Seen on Warden Avenue… A building with a mural by Mediah (aka Evond Blake) on the upper level, and decorated blocks spelling ‘Scarborough’ in the front. Each letter looks to be an animal-like character.
Same building, another side. A windowless canvas for “Drift Appendar”
Same site (building with Mediah mural is just behind the container).
Feed Scarborough (part of the Scarborough Food Security Initiative, an organization that runs community gardens, food banks and many other programs).
or thereabouts…
below: Starting point, Woodbine and Danforth
below: Small Mediah painting in the doorway, Danforth
below: Another Mediah mural, on the railway underpass on Woodbine just south of Danforth
below: And again, in an alley south of Gerrard.
below: East End Love
below: “Humming on Woodbine” – A hummingird and a young woman with daffodils in yellow and purple, a mural by Blazeworks at Woodbine and Danforth.
below: Closer-up version – an old streetcar (when did they stop running on Danforth? The TTC operated streetcars on Danforth from 1923 until the subway opened in the 1960s.)
below: Two storey brick stores with square facades in front. Rows like this can be found all over the city although in many places they are being replaced. This row has probably been here for a hundred years; this section of Danforth was developed between 1910 and 1930. The streetcar provided a commuter route and facilitated growth to the east. The opening of the Prince Edward Viaduct (Bloor Viaduct) over the Don River in 1918 made access to downtown and the rest of the city even easier.
below: Some stores have added features such as this little peaked facade at the front and the fancy brick work around the windows.
below: Window reflections
below: Tims stands alone
below: Ghost sign on Danforth, Burnett Brothers Butchers, The House of Quality. That would be Alfred and Horace Burnett.
below: Remnants of streetcar tracks can also be found on Strathmore Blvd (behind Woodbine station) that abruptly end at Cedarvale
below: Drink Coca-Cola – an iconic red disc. As for the rest of the sign, the font and the style of sign is still seen in many places in Toronto.
below: Soaking up the sun in front of Atop Appliances
below: Spring blossoms, pretty even if they aren’t real!
below: A line of stars
below: And stars on fences in an alley
below: Aren’t doors fascinating? Final Notice and 2nd Final Notice. If a door is a title to the story that lies within, what is the story that would unfold here?
below: Many little pots in a sun-filled window, looks like an attempt to jump start spring planting.
below: My favorite kind of Canada Geese. They are quiet and don’t leave little messes behind.
below: Lakeside campfire at sunset on a garage door
below: Poser bunnies in a mural on Gerrard
below: I saw a lot of these posters that day – How to fold a fitted sheet. Once upon a time such posters had a phone number written on little flaps that you could tear off. Now we have the dreaded QR code. Apparently there is now something called “quishing” which is QR code phishing (I am not calling this poster fake, I am just ranting about QR codes in general – like how annoying they are on menus because now everyone has to get their phones out).
below: Secret Park …. sshhhhh I can’t tell you where it is.
below: Empowerment by the wading pool (this is not the Secret Park!)
below: Toronto Chinese Mennonite Church (formerly Rogers Presbyterian Church), Woodbine
below: Crossing the street, towards Grant African Methodist Episcopal Church, Gerrard St.
below: Plaque of Dedication for Grant Church
Plaque of Dedication commemorating the relocation of Grant African Methodist Episcopal Church from 23 Soho Street to 2029 Gerrard Street, November 17th, 1991.
Grant Church Journey
In 1833 in Toronto, worship began in each other’s homes. The meetings were held on a site on Chestnut Street. Later, a church was built on Richmond Street. In 1856 we moved to a hall at Queen and McCaul Streets. In 1912 we celebrated the grand opening at University and Elm Streets, and moved to 23 Soho Street in 1929.
below: St. Francis National Evangelical Spiritual Baptist Faith, Archdiocese of Canada.
below: Semis on a slope
below: A newer three storey residential building. I wonder how many units it has? Three at least?
below: Layers
below: Pink house with a lot of stairs to the front door, Woodbine
below: Housing on the hill
below: A bus shelter, unfortunately it seems to be acting as housing as well.
below: May Peace Prevail on Earth in two languages (and more on the back)
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.
