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from Harbord to Dundas via Kensington

Posted: January 18, 2024 in alleys, doors, graffiti and street art, locations, reflections, stores
Tags: anorthosite, Baldwin Ave., crab, Dick Dastardly, gates, graffiti, hoardings, houses, Kensington, Lord Lansdowne school, mannequins, Muttley, Nick Sweetman, redevelopment, rock, Rocky Zenyk, Sasha Q, Saul Gwartzman, Spadina, streetcar, TTC, When Math Meets Art

…. or thereabouts.

It started with a stop that was earlier than planned. I was on my way to meet a friend in Kensington but that morning my walk started closer to Harbord because the 510 car wasn’t going anywhere. An incident on a streetcar involving the police means the whole route gets backed up.

below: This building on the west side of Spadina (372/374 Spadina) has languished for a few years. It falls within the Harbord Village HCD (Historic Community District) and there may have been a change of ownership.

below: I tried researching the present status of the property but I came up empty. There is a building permit in the window but there are no signs of work being done.

below: My fellow TTC travellers and I walked the curve in Spadina.

below: At the south end of the curve is Lord Lansdowne School which was built in 1960/1961 to replace an older school nearby and to accommodate the post-war population growth in the city. The main part of the school is a nine-sided circular building with 18 tapered steel pylons radiating outward like flying buttresses. The roof consists of folded concrete plates,

below: A big chunk of anorthosite sits in the schoolyard. Some of the rocks brought back from the moon are anorthosites. But this isn’t a moon rock! This type of rock isn’t found in many places in North America but there is some to the north of the city in the Canadian Shield region. It is composed predominantly of feldspar. It is an igneous rock which means that it was formed from the cooling and solidification of molten rock (such as lava).

large grey rock in a schoolyard with a plaque on it describing the rock

Plaque: “This basic igneous rock was found at a depth f 12 feet during the course of excavation for this school. The composition is a very rare type and is assumed to have been carried here from Caribou Lake north of Parry Sound by a glacier during the Great Ice Age approximately 12,000 years ago. “

below: Every Child Matters on the schoolyard fence

below: Also on the fence, parent and child walking hand in hand past the playground.

below: Intersection of Spadina and College, looking south.

below: A small disc mounted on a concrete pole – a tribute to Saul Gwartzman by Rocky Zenyck. Gwartzmans Art Supply store is still on Spadina Ave.

circular brass piece, mounted on utility pole, a face in the middle of it, with words marked on it

Engraved in around the face on the disc, “We remember. Saul Gwartzman. Born on Spadina Avenue above the store where he supported artists in Toronto for decades, 1936-2019”

below: Walking on Spadina, south of College.

below: Canadian souvenirs are unavailable at the moment!

below: Dragons on the wall, Oxford Street.

below: One of the Kensington poles with a globe at the top. Another site in limbo – the hoardings are still around the lot on the southwest corner of Baldwin and Spadina. I wrote about them in Dec 2020 (post: a long time lingering) and they were old then.

There were not many other people walking around Kensington that morning, we were a bit early for that. Even without people, it is a neighbourhood that is full of colours and full of life. Parts of it are run down and grubby but that rarely stops a photographer! The next photos are a random sample of what we saw that day.

below: Looking west on Baldwin. The king is on the wall.

below: Kids for sale!

below: Mice in the cheese store window. There’s Mickey Mouse and the little brown mouse, Jerry, from another cartoon series as well as some not so famous rodents.

below: Uncle Vintage at the other end. The mural on the right is “When Math Meets Art”

below: From a different angle. It was painted by Sasha Q (aka Oleksandra Stepanenko)

below: Mural of a blue crab by Nick Sweetman,

below: Look Mom Paint!

below: Three old black and white photos of Kensington scenes in the window of the Peruvian food store,

below: A bright and cheerful red daisy keeping an eye on things.

below: “And then the streets became my notepad – GOD”

below: More hoardings and the consequent graffiti covering them.

below: It’s difficult to see, but some of the words written on the hoardings are “It’s hard but ur strong”.

below: Mark has left his mark.

below: The backside of Moonbean Coffee as seen from the alley behind. Little faces in Paradise.

below: Yummy! Mini Boston Cream Bombs on display in the window.

below: Not so yummy?!

below: Pigeon fanciers, this one’s for you. It seems there were some takers. Sorry, but I didn’t follow up with the research on this one so I am not sure what happens if you call!

below: Union Jack either faded to pink, or in trans colours?

below: Super Serve on Dundas, across the street from People Hair Salon.

below: It looks like Rowell Soder mural although he rarely paints the eyes – the mushroom top should give you a hint as to what this store sells.

below: I like yellow rubber duckies but I doubt that I would wear this many at once!

below: You grow girl!

below: She leans left.

below: Little yellow bald guys as well as some words written on a wall; they are Leonard Cohen lyrics.

