Posts Tagged ‘Annex’

Annex alleys

Posted: October 26, 2022 in graffiti and street art, locations
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This past Saturday’s walk started on a familiar corner, Bloor and Bathurst, but at a new place, Mallo Coffee.  I don’t always mention my coffee starts and stops but not all of them have wonderfully eccentric washrooms!  The wiggly strands of light were blue which gave the room an eerie blue glow.

part of washroom wall at Mallo Coffee shop, black and white paper with drawings, images, and words, with a blue neon (led?) light that curves around giving the room an eerie blue glow

Pre-COVID there was a proliferation of small independent coffee shops in the city.  It’s nice to see that many have survived and many new ones are opening up.  It’s not so nice to see the remains of those that didn’t make it.

covered windows of closed coffee shop, plywood in one pane, picture of pink and whtie coffee cup and chocolate chip muffin in another pane

From Bloor and Bathurst I walked generally east with a little south thrown in.  Is this The Annex? or Harbord Village?  Technically the quadrant to the southeast of Bloor and Bathurst is Harbord Village but I kept seeing street art referencing The Annex.

When you’ve been taking pictures in a city for more than 10 years, you end up walking the same streets and alleys.  Sometimes you find yourself with identical pictures.   Other times things have changed and there’s a new story to present.  For this blog post there is a bit of both.  Some of the murals that I saw in the lanes behind Bloor were new to me but there were many that I have blogged before.  Rather than show all of the previous murals, I have linked to older posts.

below: Part of “Meet me at the Magnolias” by Leslie Phelan

large mural on the side of store featuring magnolia flowers painted by Leslie Phelan

below: The back part of a larger Elicser Elliott mural on the side of Dirty Bird Chicken and Waffle restaurant on Bloor Street.  The full mural is featured in the blog post “feeling hungry?” from early in 2017.

part of an elicser elliott mural on dirty bird chicken and waffle, man in brown eating a very large sandwich on a plate, a smaller man with a drink in his hands

Bagpipe Lane runs behind the south side of Bloor for less than a block

below: A few simple designs

elicser elliott mural in background, 2 abstract minimalistic designs on a wall with air conditioners and other containers, one is red on pink and the other ooks like a green eye and eye lashes on orange paper

below:  Boris Badenov from the “Rocky and Bullwinkle Show” – who is he trying to blow up now?!

graffiti, black and white wheatpaste of Boris Badenov, cartoon character from Rocky and Bullwinkle show, about the throw a round black bomb, evil look on his face

Barbara Barrett Lane is the eastern continuation of Bagpipe Lane.   This is what you see when you first enter the lane from Borden Ave.

side of a two storey brick house with lower half covered in a mural with stylize street scene, houses, street, cars, green grass,

barbara barrett lane street scene mural

barbara barrett lane street scene mural

below: Nine years ago this was part of a mural that covered the back of buildings on Bloor Street.  You can see it, and other murals that were in Barbara Barrett Lane at the time, in a blog post from 2013.

part of an od mural, faded, headless man with brown vest, blue diamond motifs

There is a large mural by Elicser Elliott on Barbara Barrett Lane.  I have already posted quite a few pictures of it so rather than show more of the same, here is the link to the “elicser paints people” post.

 

mural that says you are here Annex

David French Lane runs south from Barbara Barrett Lane.

below: Near the north end of David French Lane is this black and white garage.  It is now partially covered with ivy and vines but it too also been around since 2013.  At that time many of the garages were already covered with street art but they have all been re-painted (see 2013 blog post, ‘graffiti on garages’)

ivy and vines with leaves in green, yellow, and red, hangs over a garage with a door that is black with white line drawings all over it

below: This mural on David French is very similar to the “street scene” mural on Barbara Barrett shown above.  I wish there was a signature of some sort on them!

street scene mural on david french lane

In 2017 there was a laneway paint project, “You Are Here” on David French Lane.  Once again, you can see images of most of the garages in a previous blog post.

below: Dudeman’s skulls and old TTC bus were part of that project.  Route 77B was a combination of the 77 Spadina bus and the 510 Spadina streetcar; it runs from Spadina station (on Bloor) south to Queens Quay before looping and returning north.

mural by Dudeman covering the front of a garage in an alley, lots of differenc=t coloured skulls, a TTC bus, signs for Spadina

below: A dog with a spiked collar by Christina Mazzulla.

street art on garage door, large dogs with spiked collars, big teeth, open mouth, pink tongues, painted by C mazzulla

alley view, mural on a garage door, back of three storey house, back yard

below: A blue eyed, black haired person with a tiger and a bluebird, all at 263.

painted garages in David French Lane, the one in the middle has a person with long black hair and blue eyes beside a tiger head in profile and a blue bird taking flight

below: Emily May Rose’s now iconic raccoons.  They hang out all over the city!