Just east of Old Weston Road, between St. Clair and Davenport, is Wadsworth Park. This park dates from 1934 when the city purchased the land from the Canadian National Railway.
below: The sign in Wadsworth Park gives a brief history of the park in five languages. It also provides a map of the 19 species of tree that grow here, species include London Plane, Tulip, Linden, Freeman Maple, Norway Maple, Bur Oak, Kentucky Coffee Tree, and many others.
below: Suri in grey tones while drinking, mural by Haenahhh.
below: Mediah blues on the right and a Que Rock mural on the left.
below: A closer look at the mural by Que Rock – Mother Earth, loons, and pine trees.
below: Fantasy creatures playing in a mural by Kisong Koh
below: The alley behind Carleton Village school
below: Windows on the south wall of Carleton Village school.
below: Mural by Kseniya Tsoy on a garage door. On the extreme right is a small part of a mural of a purple dog by Bareket – my apologies for not including a better photo …. especially since I now know that she was responsible for organizing the mural paintings in this alley earlier this year.
below: End of season remains of veggies (brussel sprouts?) in a patch of land between the alley and the park.
below: Beware of Portuguese dog!
More murals (and other things) in the area can be seen at the next blog post, South of Davenport.
Some of the murals in this post can also be seen in my worldwide street art blog, Carleton Village murals Toronto 2021
below: Ulysses Curtis mural by Danilo Deluxo McCallum. Curtis (1926-2013) played for the Toronto Argonauts football team in the 1950s. He was considered to be the first black player on the team.
The Downsview area and airplanes have been linked since the late 1920s when land here was being used for airfields—Barker Field, the Canadian Express Airport and the Toronto Flying Club. In 1929 de Havilland Aircraft of Canada purchased 70 acres of farmland along Sheppard Avenue West. In the mid-1950s de Havilland moved its operations to newly constructed modern facilities to the southeast. De Havilland Canada was sold to Boeing in 1988 and then to Bombardier in 1992.
below: Bombardier facility and GO tracks on the east side of the park. Downsview Park station at the north end of the park connects the GO system with the TTC’s Line 1.
In 2017, the Sesquicentennial Trail was developed on part of the site. Sesquicentennial means 150 years, as in Canada was 150 years old in 2017.
below: The North Plaza of the trail features a semi-circular wall of rusted steel with cutout silhouettes of real historical photographs showing various people, buildings, and airplanes that was designed by John Dickson.
Small models of four of the aircraft built by DeHaviland ‘fly’ over the trail – the DH.60 Gipsy Moth, the Dash 8, the DHC-6 Twin Otter, and the Mosquito. They cover years of both DeHaviland and aircraft history from the bi-winged Moth in the mid-1920’s to the turboprop Dash8. The later was developed in the early 1980s and is still in production today.
below: High overhead, a DHC-Beaver, a bush plane developed in 1947 here at Downsview.
Grounded! But still great for child’s play.
Hundreds, and probably thousands, of trees have been planted on the site.
below: Tulip tree
below: Other areas have been set aside for native grasses and wildflowers such as milkweed, purple coneflower, and wild lupine.
below: There is a large hill in the park and this is the view to the southwest from there.
below: At the top of the hill stands an installation of blue flags along with two of the many red muskoka chairs scattered around the park. This is “Wind Rose” by Future Simple Studio. This picture doesn’t show it very well but at the northwest corner, two of the flags are not blue – one is black and the other white (black for west and white for north). These two flags, “The Turtle and the Traveller,” were designed by Mi’kmaq artists Chris and Greg Mitchell. They are best seen when the wind is blowing!
Downsview has also been associated with the military. In 1937, the Royal Canadian Air Forces expropriated portions of the site to establish the RCAF Station Downsview. The site once had two residential areas with barracks – one for the enlisted soldiers and their families and another for the commissioned officers and their families. Over the years the base expanded to include the original de Havilland lands. In the 1960s, the military expropriated the lands adjacent to the Downsview Airport and closed 2.5 miles of Sheppard Avenue between Dufferin and Keele Streets. That is why Sheppard Avenue swings north around what is now Downsview Park.
In 1996 CFB Toronto officially closed. Parc Downsview Park Inc. was established in 1999 to build and operate Downsview Park but administrative control over the land wasn’t transferred to the Park until 2006.
below: ArtworxTO Hub North with a mural by Mediah. At the time, the site was being used by a film crew.
below: Another mural on the exterior of the ArtworxTO Hub building. This one was painted by Kreecha.
Recently I was in the area east of Danforth and Main when I had one of those moments where I stop and say to myself “I’ve been here before”. I recognized some of the street art in the lane (see Alleyway of Dreams, 2016). For this blog post, I have started with the artwork that I didn’t remember on the assumption that it is newer. The murals that remain from 2016 all seem to be in good shape.
below: A collage of pictures called “Against All Odds” in the shape of a map.
below: On the same wall as the above is this mural of a swan. My apolgies to Alika, Angela, Dylan, Molly, Serval, Bandi, Ludo and Weal (?) whose names I chopped off. To the right of the swan, and behind a parked car is a piece by Mediah.
below: A hummingbird with a red hibiscus flower.