“From Leonard Cohen Book of Mercy, …I heard my soul singing behind a leaf, plucked the leaf, but then I heard it singing behind a veil. I tore the veil, but then I heard it singing behind a wall. I broke the wall, and I heard my soul singing against me. I built up the wall, mended the curtain, but I could not put back the leaf. I held it in my hand and I heard my soul singing mightily against me. This is what it’s like to study without a friend.”

below: Mirror, mirror, on the wall.. A Sigil is a sign in magic or witchcraft or similar.

below: Mannequins in feathers….

below: … and mannequins in hats

below: The mural on the left features a white egg with a large open mouth. The text above it says, “Feed Eggs”. Any ideas?

below: It’s Dick Dastardly and his dog Muttley

below: A mandolin player by SashaQ and a Phillip Saunders portrait in blue.

below: Leftovers from both Halloween and Christmas

below: An eclectic collection of posters and notices cover a restaurant window… pictures of food as well as posters for young Asian musicians.

below: Fight Your Demons

below: South on Spadina

below: Spadina and Dundas

With many thanks to Merle for walking with me on that grey day! We enjoyed wandering around the street and alleys and discovering what Kensington has to offer. It was fun to have someone helping to find all the little bits and pieces that often get overlooked. Here we found a party, or at least the remains of one. All those little coloured blobs are actually shiny words that say “party”. I hope that it was a good party!

Merle has a blog too where she meets and interviews interesting seniors (or seniors who are doing interesting things), Super Bubbies! I forgot to ask her how old one needs to be a Bubbie and am I old enough?!!! If you are interested in the photos that she took on this walk or you’re curious as to what makes aa Super Bubbie, check out Super Bubbies! I find it fascinating how different people can walk the same route and come away with quite a different recollection of the walk.

Keep exploring! Keep being super!

Queen East and a little bit Eastern

Posted: September 23, 2023 in construction, doors, intersections, old buildings, stores
Tags: architecture, Bareket, buses, Consumers Gas, Curtia Wright, doors, dutch love, Eastern Ave., Elicser Elliott, fence, flowers, Gales, ghost signs, Hebrew, houses, Leslieville, Mediah, murals, Queen Street East, redevelopment, signs, stores, trucks, vacant lots, welcome, Welcome Back to Main Street

These are some of the photos that I took the last time that I walked along Queen Street East – with a diversion or two down to Eastern Avenue. It was a wander around parts of the Leslieville and Riverside neighbourhoods. In no particular order….

below: Leslieville mural painted by Elicser Elliott, Queen Street East

below: Queen Street shops

below: Hebrew letters, part of a project called “Welcome Back to Main Street” from back in 2021. The Riverside Neighbourhood and Leslieville BIA collaborated with STEPS Public Art as part of the I HeART Main Street Challenge. The painting was done by local artists Bareket and Curtia Wright

below: … and nearby, “welcome” in Polish, witamy.

below: At 744 Queen East, the old white Bank of Commerce building with its bowed front facade, dates from 1905. The architects who designed the building were Darling & Pearson who were responsible for a number of bank buildings in Toronto and other Canadian cities.

below: Blessed Love Caribbean Grocery and Take Out.

below: A frenzied backdrop to a sidewalk patio.

below: Ghost sign at Queen and Coady.

below: More details from the past trying to hold on. The “blue box” has obliterated the old gabled roof structure that has probably been there for more than 100 years.

below: Canadian flag motifs on planters

below: Strange ducks on posters, a form of graffiti? Or just weirdness?

below: Sax player at the Duke

below: Mediah on Queen

below: on Broadview

below: Gales Snack Bar, Eastern and Carlaw.

