Initiated in 2017, the “Bridges to Art” program envisions murals on nine underpasses in Toronto’s east end. Several of the murals along the Carlaw-Dundas corridor have been painted including this one on Jones Avenue just north of Gerrard. It was painted by Jason Pinney and features scenes from the east end.
Zoom zoom! Hop on and come along for a ride!
below: Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. What direction should we go today? Where will your feet take you next? Thinking interesting thoughts as we explore. “Life isn’t about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself”. What have you created today? What should we create next?
Rather lofty words and ideas when all we’re doing is walking up Keele Street… where just looking at the stairs makes me tired.
below: It was good fun to see an altered Neighbourhood Watch sign – great to know that some still exist. Five years ago (yikes!) I posted a collection of “good guys” that I had found around the city. I don’t know if Andrew Mutton, the man responsible, is still making them but I haven’t seen any new ones for a long time.
This November has started with wonderful walking weather. In fact, the whole autumn has been a delight for those of us who like to be busy outside. The colours of the trees, shrubs, and vines seem to be more vibrant this year and I don’t think that it’s wrong to say that the colours have lasted longer than usual.
below: Keele and Annette
By the time you get to Keele and Dundas you are definitely in “The Junction” named for its proximity to the junction of a number of different railway lines. In 1884 this area became the village of West Toronto Junction.
below: Looking north up Keele to Dundas. Dundas is a long street that winds its way across the city. Here in the west end, it runs north south as it crosses Bloor West. Moving north from Bloor, Dundas parallels the GO tracks for a half kilometre or so and then bends almost ninety degrees to run parallel to the Canadian Pacific railway line. The junction of these two railway lines is a short distance away (to the northeast)
below: Walking on Dundas
below: CP tracks
below: Back by the tracks
below: The remains of a vegetable garden. Are these brussell sprout plants where the sprouts part have already been removed?
From Keele, it’s a short walk east to the West Toronto Railpath which is on the east side of the GO tracks. The northern most entrance to the path is off of Cariboo Ave which is a tiny one block street north of Dupont. The southern end, although near College and Lansdowne, is actually where the GO tracks cross Dundas…. which is very confusing. If you look at it on a map, it makes a lot more sense!
below: The mural, “Strength in Numbers” is still on the underpass walls at Dupont and can be seen from the railpath. You can find more photos of it if you follow the link.
below: From the same bridge, looking east on Dupont. The twin steeples belong to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of St. Andrew the Apostle
below: Street art on the glass wall separating the path from the railway tracks.
below: Hoardings. Paintings. In the middle is a section that has been painted with these words: “The greatness of a community is most accurately measured by the compassionate actions of its members, a heart of grace, and a soul generated by love.: C.S.K. [Coretta Scott King]
below: Black Lives Matter, Run for Ahmaud, mural by kizmet32 and Francis Pratt. Tribute to Ahmaud Arbery who was out for a run when he was murdered by two white men, Gregory McMichael and his son, Travis
below: Kizmet street art on a Henderson Brewery truck on Sterling Ave.
below: The West Toronto Railpath crosses Bloor Street.
below: The giraffe building at Dundas and Bloor is still there.
below: That corner is getting a new mural, a thank you to front line workers during Covid. Borat has snuck into the photo too – but then his poster does say “Wear Mask, Save Live”. You can’t see all the words here…
below: But they are more visible here….
below: Street art in a parking lot. The one on the right is kizmet.
below: The building makes a wedge. On the right is the wall in the photo above.
below: Smash, crash, gambit
below: A skinless smoker with a third eye by bodh.io
below: Drible-drible with many noodles (?) and on a more political note, someone wants Doug Ford to resign.
below: A trio – More feelings boi, a collaboration between him and tbonez., and a tribute to jazz musician John Coltrane.
… and that’s all for now!
There are older posts with photos from the Junction and/or the West Toronto Railpath. I’ve been walking and blogging long enough now that there is bound to be repetition! If you are interested in more pictures, you can always search all posts in this this blog for “Junction”… or for whatever you want for that matter!
A Saturday walk about with friends
Looking at people. Ordinary people. Going about their summer lives.
At the corner of Roxton and Harbord, at what was once the New Moon Variety store, there is a large and colourful Clandestinos mural. The store is now Riders Cycle so it is apt that the mural features a large cyclist, a dapper fox with bright red cycling gloves and a wicker basket full of flowers and carrots.
A blue bird at the left flying in front of the garage door.
The window now looks like it protrudes from the wall and is part of the mural.
Like all good cyclists, he has a light on his bike but this light is a miniature person with a powerful flashlight.
buzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Another blue bird in flight, this time at the righthand side of the mural.
