Archive for the ‘locations’ Category

One house in the city.

The number 508 is above the doorway.  An eye, part of two different murals, is on either side of the door.

508 in the middle

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View of the front of a two storey building taken from the street in front of it.  The exterior of the house is covered with paintings.  Two faces cover what once the front windows.

eyes on the street

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large painting of a red and blue bird on the side of a house.  Hydro wires are also in the photo

bird contemplating a wire

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A white toilet sits on a sidewalk outside of a house.  On the side of the house, just behind the toilet, is a painting of a an old house.

outdoor plumbing

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A large mural on the side of a brick house.

characters on the north wall

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Tarps, ropes and metal cradles. 

Lovingly and carefully stored boats, asleep for the winter awaiting spring and the start of a new sailing season.  Canada, where the sailing season is short.

National yacht club, sailboats in their cradles, snow on the ground.  In the center of the picture is a blue and red boat with the name Gecko written on the side.  There are a number of other boats, most of which are white.

Red and blue Gecko in hibernation.

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National yacht club, sailboats in their cradles, snow on the ground.  In the center of the picture is a yellow and blue sailboat.  On the right is a dark blue hull in which there are reflections of the boats around.

A chilly trio in white, blue and yellow.

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The bows of two white boats, one on top of the other.  The sun is trying to break through the clouds in the background of the picture, making for interesting lighting conditions.

Whiteness on a winter afternoon when the sun is trying to shine through the clouds.

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close up of a red, dark green and off-white striped hull of a sailboat.  A knotted white rope is in the photo too.

All tied up and radiating griminess.

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In the background the sun tries to shine through the clouds.  There is enough light that rays of sunshine bounce off the yellow hull of a boat that is in the foreground.

Rays of sun try to brighten the day.

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Perched on shore and looking out over the lake, but stuck behind barbed wire.

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Although snow and ice are an integral part of a Canadian winter, it is always interesting to find them in different settings. For example, icicles forming along the seams in the hull of a boat that is up for the winter.

small icicles hanging from the side of a boat.  A braided beige and green rope runs along the side of the boat where boat meets ice.

Braided Ice.

icicles hanging off the side of a blue and white boat.  Close up shot.

More Icicles

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Looking southward from under a blanket of snow.

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Serenity carefully tucked in and tied down to wait out the cold.

With many thanks to Stephen for giving me access to the yacht club for a few minutes this afternoon!

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Playing with lights, colours, and reflections at Brookfield Place.

Bay St., south of Wellington

The long passageway through Brookfield Place with it's very high ceiling and lit glass panels on the floor.

From the bottom up, Allen Lambert Galleria, the 6 storey atrium of Brookfield Place, designed by Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava.

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circles of Christmas lights and ornaments

Looking upwards, Christmas Ring Tree, Brookfield Place.

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A wall and its reflection in the very polished and shiney floor.  The wall looks like a grid of brown wood surrounding pale blue glass squares. .

Lights from Christmas decorations are reflected in the window of a men's wear store but all you see in this photo is the mannequin's hand and part of the red and white striped shirt that its wearing.

Playing with reflected light from Christmas decorations.

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abstract looking picture of horizontal shapes in oranges, greens and purples.  The photo is of part of a wall, a metal support beam, and a glass wall.

Horizontal abstraction of light and colour.

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Walking on thin ice?

Walking on thin ice?

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Large, high ceilinged atrium space in a building.  It is lit with purple spot lights. Some people are walking through the space.

And now the lights are purple…. The lights change colours after a few minutes – purples, reds, greens, and blues.

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A group of photographers.  Some of them are reflected in the shiney black surface of the wall.

Photography under the purple lights.

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abstract picture made by a photo of a metal grid that is lit from behind.

I didn’t see the electrical outlet when I took this photo. I was just attracted to the tiny squares of light by my feet.

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at least along Queen Street West……

On display in a shop window are a stuffed toy cat and dog are dressed for Christmas.  THe dog is wearing a Santa hat.  Reflected in the window are people passing by carrying shopping bags.

Christmas is going to the dogs, and cats.

A window display in a T-shirt shop.  THere is a T-shirt with a picture of ROb FOrd with the word yolo printed on it.  There is a black toddler onsie with the words Bad Seed written in red.  There is a green T-shirt with the words Merry Christmas Ya Filthy Animal written on it.

He knows when you’ve been naughty……

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A drawing on a chalk board of Santa trying to get a hold of a cat that is hiding under his sleigh.  The words on the board say Why Santa has reindeer instead of cats.

Rudolph the red nose cat doesn’t have quite the same ring to it.

