locations | as I walk Toronto

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Ireland Park

Posted: September 22, 2014 in history, locations, memorials
Tags: 1847, Arrival, famine, immigrants, Ireland Park, Irish, limestone, memorial, names, people, poor, refugees, Rowan Gillespie, sculpture, statues, Toronto

By the time of Confederation in 1867, one quarter of the population of Canada were of Irish ancestry. Although the Irish had been immigrating to what is now Canada for a long time, the Irish famine years of 1845 to 1849 saw an increase in the number of immigrants. Immigration peaked in the summer of 1847; boatloads of Irish settlers arrived. Most were very poor and sick. They landed in a number of places along the St. Lawrence River and Lake Ontario, including Toronto. Thousands of those Irish immigrants died in Ontario that summer, mostly from typhus (or typhoid fever).

Ireland Park is home to a memorial in honour of those immigrants. It is on the waterfront between Lake Ontario and the old Canada Malting Co. silos.

view of Ireland Park from the waterfront, and looking slightly north east. A large shape made of limestone is on the left of the photo and a green space is beside it. The silos of the Canada Malting Company are visible as is part of the Toronto skyline in the distance.

Sections of limestone fit together in a shape that resembles a boat.

Names are engraved on the sides of the limestone sections. They are placed such that they are in the gaps between the sections. At first they are not visible. It is only when you are close to the stone that you can see the names.

Names in black lettering carved into the side of limestone.

675 names are carved in the stone. These are the known names of the 1000 to 1100 people who died shortly after they arrived in Toronto in the summer of 1847.

The park also has seven sculptures by Rowan Gillespie of Dublin Ireland.
The installation is called ‘Arrival’.

Sculpture of a man with his arms upraised. He is looking over part of the harbour towards downtown Toronto.

‘The Jubliant Man’ from behind.

close up of one of the sculptures in Ireland Park. It is a man with his hands clenched in front of him and a worried look on his face.

‘The Apprehensive Man’

for more information: the Ireland Park Foundation website

beside 530 Richmond West

Posted: September 18, 2014 in graffiti and street art, locations
Tags: birds, Bruno Smokey, chickens, ears, eyes, face, faces, graffiti, Graffiti Alley, Kevin Ledo, kid, man, mural, old man, Shalak Attack, skeleton, street art, Toronto, uber5000, woman

There is a mural in the lane way that runs beside 530 Richmond Street West (and connects with Graffiti Alley). It was completed earlier this summer. It is a collaborative effort by Shalak Attack (woman’s face), Kevin Ledo (child’s face), Uber5000 (blue cat) and Bruno Smokey ( man).

A large mural on the side of a building in a lane. Three or 4 people are taking pictures of it.

A number of people were taking pictures when I was there.

part of a large mural on the side of a 2 storey building, a large multicoloured woman's face. She is wearing earrings that look like skeletons

death dangles from her ears

part of a large mural, a picture of a smiling small boy wearing a light blue cap. It is very large.

grimaces? smiles?

part of a large mural on the side of a 2 storey building

ghetto cat

part of a large mural showing the bottom part of a blue cat that is standing on two legs. Under his legs are 2 Uber chickens and one is saying Pizza. Another chicken is sitting on the cat's tail and he wants tacls. There is a clock on the cat's tummy.

I guess it’s dinner time…. pizza, tacos and beets!

part of a large mural, a very large wrinkly man's face with large eyeballs and large ears

eyes to the right

part of a large mural on the side of a 2 storey building, a small uber chicken is being held between two fingers of a very large pair of hands

chicken fingers

women on David French Lane

Posted: September 10, 2014 in graffiti and street art, locations
Tags: alley, arm, faces, garages, graffiti, heads, lane, mask, paper, red lips, street art, Toronto, women

David French lane runs between Borden St. and Brunswick Ave., south of Bloor. I know that I have posted some of the graffiti on the garages in the lane before. Most of those garages have since been covered with ugly and boring tags. There isn’t as much of interest there these days…. but I did see the following today.

Street art piece of two large women's heads. One is blue and she's wearing a black mask.

Masked and unmasked

A stencil (on paper) almost life sized woman wearing shorts and a Tshirt. She has a metal arm with a vice grip hand that looks sort of robot like.

Waiting in the doorway. Note the trashy tags around her.

smoochies!

Graffiti man's head with red eyes and mouth. Red paint that looks like blood dripping is above him.