below: Old row houses on Eastern – 4 in a row, 3 blue but 545 is in its original brown.

below: Something else that is old – an old style bus shelter close to an old metal Queen Street street sign affixed to the brick building.

below: And one last “you don’t see many of these anymore” – old parking meters. Anyone got coins?

below: Snapdragons

below: Lilies and hostas

below: More flowers, and a baby pram too. Did you know that pram is just a short form of perambulator? How British is that! Even better, the second meaning of perambulator is, “a person who walks, especially for pleasure and in a leisurely way.”

below: More than flowers!

below: Perambulating on Queen West!

below: Traffic on Eastern Ave, headed downtown.

below: No trespassing sign on one of the many vacant lots on the south side of Eastern.

below: This is one of the vacant lots on Eastern; it’s just west of Leslie. The containers are offices (?) for GM as in General Motors. They are sitting on a seven acre site that is otherwise empty. Starting back in 2016 there was talk that this site would be developed as a GM Mobility Campus but approval from the city was never granted. The previous buildings (film studios) were demolished and the lot lies vacant.

below: Another space is for storage of old buses and trucks, movie props and other remnants of film productions.

below: … which happened to be unlocked the day I walked past.

below: On Leslie Street, at Eastern, this whole building is for lease because….

below: .. as the letter states, the last tenant was locked out. They abandoned the premises leaving behind more than $100,000 in rent owing to the landlord.

below: The former Consumers Gas Company (now part of Enbridge) has had a large presence on Eastern Avenue for many years. This stone on the exterior of the building names all the Consumers Gas directors in 1907 (presumably when the building was built?). J.L. Blaikie was the president and A.W. Austin was the vice-president. The mayor of the city, E. Coatsworth, was also a director. There was a Sir W. Mortimer Clark on the list and, to no one’s surprise, the other names were all very anglo.

below: Queen West at the CNR tracks

below: Little red picket fence

below: Renovations

below: Note the many hydro meters all in a row – six units in what was once a single family home.

below: So far so good

below: Nice

below: You never know what you will find written on the concrete.

below: In memory of Karolina Huebner-Makurat who died on a Friday afternoon in August because she was in the wrong place at the wrong time. She was caught in the crossfire during an altercation outside a supervised injection site. Senseless. Horrible.

Stay safe.

Marlee Ave

Posted: July 12, 2023 in construction, doors, locations, stores, windows and walls
Tags: barber shop, belt line, doors, Eglinton Ave West, filipino variety store, Glencairn, graffiti, houses, Jasnine, Marlee Ave., residences, stores, street, ukranian grocery market

Marlee Ave runs parallel to the Allen Road, one block west. It is like a lot of streets in Toronto – it’s a place where people live, shop, and/or work but it’s not a place where you’d visit otherwise. As it turns out, it is also a street in the midst of many changes… and that too is true of so many streets in the city.

It’s north end is at Lawrence Avenue where there is a large shopping center.

below: Marlee is a mix of residences and commercial buildings such as this small plaza.

below: DGA Filipino Variety store – Imported Beauty Products, Homemade Kakanin, Special Halo-Halo & Gulaman Sago, Money Remittances, and much much more!

below: Odessa Russian (Ukranian) Market

below: Seen in a convenience store window

below: As you can see, the barber shop is now open

below: Laundry on the balcony of one of the many sixplexes (six apartments in the building) on Marlee.

below: Someone has a sense of humour – Gate XXX. It must be restricted.

below: Mural painted for Kirsch Cosmetics by Jasnine

below: Another house waiting to be demolished (demolition notice on the fence).

below: One developer has painted all the houses that are empty and boarded up – they are all black

below: Glencairn subway station on the University Line, midway between Lawrence and Eglinton. This section of the subway runs above ground down the center of Allen Road.