emily may rose raccoon mural an a garage in David French Lane

a mural on the outside of a wood garage, red x in the middle with other tag, text elements

below: “Fat bottomed girls … You make the rocking world go ’round”  Name that tune!

alley view, garages with street art and graffiti including a pink bum, with backs of houses and trees seen above the garages

in the foreground, black and white faded and peeled painting, with mural across the lane in the background which has a marine theme, large whale and other aquatic animals

Farther east there is another lane but with no name (Toronto is full of nameless lanes!).

black graffiti on a white garage door, black stencil of man upper body, some blobs and the words they live

alley view, line of garages with utility poles

below: Glorious old textures

an old wood garage door in an alley with old tags, faded paint, moss on roof, newer wood gate beside,

painting on a garage of a topless man holding up something very heavy across his back and shoulders, sort of like greek god atlas.

below: This may or not be something called Tomo

on a wood fence, painted white, with black line drawing of a large plump cat like figure with two ears that stand up, small eyes, whiskers, and 3 hearts on his tummy, a small rabbit sits on its head. red word tomo with question mark beside it

… and back to Mallo.  Until next time!

interior of Mallo Coffee shop, woman behind bar, bar with orange, turquoise and blue tiles, a young woman witting at a table, red model airplane hanging from ceiling,

Bloor, Spadina to Bathurst, generally speaking

Posted: December 22, 2017 in memorials, old buildings, public art
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This is part of my ‘end of the year clean up and sort through photos’ process that I start most years at this time – I don’t always finish but that’s a whole other story.  One of the drafts that I found this morning was this post which I was in the midst of writing when the fan on my laptop died.   The technological hiccups have been dealt with and  on we go…. .   back in the fall I spent some time around Bloor and Spadina and this is the result.

below: On the SE corner of Spadina and Bloor are these supersized Dominoes. It’s rather silly but I like the juxtaposition of Dominoes and Pizza Pizza.  This is also part of Matt Cohen Park.

sculpture of very large black dominoes on sidewalk, street and shops in the background, including a Pizza Pizza restaurant

below: The hoardings went up around Honest Eds late in October.   By the time you read this, most (if not all) of the building will be gone.

the start of grey hoardings going up around the old Honest Eds store on Bloor Street as preparations are made to demolish it

below: Jimi Hendrix Sculpture Garden includes the bronze sculpture “People helping People” 1990, by Al Green.  The sculpture also appears on the property of an apartment complex in Davisville – the connection being that the two properties were developed by the same family company (the Green family as it turns out).  The garden also includes two bas-relief sculptures on the wall.  These are reproductions of some of the decorative facades of the Victorian houses (1890’s) that used to be on this site until they were torn down in 2004.

a small sculpture of two hands holding, vertical, one hand from above and the other from below, in a small garden with some shrubs with autumn foilage, orange colours

below: What the well dressed mummy was wearing this fall season.

a mannequin in a window of a men's clothing store, Theodore 1922, wrapped up like a mummy, scarf loosely draped around his neck, wearing a bowtie, and holding a folded up compact umbrella

below: There is not a lot of street art as you get closer to Spadina (there is more closer to Bathurst).  This garage door is one of the few pieces.

mural on an alley garage, black and blue predominant colours, some flowers, and birds

below: Poster for the YCL (Young Communist League) of Canada.

old posters on a a green utility pole, Join the socialist movement in Canada, gig economy,

below: The Ten Editions books store which sits on University of Toronto property.  There is some debate/discussion going on at the moment re the development of this site.  Ten Editions has been there since 1984.  At that time, the building was 100 years old as it was started its life 1885 as the John James Funstan Grocery Store.   The University of Toronto wants to tear it down so they can build a 23 storey residence on the site.

Ten Editions, a used book store on a corner, blue trim, large windows covered with white paper, door is open, stack of boos can be seen inside, old brick building

below: On the grounds of Trinity St. Paul Church is a sign that marks the spot of another garden.  This one is the Heart Garden and it is there to honour the children who were lost in or survived the residential school system.  “May we be part of a future of reconciliation and justice”.  It is designed in the shape of an Indigenous Medicine Wheel.  You can see the four concrete ‘paths’ that divide the wheel into four sections.  I have never noticed this garden before and it is unfortunate that the first time was late in the autumn when nothing was growing.  I will come back in the spring and/or summer to take a closer look.   Apparently it is part of a project, just one of many heart gardens across the country.

sign in a garden beside a church on a corner, autumn so there isn'tmusch growing in it, recnciliation garden

below: Walmer Road street sign.  Most of these green Annex signs have faded over time and it is rare now to find one in good shape like this one.

Toronto street sign, Annex neighbourhood, Walmer Road, top part of the sign is green with 4 houses on it.

As I type this, there is still snow falling from the sky, the tail end (I hope!) of the latest snow fall. ..  so you can expect some snowier pictures in the near future!