Ooops, that’s not a woman!

another Kensington alley

Posted: September 4, 2014 in graffiti and street art, locations
Tags: all seeing, alley, blue eye, colours, eyes, faces, graffiti, grin, heads, Kensington, lane, people, red eye, smile, street art, Toronto, trees, wise

Back in May I posted some photos from a small dead end alley in Kensington.

This past weekend I took some pictures in a different Kensington alley.

Take a look 🙂

Colourful graffiti in a Kensington lane. Close up of a pair of grey eyes. Bottom part of face is obscured, including her cheeks.

Eyes hold a fascination for me.

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The top part of a woman with long black hair and wearing a white and blue dress is standing amongst many tree trunks.... Colourful graffiti in a Kensington lane. There is a broom, a mop, and two large buckets on the sidewalk in front of her.

It looks like she is in the midst of cleaning. Mop, broom and buckets handy.

Colourful graffiti in a Kensington lane stencils of heads, one dark blue and one purple.

twins, similar but not identical

a section of Yonge Street

Posted: September 1, 2014 in locations
Tags: adult, arches, bar burrito, Blugod, books, brick, city, condoms, convenience, cuban cigars, Darvish Persian, doors, downtown, Elliots bookstore, flag, heritage, historic, lucky sister, mansard roof, massage, mobilicity, ndj books, north bound leather, pedestrians, Pinky Nails, Pizzaiolo, spas, storefronts, stores, street, tattoos, three storey, Tokyo Grill, Toronto, urban, windows, Yonge

Toronto is undergoing a massive amount of redevelopment these days. When I walk around this city I see older buildings that I often wonder about – are they going to still be around in 2 years? 5 years?
….that is what happened yesterday when I was on Yonge St. between Bloor and College. I took a few pictures, just in case these buildings disappear in the near future.

row of three storey buildings on Yonge St. Brick buildings with storefronts on the ground floor.

Looking south (and a bit west) from just below Bloor Street.

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At the intersection of Yonge & Wellesley.

We’ll see what happens in the next few years!

downtown glass

Posted: August 30, 2014 in locations
Tags: blue sky, downtown, glass, King St., reflections, Roy Thomson Hall, Simcoe St., St. Andrews church, streetcar, sunshine, Toronto, TTC, urban, windows

Reflections I noticed as I walked up Simcoe and across King this afternoon.

Reflections in the building across the street, some women are walking by with their bicycles, a street car is just coming into view.

I often see tourists stopped here to take photos. I decided that it was my turn today. The CN Tower is also reflected in this building, along with St. Andrews Church.

More downtown reflections of tall buildings.

Curved window beside the entrance to St. Andrews subway station.

Two small trees in the foreground. Some tall buildings reflected in the windows of another building are behind the trees.

Roy Thomson Hall just sneaks into the lower left corner of the picture.

Reflections of streetlights in a window, lots of horizontal blue bars are in the windows too.

My selfie for the day!

from pork to park

Posted: August 9, 2014 in history, locations
Tags: bee, butterflies, construction, corktown, corktown commons, DOn River, Gooderham & Worts, green trees, hogs, hogtown, images, map, park, pavillion, photos, plants, pork, Toronto, urban, West Don Lands, William Davies Co..

Corktown Common

One of Toronto’s newest parks

In one corner of the park there is a plaque that commemorates the William Davies Company, once the owners of the land and buildings in this part of the city.

“From 1874 to 1927, this site was home to the William Davies Company, reputed to be the largest pork packing plant in the British Empire. Established in 1857 by William Davies (1831-1921), the company made its fortune preparing and exporting cured sides of pork to England. Later, its products were sold through William Davies Company shops, one of Canada’s first store chains. In its buildings here, the innovative company controlled the entire process from slaughter to shipment. Processing nearly 500,000 hogs annually by 1900, the company contributed to the city’s nickname “Hogtown”.
In 1892, Joseph Flavelle (1858-1939) became a partner and managing director of the company. Under Flavelle, the business flourished until the 1920’s when it was hurt by falling markets. The William Davies Company merged with three other packing firms to create Canada Packers, which continued to operate from this site until 1932. The last of the company’s buildings here were demolished in the 1990’s.”