A few blocks south of Glencairn, the Kay Gardiner Belt Line crosses Marlee

below: A community garden on the Belt Line

Marlee ends at Eglinton Avenue

This section of Eglinton Avenue West suffered through years of construction mess – lane reductions and sidewalk closures – while the Eglinton Crosstown LRT was being built. The whole process started in 2011. It’s still not running and no one really knows when (if??) it will become operational. The different groups involved in this fiasco are arguing amongst each other and the lawsuits have begun. Until recently, there was a website where you could get updates on the Crosstown, thecrosstown.ca, but it has disappeared.

below: Someone loves Andrea! … and on the lovely note I will end this post. Love to all!!

prospects on Lawrence East

Posted: April 28, 2023 in intersections, locations, stores, transportation
Tags: Ammis restaurant, car sales, Ghadir, Halal, Ian Leventhal, Mayfair Drapery, Modernnisa, Moon Lounge, multicultural, murals, parking lot, Precious Blood, restaurant, Scarborough, signs, stores, Tony, Tru Belle, TTC, used car sales, Wexford Heights

Lawrence Avenue East between Victoria Park and Warden Avenues is a fairly typical Scarborough “thoroughfare” street, or arterial road. It has seven lanes of traffic and is lined mostly by strip malls set back from the street to accommodate parking lots in front. It is designed for cars. Also typical of Scarborough are the many different ethnic restaurants and shops. I decided to walk these few blocks after I heard about The Lawrence Prospect which is a group advocating changes to this stretch of Lawrence Avenue… Changes like dedicated bus lanes and bike lanes as well as sidewalk improvements to increase pedestrian safety. They are promoting the idea of a “complete street” which simply means that the street works for all users, not just for cars.

below: This stretch of Lawrence lies in the Wexford Heights neighbourhood

below: The wavy roof over the entrance is a throwback to the late 1960s and 1970s when there was a lot of development in the area. It was an era when the car ruled. Land was cheaper and more abundant. Strip malls and ‘plazas’ were popular.

Like many areas of Scarborough (and Toronto for that matter), it is very multicultural. You can find a cast array of different ethnic restaurants and stores here.

below: Weekend breakfast, Halwa Puri, Butter Chucken, Lunch Special, and Family Deal with tandoori chicken!

below: Ibrahim BBQ Shawarma, halal, with Iraqi kabab and Shawarma wraps, 2 for 1!

below: Very few remnants of a much slower and sleepier past remain. Little white picket fences are rare!

below: Part of the impetus for the Prospect project was the fact that some street work was going to be completed here this spring/summer. Why do a partial job only to have to redo it a year or two in the future? As of today (28April) there is no construction happening here. The only sign of work is at the corner of Lawrence and Warden where the sidewalk was widened.

Bike lanes on Lawrence Avenue from Victoria Park all the way to Rouge Hill (16.2km) were approved in 2008 but were never built.

below: The Moon Lounge with its neighbours – Mayfair Drapery & Rug below with Tru Belle on top – skincare, hair care (pink!), and body sculpting advertised.

below: Unloading can, bags, and boxes

below: Window of Top Gun Burger

below: Lawrence East is served by TTC route 54. It runs east from Eglinton station (at Yonge) to Leslie Street, north on Leslie, then east on Lawrence. The route ends at Starspray Blvd – you’ve probably never heard of it but it’s on the waterfront just before the Rouge River. That’s a distance of almost 28 km.

below: Greetings for Ramadan, the ninth month of the Islamic calendar, during which Muslims fast during daylight hours (among other things). This year it was observed between 22 March and 20 April.

below: The planet is in our hands

below: Precious Blood Roman Catholic Church

below: Looking west at Pharmacy with a Seniors crossing sign.

below: Do any drivers notice these signs? What are they supposed to mean?

below: Wedged between the UPS store and Tim Hortons drive thru are these murals by Ian Leventhal. (NW corner Warden & Lawrence)

below: Moovattuphuza is a town in Kerala India.

below: Diana is holding a large fish and is pictured beside a fishing village in Greece.

below: Nearby (SE corner of Warden & Lawrence) is Tony’s portrait.

below: Modernnisa women’s clothing store – evening gowns, kaftans, abaya, and hijabs

below: “Dear Toronto, We’re just getting started, Love Scarborough”. It’s an ad campaign for Scarborough Hospitals that is appearing in bus shelters. Along with the play on the “Love Scarborough” phrase there is a sense that maybe Scarborough’s time has come. In 2017 Catherine Hernandez’s novel “Scarborough was published; it has since been adapted into a movie. The movie was shot primarily in Scarborough and premiered at TIFF in Sept 2021.