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Two christmas tree balls.  Both are white on the bottom half and both are pantone colours on the top - one is red and the other is light blue, pantone universe color 15-5519

A very merry pantone Christmas in 15-5519 aka turquoise, their colour of the year in 2010.

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The window of the store 'Come as You Are' has been covered with a layer of fake snow.  THere are clear circles in the snow with vibrators hanging in them.  There are also some snowflake shaped clear spots.

Both hot and cold on display for a very, very, merry Christmas!

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The suitman mural is on a railway underpass on Dupont St., just west of Lansdowne Ave.  It covers the walls on both sides of the street.

It was first painted  and funded with  $2000  received from the City of Toronto’s Clean and Beautiful program.  But after Rob Ford was elected mayor and began his “clean up” campaign, it was painted over with dull grey paint.   Rather silly considering that Joel Richardson was paid by the city to paint it in the first place.   Late in October 2011 it was replaced with a similar mural.  It took six weeks to repaint, 25 gallons of paint and 100 large cans of spray paint.

Most of the  photos taken were taken on 30 November 2013.  Some photos are from a two years previous and they are marked as such.


South Side of Dupont St.

The picture on the south side depicts business men lined up to form mathematical equation.

men in suits forming part of a mathematical equation. A multiplication sign and part of a long division sign.

The eastern part of the equation. That’s not a check mark on the right of the photo, it’s part of a long division sign.

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a line of men in suits as part of a mural

divide then multiply

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Close up

Well suited for a close up.  (Photo taken Nov 2011)

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part of the mural showing many men in suits, a yellow star and a red star.

To the east of the bridge.

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X and + towards the bridge

X and + towards the bridge.  (Photo taken November 2011)

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center part of the mural showing a man wearing a suit who is sitting in the lotus position

This photo was taken from across the street – looking through the concrete pillars that support the railway bridge.

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A large white percent sign, a grey star and many men in suits with yellow halos around their heads.

Immediately west of the underpass.

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part of the suitman mural taken a couple of years ago. The letter X, the number 6, a man wearing a gas masks plus 6 men wearing black suits and ties. They have yellow halos around their heads.

This is one of the photos that was taken two years ago. I have included it for comparison purposes as the man wearing the gas mask is no longer part of the mural. Instead, three sitting women have been added at the bottom of the letter X. The next picture shows this part of the mural as it looks now.

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part of the suitman mural - many men in suits standing in a line. Three sitting women are in the middle.

To the west of the train tracks. Note the absence of the man with the gas mask and the addition of the three women.


North Side of Dupont St.

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Photo taken November 2011.

“And do thy duty even if it be humble, rather than another’s even if it be great. To die in one’s duty is LIFE: to live in another’s is death.”  [quote from the Bhagavad Gita, a 700 verse scripture that part of the Hindi epic ‘Mahabharata’]

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a sidewalk runs along the right side of the picture. Agains the sidewalk is a concrete wall that has been painted with a mural. A white arrow is part of the picture. There are also words written in black but they hard to read because of the angle of the photo

Looking back under the bridge, following the arrow.

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Photo taken November 2011

“This at least would be the case in a society where things were left to follow their natural course, where there was perfect liberty, and where there was perfect FREE both to choose what occupation we thought proper and to change it as we thought PROPER. THE whole of the advantages and disadvantages of different employments of labour stock, must in the same neighbourhood, be either perfectly equal or continually tending to equality”  [quote from “Wealth of Nations” by Adam Smith]

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More information on this mural: http://joelrichardson.com/2011/10/

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A few things that I saw today as I walked from Richmond and Spadina, southwestward to King and Shaw.  A beautiful sunny Tuesday afternoon.

An old metal sign saying No Authorized Parking has rusted badly.  It is on a yellow brick building.  Beside it is a blue coloured metal screen covering a window.

rusted and authorized

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A graffiti painting of a blue and white bird on a grey concrete block wall.   It is painted to look like it's perched on the top corner of a window.

Happily perched above it all with a birds eye view of Richmond Street West.

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the backs of a few lowrise brick buildings.  One of the buildings is painted an olive green coloutr.  There is graffiti above one of the buildings, of 2 dog heads, one of which has a cigarette in its mouth.

Smoking on the roof.

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Stop Rob Ford at the western end of a one way Richmond street.

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A brick wall that is painted a pinkish colour.  There is an old window with the lower half barred.  A light is mounted on the wall to the right of the window.  The wall is dirty.

window and light, Palace Hotel, at King and Strachan.

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A red brick wall with an old door that has been bricked over.  A large new window has been added.  You can see the lights on inside.

Afternoon light.

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A paper sticker showing three beer bottle shaped bottles with labels that say fish piss.

fish piss in the alley

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Three small windows arranged vertically beside a rusted metal grille covering an air vent.  Black and white splotches have been painted around the window.

