen Ontario police are carved in the stone at the base of the memorial.
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On Mt Pleasant Road, just north of Davisville Ave. is the Regent Theatre. It is a rather nondescript brick building with an ugly white piece of something across the front. Sometimes the names of the movies that are showing appear on the south side of that white thing (on the side you can’t see in the photo!).
The Regent theatre today.
It was built in 1920 as the Belsize Theatre. As you can see, the front of the building hasn’t changed much after almost 90 years.
Even back then the hydro poles and wires were an eyesore!
A mid life name change and it became the Crest Theatre.
Crest Theatre – The movie ‘The 7 Year Itch’ came out in 1955. I have been corrected (see comments below). Between 1954 and 1966 the Crest Theatre was not a movie house, but was devoted almost exclusively to live theatre. The “now playing” refers to the theatre production of ‘The 7 Year Itch’ which pre-dated the movie. The original stage play was by George Axelrod (1962) and was presented live at the Crest in December of 1963. Their production starred Toby Tarnow and Douglas Rain. (with thanks to David Rain for the correction and added information).
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The Milky Way from Dufferin to Elm Grove.
Once upon a time this alley led to a dairy. Story has it that milk was often spilt along the way.
At the west end of the Milky Way is a mural of two horses (one shown here), a wagon wheel, and an overturned milk can.
There is also quite a bit of graffiti in the alley.
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Seen on a wall on Noble Street:
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as I walk Toronto 