below: Multicultural yet very Canadian.

below: Nigeria Palace, Bamar Biryani and Kabob, Luxmy Restaurant

below: Northwest corner of Warden & Lawrence

There was one thing missing here – I didn’t see one single blue and white City of Toronto development notice sign! Nada!

below: There is no construction happening here – left over from a previous job?

a little piece of Weston

Posted: February 5, 2023 in graffiti and street art, history, locations, old buildings, public art, stores
Tags: bicycle paintings, Bryan Bermudez, Elicser Elliott, houses, Jim Bravo, Johnny Bower, Mario Noviello, mural, Niel Yee, Pantelis Kalamaris Gardens, pedestrian bridge, Peters Barber Shop, railway tracks, residential, Rowena Kizito, sidewalk boxes, stores, Valentines, Weston Road, Weston Streetscape

This blog post is the result of a walk around the vicinity of Lawrence Avenue West and Weston Road. The latter was once Main Street in the village of Weston.

below: Approach to the Weston pedestrian bridge over the railway tracks. The Grand Trunk Railway was built here in 1856 (now Canadian National Railway, CNR).

below: Elicser Elliott’s paintings of cyclists over the years line the ramp to the bridge.

below: Looking back to the west

below: Looking south towards Weston UP station (Union Pearson Express) at Lawrence Ave.

below: A young girl outside on a sunny day in a bright and cheerful painting on a lone house. Next door is an Islamic Association and Masjid. Like so many other places in the city now, a larger and taller building fills the background.

below: Street scene and evolution – The oldest buildings are in the row of two storey commercial establishments that line Weston Road (by the traffic lights). Behind them are apartments that are a few decade old. Last, the most recent development is in the immediate foreground, right hand side.

below: Jerk Hut, Desserts, Juices, and Candy Cakes all squeezed into a little building beside (behind?) CashWay. And while you’re there, you can get your palm read upstairs.

below: Southeast corner of Weston Road and Lawrence Avenue East.

below: For all your vegan leather and faux fur needs – Honeyy dripp (I had to look it up!)

below: There is a series of pictures on these windows that was painted by Bryan Bermudez, Jim Bravo, Niel Yee, and Rowena Kizito in 2014. It depicts young people from three different eras.

below: ‘Weston Streetscape circa 1900’ by Mario Noviello, 1997-1998. Original concept by Eric Lee. A streetcar passes in front of Weston City Hall. On the right is the Central Hotel with the brick steeple of Central United Church just visible behind it.

below: Another bike

below: I think that someone is a Maple Leaf fan!

below: Peter’s Barber Shop is now on Pantelis Kalamaris Gardens. In fact, the street was named after Peter back in 2012, just after the 50th anniversary of the shop opening (which was in 1961).

below: And nearby is Johnny Bower Blvd. Bower (1924-2017) was a Toronto Maple Leaf goalie in the 1960s, a great decade for the Leafs as they won the Stanley Cup four times…. 1962, 1963, 1964, and 1967. Bower and his family lived on this street at the time.

I also saw many wonderful older brick houses, the kind that we aren’t building any more. Some of the styles were common to Toronto while some were more unique.

below: All decorated for Valentines Day.

The next blog post, ‘Out and About in Weston’, features a mural in Weston that was painted by Christiano De Araujo.

And after that is, Que Rock and Bacon in Weston, with even more murals on Lawrence Avenue East

Little India again

Posted: January 16, 2023 in locations, stores, windows and walls
Tags: alley, book store, Canadian flags, Coxwell, Gerrard India Bazaar, Gerrard St., graffiti, Islamic, laneway, laundromat, mannequins, mural, paan, reflections, sari, stores, streetcar, TTC, window, windows

Little India, also known as the Gerrard India Bazaar, is a section of Gerrard Street to the west of Coxwell Ave. I have walked around, and blogged about, Little India before. Some of these images may resemble those that I have posted in the past,

below: TTC 506 streetcar southbound on Coxwell stops before it turns right onto Gerrard.

In the windows of the Islamic bookstore….

On the street outside Lahore BBQ and Paan Center. …

below: Three storeys of saris and South Asian fashion. Bright pink!

Mannequins in the windows of other clothing stores ….

And mannequins where you don’t expect them….