Black and white and speckled all over.  This was one in a series of five or six windows of various sizes along the same wall.  The black and white painting gave the wall an interesting look although I am not sure of pictures of the individual windows are all that interesting!

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gold coloured poster on a dirty light grey garage door.  The poster says 2013 Lovebot Loveinvasion.  It has a picture of a light grey robot on it, with a red heart.

The alley I was walking down turned, but as I turned the corner I realized that I had come to a dead end. I spotted this poster on one of the garage doors that was there. According to the man standing inside one of the other garages, lots of people end up doing U-turns in front of his garage – including cars that come zooming around the corner, only to have to hit their brakes.

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A sticker of a black hearted, square headed, yellow robot on a blue dumpster.

for more information about the lovebots, http://lovebot.com/about


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This photo was taken while standing in a parking lot near the southeast corner of Adelaide and Bathurst streets.

The graffiti across the lower part of the building is by homebase.  Their website: http://www.homebasetoronto.com

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The Bloor GO station  is undergoing a number of renovations as it will be the first stop on the updated Kitchener rail corridor running between Union Station and Kitchener.  Bloor will be a stop for the new Union Pearson  Express service to the airport.

A temporary wood fence has been erected between the tracks and the West Toronto Railpath for the duration of the construction.  This fence has become a canvas for some of the local graffiti artists.  I walked the length of the fence yesterday and I took a lot of photos!    I started at the north end of the fence and the following photos appear in the order that they were taken.

large graffiti picture of a close up of a mouth interior showing many orange teet, a blue tongue and purple gums.

open wide and say “ah”!

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graffiti of a witch's face. She has green eyes and green hair. She is wearing a purple hat. Her boney hand is in front of her mouth so you can see her long green finger nails.

Wickedly enchanting.

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Spud graffiti tag on a pink background. Rob Ford faces fill the letter U. The S P and D are different colours

Rob Ford and U in the middle of Spud.

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Street art picture of 2 male heads. One is wearing a brown baseball cap backwards. The word Toronto is written on it in orange letters.

Toronto on backwards.

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Three faces graffiti. Two men's heads on the left and a woman's head on the right. They are painted on a wood gate that is closed and locked with a chain.

Face to face across the chained gate.

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Looking along a temporary wood fence that has been covered with graffiti. The art that you can see in the foreground consists of a number of head. A dirt pathway runs along beside the fence.

Looking up and down the railpath.

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graffiti picture of the face, shoulders and arms of a fat man. The backs of his hands have tattos of a bicycle and a cupcake.

Eyes closed, with a cupcake and a bike and perhaps a prayer.

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graffiti picture of the upper bodies of 3 people, 2 men and a girl. The girl seems to have an orange halo around her head. The men have orange crowns on their heads.

Of kings and angels.

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graffiti tag in blues and oranges

tagged

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graffiti picture of the head and shoulders of two men. The one of the right is in shades of grey while the one on the left is a more natural colour.

Two

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close up of part of a graffiti tag. Multicoloured.

dotted eyes

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graffiti tag - stylized letters forming the word Peru in green, blue and red. Some grey bricks have been painted behind the letters.

Peruvian tag

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parts of a couple of pieces of graffiti. Multicoloured. Also in the picture is a black and white cat's head.

Danger cat.

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Part of an orange and beige graffiti tag. It surrounds a small sign that points to the entrance to the train station.

To the trains, orange and orange.

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green and orange graffiti tage on blue background

Unfortunately I cut off some of the words written in purple, Junction Joe , Kwest, Takefive, Other Sense, Honour?, Rhinowreck

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Graffiti of two women's heads. There is also a red and white danger sign in the middle of the picture.

Danger women and something black.

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part of two green tags. A sign pointing to the train station entrance is in the middle. Someone has written the word dark on the sign.

Dark and Jetone the lurker.

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Silver and black graffiti that consists of drawings many different things - skull, bottles, hearts, hats, moon, dice, etc. as well as some words, slayed, the truth is out there, and danger

The truth is out there, and many other things in black and silver.

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Graffiti of the words listen, study, develop

Listen, study, develop

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The gate was boarded up too.

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sink in

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blue man by elicser

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Between the 2nd of October and the end of November when my photos were taken, there were some additions to the street art pieces, especially at the north end of the fence.

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Graffiti and street art on the garages

of David French Lane and Alan Powell Lane

David French Lane runs south from Barbara Barrett Lane (just south of Bloor St.), one block to Sussex Ave.  If you cross Sussex Ave., the lane continues as Alan Powell Lane.   Both lanes are lined with garages for the houses on Borden St. and Brunswick Ave., the streets that run parallel on either side of the lanes.   Alan Powell Lane also runs behind Central Tech Collegiate.