An old coloured map of the area now called the West Don Lands. This illustration also appeared in a blogTO post about the William Davies Company. http://www.blogto.com/city/2013/10/how_toronto_got_the_nickname_hogtown/

An old illustrated map of the area now called the West Don Lands. The red letters are as follows:
A – Gooderham & Worts, now the Distillery District
B – William Davies Company, now Corktown Common
C – CNR tracks
D – the Don River
A version of this illustration also appeared in a blogTO post about the William Davies Company.

The last remains of the pork processing business disappeared long ago. After remaining vacant for a number of years, the site was developed into a park as part of the West Don Lands rebuilding.

small trees and other greenery , with a path and bench in the middle, in the foreground and the Toronto skyline is in the background.

The park is starting to look a lot greener as the plants and trees grow. This photo was taken from on top of one of the man made hills in the park. August 2014

A black, grey, white and orange butterfly on a pink flower

There are now lots of butterflies….

A bee and a butterfly on a tall upright light purple flower.

… and bees

A pavilion made of steel and wood sits atop a small hill in the middle of the play area. The pavilion was designed by by Maryann Thompson Architects of Boston The blue and green ovals are where there are fountains for warm weather water play.

a woman is sitting on a bench, looking at her phone. Behind her there are a number of buildings under construction

Looking west, and slightly north, from the pavilion towards the downtown area. West Don Lands redevelopment in the immediate background. Autumn 2013 (the building under construction is now almost complete – see above)

Part of a large red metal sculpture is in the foreground, looking past it you can see the pavillaion on top of a small hill that is part of Corktown Common park

Looking northeast through the wood and red metal sculpture, ‘No Shoes’, by Mark di Suvero. May 2014

Newly planted trees surroounded by grass.

The trees are starting to grow. They don’t look like much at the moment but give them time!

raspberries, not quite ripe, on a raspberry canes

There is even a large raspberry bush but by the looks of it, only the birds and insects have found it!

A map, screenshot from google maps, of West Don Lands and vicinity.

A map of the area today. The red X marks the spot of the new park.

When the park opened in 2013, urbantoronto.ca had an article about it. You can read about it here

Some wonderful aerial views of the area can be seen in another wordpress blog

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Centennial Park conservatory

Posted: July 13, 2014 in locations, nature
Tags: bougainvillea, cacti, Centennial Park, coleus, conservatory, Etobicoke, flowers, gardens, geraniums, green, greenhouse, leaf, leaves, path, pink, plants, red anthurium, rocks, stones, Toronto

I ventured out to Etobicoke because I heard that Centennial Park had a conservatory and I was curious about what was there. Taking photos of flowers and plants is not my forte but it was an interesting place to experiment with colour, texture and composition. I do not know the names of most of the plants that I saw there, and very few were labelled. There were geraniums, anthuriums (red & white), bougainvillea, bamboo, lots of different cacti and succulents, to name a few. The photos below represent only a sample of what was growing there today.

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St. Enochs Square

Posted: July 10, 2014 in graffiti and street art, locations
Tags: black and white cat, boy, brick wall, cat, city, dandelions, downtown, EGR, EGRart, Elicser Elliott, lane, mural, painted wall, people, rejuvenation, Shuter, St. Enochs Square, street art, Toronto, urban

St. Enochs Square, between Massey Hall and the back of the stores facing Yonge St., just south of Shuter St.

This mural was painted about a year ago as part of a project to rejuvenate this alley. It was a collaboration between EGR and Elicser Elliott.

entrance to laneway, red brick building on the left (Massey Hall), mural painted on the wall on the right. Mural shows a woman & a boy blowing the seeds from white puffy dandelions.

entrance to St. Enochs Sq. on Shuter St.

A woman is holding an infant and a small child. Another child is clinging to her. A man is to her right and a girl is to her left. The infant is ugly and may not really be an infant but instead be a little roly poly old man... or a hybrid of the two

left side of the mural

a large black and white cat is looking at the viewer. It is wearing a little crown. Beside the cat is a boy in a blue and white striped shirt who is blowing the seeds off a puffy white dandelion.

blowing dandelions

panorama of the mural

Bulwer Street

Posted: June 10, 2014 in graffiti and street art, locations
Tags: alley, bird, Bulwer, car windows, chain link, city, concrete walls, downtown, eyes, face, fish, graffiti, lane, photos, reflections, stickers, street art, tags, teeth, Toronto, urban, wall, weeds, yellow bird

Bulwer Street is a short street that runs parallel to, and one block north of, Queen Street West. It is only one block long, running east from Spadina Ave to Soho St.