Windows from the outside

below: A boy and his robot?

below: Drumsticks, masala chai and Amma

And windows to look in

below: Carpets and patterns on pattern.

below: Christmas poinstettia in the quiet before opening time.

below: Canadian flags for the world’s best butcher

below: The missing letters make the sign

below: Waiting for the streetcar

below: “You Are Here” This painting is still on the wall but it is no longer The Flying Pony coffee shop, now it’s The Black Pony.

below: The old Belfast Tavern building remains, boarded up, neglected, and only a shell of what it once was.

below: Parked.

below: Large mural on a fence in the lane behind Gerrard Street, north side.

below: Cat on the wall

below: Rowell Soller mural

below: For whatever reason, Gerrard makes a jog at Coxwell.

below: Gerrard India Bazaar banner and street sign.

way up Yonge Street

Posted: April 14, 2022 in construction, history, intersections, locations, stores
Tags: Arzon Super Market, businesses, Centerpoint Mall, Communist Party, construction, Cummer Ave., development, graffiti, Happy Nowruz, multicultural, Newtonbrook, Papa Cafe, posters, Seoul Plaza, signs, stencil, stores, Tirgan, Ukraine, vacant lot, Yonge St.

between Steeles and Drewry/Cummer.

Once it was the hinterland but now it feels like the city just goes on and on and on….

below: In 1955 this was the view looking south on Yonge from just north of Cummer/Drewry. This was the center of the community of Newtonbrook, named after the Newton Brook Wesleyan Church founded in 1857. A general store and post office were opened here in 1863 on the northeast corner of Yonge & Drewry (possibly the buildings on the right side of this photo).

black and white photo of yonge street looking south from Cummer

photo credit: James Victor Salmon, found on Toronto Public Library website (public domain).

below: It’s not taken from exactly the same viewpoint (traffic!) but this is what you see looking south on Yonge Street now.

below: Looking north up Yonge Street from just south of Cummer/Drewry. The large house is on the southeast corner of Cummer and Yonge.

old black and white photo of yonge street,

photo credit: Tim Chirnside, found on Toronto Public Library website (public domain)

below: The intersection of Yonge and Cummer (to the east) and Drewry (to the west) today. The large house in the black and white photo above would be on the far right of this picture.

below: Yonge Street is also Provincial Highway 11.

below: It is a major transportation/transit route.

below: Happy Nowruz! or in other words, Happy New Year! It is the Iranian New Year; the beginning of spring; a new day! The banners were by sponsored by Tirgan, an organization that “promotes cross-cultural dialogue between Iranian-Canadians and the global community at large.”

below: There are many other cultures that are well represented in this part of the city.

below: Like so many parts of Toronto, there is a lot of redevelopment taking place. Blue and white development notice signs are everywhere.

below: To be (possibly) replaced by 25 storeys, 347 residences and a daycare.

below: Seoul Plaza with it’s Korean BBQ restaurant and other businesses (not all Korean) – also with a development notice sign in front. I’m not sure of the size of the development but it looks like your average 20ish storeys on podium condo.

below: Looking south from Moore Park Ave

below: Looking north to the intersection of Yonge and Steeles. Steeles Ave has been the northern boundary of the City of Toronto since 1953. All of the tall buildings in this picture are north of Steeles and are in Thornhill (York Region).

below: Pro Ukraine stencil graffiti.

below: I’m not sure what the spring will do but someone has been putting up a lot of posters for the Communist Party.

snowy morning on Queen West

Posted: March 20, 2022 in alleys, graffiti and street art, landmarks, stores
Tags: alley, buildings, bus shelters, daisy, dolls, graffiti, Graffiti Alley, hoardings, Jeremy Lynch, jumblefacefoto, kode 905, kyara cabrera Fong, Life©️, lovebot, luvs, mannequins, murals, paint, pasteups, Poetaia, Queen West, Rush Lane, slaps, snow, Spadina, stickers, street art, streetcars, th!nk, TTC, uber5000, urban ninja squadron, visual noise, Windigo Army, winter

… and Graffiti Alley

below: Northeast corner of Spadina and Queen West

below: Mannequins on orange

below: Queen Street westbound approaching Bathurst

below: It’s always nice to see that there’s at least one Lovebot still hanging out in Graffiti Alley.