There is an excellent interactive map of the lanes of Harbord village and the people for whom they were named at http://www.harbordvillage.com/laneways/lanewayinteractivemap.html

mural of a large blue and white locomotive that is painted to look like it is coming out of a brown brick building

A railway locomotive roars past the corner of Barbara Barrett Lane and David French Lane.

detail of a green and blue blob on a door.  In the blob shape someone has written I love you Camille

Camille is loved.

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blue garage door covered with white line drawings of squares and circles within those squares.  Some of the shapes have been filled in with black or red paint
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A grey garage door with two pictures of Darth Vader's head, two Scottie dog heads, and a couple of other dogs

Darth Vader and the dogs

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view of Alan Powell lane, looking north.  a chain link fence runs along the left side of the lane. some old garages are on the right.  One of the garages has words spray painted on it

The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog, in duplicate. Looking north up Alan Powell Lane.

A row of old garages in a lane.

A posr rabbit lurks in the corner, Alan Powell Lane

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Barbara Barrett lane is located in Harbord village.  It runs east-west and is immediately south of Bloor Street West between Borden Street and Brunswick Avenue.

The lane was recently named after Barbara Barrett who was the founder of the Toronto School of Art in 1969.  The school was originally located at Sussex and Brunswick.   Barbara died in 2005 in her 89th year.

Like many lanes and alleys in the area, there are a number of murals and interesting pieces of graffiti.

street art on a textured concrete wall showing stylized yellow birds sitting on a telephone wire.  A boy is sitting with them.

birds on a wire

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mural showing a man's upper body and arm.  The head and hand are oversized.  The hand has been made to look like a head, with eyes on two of the fingers and a mouth with teeth on the palm of the hand. .

mural showing two large hands hold a Rubik's cube

solving Rubiks’s cube

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A wall that is covered with a mural.  There is a one way sign on the wall.  It is pointing towards a window.

one way to the window

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At the intersection of two alleys.  Straight ahead is a building covered with a large mural with large hands and a Rubik's cube amongst other things.  On the right is a one storey building with a poser tag in blues and maroons.

at the corner

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Street art picture of a girl with long black hair, brown shorts and a pink top, sitting on a large swing.

girl on a swing.  She is in the entranceway to the Green Room restaurant.

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A stencil in black of white of three stylized faces that have big smiling mouths.  They are on a yellow door.

smiling, laughing stencil faces

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part of a mural on a wall.  It is also a parking space for zip cars.  The mural has a pale yellowish background.  It has blue an dpink tags as well as a picture of a man.

zipping around

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part of a mural on a wall.  There is a door in the middle.  Part of the mural shows a large tree with a brown trunk and multicoloured leaves.

a door in the mural

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On the 19th of April, 1904, a large section of downtown Toronto burned for nine hours.

street map of downtown Toronto showing the buildings that were affected by the fire of 1904.

Map showing the area of Toronto affected by the fire of 1904. Bay Street from the Esplanade to Miranda Street (just south of King Street) was the hardest hit.  At the time, this was called the Wholesale District of the city.

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Historical photo of Bay street after the 1904 fire in Toronto.  There are people on the street.  The street is all mud.  There are many burned out buildings on both sides of the streets.  Brick facing of two to four storey buildings is all that remains.

Aftermath, Bay street, April 1904.

In part, because the fire started in the evening, there were no fatalities. As a result of the fire, 5000 people were left without a job.   In 1904, the population of Toronto was about 200,000 so the loss of employment on this scale had an impact on the city.

a very bright and colourful mural on the back of a brick building,  It shows, in reds, yellows ans oranges the burning of a couple of brick buildings, with flames coming out of the windows.

Mural painted on the back of the building on the northwest corner of College St. and Croft St.  (398 College St.), commemorating the fire of 1904.

Demolition of the ruins left by the fire took many weeks.  On the 4th of May, John Croft died while using dynomite to bring down the remains of the W.J. Gage building on Front Street.  His was the only known death associated with the fire.  What is now Croft Street was renamed in his honour.

The east side of 398 College St., at the south end of Croft St., is painted with a mural as a memorial to John Croft.

corner of a building showing parts of two murals.  On the back wall is the mural depicting the fire itself.  On the side wall is a memorial to John Croft.

northeast corner of the building

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1904

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Burned out brick buildings.  All that remains is part of the front facade of these two to six storey buildings.

Burned out buildings, April 1904

The images of the fire’s aftermath are available online.   The originals are kept at the City of Toronto Archives, located on Spadina Road., just north of Dupont Street.

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