locations | as I walk Toronto

Archive for the ‘locations’ Category

worldpress photo exhibit

Posted: October 15, 2014 in events, locations
Tags: Brookfield Place, display, exhibit, looking, people, photographs, Toronto

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

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.

police memorial

Posted: October 9, 2014 in history, locations, memorials
Tags: city, died, fallen, hats, in the line of duty, memorial, on duty, Ontario, police, policemen, remembering, statue, Toronto, uniform

Near the corner of Queens Park Crescent and Grosvenor Street is the Ontario Police Memorial.
It was dedicated in May of 2000.

Light grey stone horizontal with 5 panels. The outer two panels on each side contain the names of the policemen who have died while on duty in Ontatio. The center section of the stone is the base for two statues - an older and a younger policeman.

The names of fallen Ontario police are carved in the stone at the base of the memorial.

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Regent theatre

Posted: October 9, 2014 in history, locations
Tags: cinema, crest theatre, davisville, historical, mount pleasant, movie, mt pleasant, north toronto, regent theatre, Toronto

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 front of the Regent theatre, a two storey red brick building with a large ugly blank white sign across the bottom of the upper storey.

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.

old black and white photo of a stretch of Mt. Pleasant showing some stores and the Belsize Theatre.

Even back then the hydro poles and wires were an eyesore!

A mid life name change and it became the Crest Theatre.

old photo of the Crest Theatre from the late 60's or early 70's.

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).

walking the Milky Way

Posted: October 1, 2014 in graffiti and street art, locations
Tags: aliens, animals, brick walls, cement, cherries, city, colours, concrete, doors, faces, fence, fish, ghost, ghost dick, graffiti, Jarus, letters, metal, mural, people, persue, photos, shark, street art, Toronto, urban, weeds, woman, words

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.

graffiti picture on a brick wall of a horse's head, a wagon wheel and spilt milk pouring from a large container.

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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Noble Anser faces

Posted: September 30, 2014 in graffiti and street art, locations
Tags: anser, eyes, faces, graffiti, line drawings, Noble St., parkdale, street art, Toronto, wall

Seen on a wall on Noble Street:

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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!

as I walk Toronto

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