below: On the door, a jumblefacefoto collage

below: Reach out and touch someone

below: Open your eyes

below: Are you smiling? Are you happy?

below: Southeast corner, Queen & Niagara

below: Same intersection slightly later in the morning and from a slightly different angle

below: Windigo Army piece

below: A little orange character pasted to a pole; the work of kode_dipz aka Kyara Cabrera Fong

below: Because of the construction of a new condo at Richmond and Augusta there has been scaffolding in a section of Graffiti Alley. The other day some of it was being dismantled. This woman is more visible now but some of the bars remain.

below: Part of UBER5000’s Toronto mural.

below: By luvs – a woman and her dog, with duplicate vision

below: A properly worn mask…..

What is creepier? Dolls or mannequins?

below: Poetaia wants to know what you’re up to, wink, wink.

below: Peeling paper makes the gold words difficult to read

below: There’s a yellow eye and possibly a blue one too?

Queen East Leslieville

Posted: March 13, 2022 in graffiti and street art, locations, public art, stores
Tags: Boston Discount, Busy Street, Eldon Garnet, feelings boi, graffiti, Jeremy Lynch, jumblefacefoto, Leslieville, Queen & Jones Pawnbrokers, Thomas Sowell, Time and a Clock

below: Leslieville mural on the west wall of Dave’s Hot Chicken, Queen Street East location.

below: I spotted a very similar piece of paper downtown but with words about knowledge and ignorance (see previous blog post). I wonder how many of these are tacked up around the city? These words can be attributed to American economist and social theorist, Thomas Sowell (b. 1930).

stapled to a notice board on the sidewalk is text graffiti with words about responsibility

“We seem to be getting closer and closer to a situation where nobody’s responsible for what they did but we are all responsible for what somebody else did.”

below: Beside Jimmy Simpson Park there are four stainless steel pennants, each with a word – coursing, disappearing, trembling, and returning. These are part of a series of three installations called “Time and a Clock” by Eldon Garnet in the area.

below: Jumblefacefoto collage paste-ups.

below: Boston Discount Store with it’s red and white KitKat advert

below: posters and protests and one very muscular man three times.

below: Queen and Jones Pawnbrokers

below: Eddie’s Convenience with a range of tests available. I first read it as though Eddie was also selling pregnancy tests!

below: It’s now been 2 years since COVID was declared a pandemic.

below: Queen East mishmash of rooflines. Newer boxy construction butting up against older original half gables with their gingerbread still intact.

below: In a lovely older brick building with little architectural details, Fortune Smoke & Gifts Store along with Butchers of Distinction

below: Busy Street runs parallel to Queen, one block north. It was once a very busy street.

But now it is much quieter. Some of the buildings on the north side were once stables for the teams of draft horses that delivered the goods from the nearby Queen Street stores.

below: The horses have long disappeared and the buildings have been repurposed.

below: Another little upper storey addition above Cask Music and Samaira’s.

below: Moving up in an alley

below: Ubiquitous

below: Feelings boi graffiti paste-up

back to Little India

Posted: February 23, 2022 in doors, graffiti and street art, locations, stores, windows and walls
Tags: Alexa Hatanaka, Alley cats mural, Andrew Horne, Catherine Cachia, Coxwell Ave, daisy, elephant mural, Ema Ciobanico, eyes, four-D, Gerrard St., Jim Bravo, Kohinoor Foods, kransky, las mujeres vampiro, mouse, murals, Patrick Thompson, Rob Elliot, Swizzle Studios, Tim Schjins, Timmy Drift, urban ninja squadron, visual noise

The alley and parking lot behind the south side of Gerrard Street between Rhodes Avenue and Craven Road has a lot of street art. Most of it was described back in November 2015 in a post titled:
Udlaakut, good morning (Inuit for good morning).

below: Mural by Timmy Drift aka Tim Schjins

below: A newer painting is this Alley Cats mural which is over 14′ high and is the work of Swizzle Studios (aka Rob Elliott and Andrew Horne)

below: Jim Bravo and Ema Ciobanico (2020) painted murals with Little India Bazaar themes over two buildings – one on the NE corner of Gerrard and Ashdale and the other across Gerrard on the SE corner.