A walk along the Don River.
The Don Valley Brick Works (or Evergreen Brickworks) is an old clay quarry and brick factory that operated between 1889 and 1984. Today the site consists of 16 heritage buildings and an adjacent 16-hectare public park known as Weston Family Quarry Garden that includes wetlands, hiking trails, and wildflower meadows.
below: Interior of the kiln building. Some of the kilns have been removed to create a larger open area and year round event space.
below: anser faces on the exterior yellow brick wall.
below: The Brickworks “living map” of Toronto is looking very healthy. It is “Watershed Consciousness” by Ferruccio Sardella and it depicts the rivers and ravines in the city. Some of the greens are looking a little tall (like they don’t belong there? a few strays?).
below: Bullrushes growing in the wetland area around the pond.
below: Ideas! I’ve been meaning to find the end of this bridge and walk at least part of it – if I do, I’ll let you know! It’s the bridge that you see beside the Brickworks. It was built in 1928 and is 335m long. It is part of the Don Branch of the CPR and it ran from Leaside Junction to the downtown core until the line was closed in 2007.
After a short visit at the Brickworks, including a quick bite to eat at the Farmers Market, we headed south. The first part of the walk was back along Bayview to Pottery Road since Brickworks is on the west side of the Don River and the trail is on the east side. I didn’t take any pictures – walking along a major road that doesn’t have a sidewalk needs all of your attention. There is a bike path that parallels Bayview on the east side but getting to it was either a long detour or a dash across the road and over a barrier. We made the decision to stay on the west side and cross with the lights at Pottery Road.
below: Although the path is through the ravine and it runs beside the Don River, it also runs adjacent to the Don Valley Parkway. There are only a few places on the trail where you can see the highway but there is a constant rumbling noise from the cars passing by.
below: This is the same railway line as the bridge shown above but farther down the valley. A very makeshift bike crossing.
below: Standing at the same spot as the above photo, but turned around 180 degrees… You can see how overgrown the old tracks are.
below: Two different railway lines run down the Don River Valley. The line shown here, the CN Bala subdivision line, is very active including use by GO trains that service the Oriole, Richmond Hill, and Newmarket route. The Bala subdivision tracks continue all the way to Sudbury.
below: A quiet spot by the abandoned tracks.
below: There are a few spots along the trail where there was damage from the high water levels in the spring. Most if the problems are with the banks od the river. The trail itself is in good shape.
below: Kayaking on the river.
below: Keeping an eye on the water level.
below: Does anyone know what the 6 drum shaped things are?
below: Standing on the old metal bridge across the Don River at Eastern Avenue, looking south. When the Don Valley Parkway was built, it cut through Eastern Avenue. Eastern was rerouted, swinging north a bit before crossing over the DVP and splitting into Richmond, Adelaide, and Eastern. (depending in which direction you’re travelling). If you stand on the bridge and look directly east, there is still a road there that dead ends at the highway. It is now Sunlight Park Road and it is provides access to the BMW dealership that you can see as you drive past on the DVP.
I couldn’t see any park in that area so I decided that if there is a Sunlight Park it’s teensy tiny. Luckily I didn’t stop there – I did some research and discovered that Sunlight Park was actually the first baseball stadium built in Toronto. It was built in 1886 and was first known as the Toronto Baseball Grounds – four storeys, wood, and the home of the Toronto baseball team from 1886 to 1897. And where is Sunlight in all this? The stadium became known as Sunlight Park after the Sunlight Soap factory that was built by the Lever Brothers in 1900/01 in the same area. The stadium was demolished in 1913.
below: The building in the background was the Lever Brothers (the Unilever) soap factory. There is now a sign on the building that says firstgulf.com – they are the development company that owns the site. NOW magazine published an interesting story about the building as it looks at the moment (with lots of great pictures!). The path through the striped underpass joins the Don River Trail to Corktown Commons.
Stay safe. Protect the plants (and the humans!)
If you walk south through Monarch Park this is the view that greets you as you approach the railway underpass. Elicser has painted a large mural that extends from the park through to the Woodfield Community Rail Garden that is on the other side. As you walk through the underpass this is what you see:
It’s February so the community garden is still resting for the winter. A shed with all four sides painted by Monica on the Moon provides some colour in the meantime.
The path continues…. a slight curve and you’re on Woodfield Road and on your way again.
Murals painted by Elicser in 2014, under the railway bridge on Bathurst St., just north of Dupont.
It is difficult to do justice to the paintings with a camera because of the structure of the bridge. The following images are ones that I took yesterday. Yes, there are many!
as I walk Toronto 