Love birds of a different colour
below: There had been a fire in the back of a furniture store not long before I walked the alley this summer.
below: A black cat in the moonlight, sitting on some very curly branches. This row of fences was painted in 2016.
below: This blue pug was here previously but the rabbit that was once beside it seems to have disappeared.
below: The blue rhinoceros with the whimsical horn hasn’t moved either.
below: Stay Out is still sprayed on the old wood door but now it has a new lock. The blue 666 is also an addition.
below: “Bee Haven” from 2014. One of the earliest bee/pollinator murals in the city.
below: Signatures. The mural was painted by Elie J. Saad, Sarah Van Dusen, and Curtia Wright with help from Community Centre 55 kids.
I heard that there was a new mural near Finch and Morningside which of course means that I have to try and find it. In doing so, I found three murals. This is their story.
This is Morningside Heights at the far eastern side of Scarborough. The Rouge River, the border between Scarborough and Pickering, is not far away. The Toronto Zoo is also nearby.
below: Bus 133, Neilson Road, waits at a stop on Finch just west of Morningside. The houses that you see in the background are on Morningside.
The Canadian Pacific railway tracks run on a diagonal at this intersection. They cross Morningside south of Finch and they also cross Finch just west of Morningside. The bridges, and underpasses, are very close to each other. In this photo, the train is on the bridge over Finch. Do people often stand outside the front of a train?
In the above picture, the wall of the underpass on the left is unpainted. The wall on the right, the one that you can’t see has a mural by Mediah.
It is called “Interoh Gale” and Mural Routes was a partner in its development last year.
below: west end
below: east end
below: Construction has begun on the southwest corner of this intersection. The site plan, approved last year, shows a Shell gas station with retail on three sides of it. Leases are available! (you’ll have to google it).
below: There is a pond with a walking trail around it almost directly across Morningside from the above construction site.
below: Two people, after being on the trail around the pond, walk south on Morningside via an underpass that has murals on both sides. This is mural on the east side. It is older than the others but it is in reasonably good shape.
below: A boy on a skate board and a girl doing what? The two green signs say Love and Malvern. I don’t know Scarborough well enough to know if the buildings in the mural represent real ones. Malvern is just to the west.
below: MFRC is Malvern Family Resource Centre and there is a picture on their website of the unveiling of this mural in September 2015.
below: This is the newest mural. It is called “Colour Outside the Lines” and it is the work of Lacey and Layla Art (aka Lacey Jane and Layla Folkmann)
below: Looking north on Morningside from Finch.
On the northwest corner of this intersection, there is a large piece of vacant land. The railway tracks run along the west side of it. I can’t find any information about it online. There isn’t the usual blue and white Notice of Development sign. The website on the billboard shows some of the houses that they have built/remodeled but there is nothing about this particular project.
Once it was fenced in by the looks of it. Not much of the black cloth remains. It looks a bit creepy, as nature undoes man’s work.
But now it’s for sale maybe? LOL. A cliff hanger ending for this post!
below: Think! or rather Stop and think. Above that, tbonez with The Forge Fury in another urban ninja squadron sticker.
below: There is a new public art installation nearing completion at the corner of Carlaw and Dundas. When the project is done, the obelisk shaped sculpture by Pierre Poussin will be in the middle of a small park. It is made of laser cut rusted metal and will feature internal LED lighting.
below: Shadows of the trees along a winding trail.
below: There really aren’t enough fairies in the world. The ones that are supposed to clean my home haven’t shown up yet either.
below: This looks like it was once an artwork pasted to a wall. An eagle’s head is still visible at the very top. Are those its feathers at the bottom by the shoes – one dark blue and one red stiletto.
below: The northwest corner of Pape and Dundas. The “This is Toronto” mural by J. Chiale is still there.
below: An old and worn sign
below: A not so old sign with three lovebot stickers on it.
below: Old cars seen in an alley. Any ideas on what model and year the brown car is?
below: Santa Claus hasn’t returned to the North Pole yet! This front yard looks quite barren
below: … compared to this one! I am happy to report that the “doll house” still exists. There is at least one Santa Claus in there!
below: Not quite every inch (centimeter!) is covered. Christopher Robin and Tigger, Ernie and a Picachu. Tweety bird in a blue jacket and a white horse, Dora the Explorer is eating an apple.
below: These stickers still exist! A Star Wars family with a dirty back window.
below: Usually if a couch is waiting for the garbage man it’s sitting closer to the edge of the street!
below: Symmetry at the back of Bruce Junior Public School built in 1923.
below: And then there is the asymmetry created when one side of a semi-divided house explodes upwards.
below: Leslieville has two murals. This one covers the side of the building plus the back in pink, red, and orange stripes. This Guidant Bikeshare mural was painted by Mediah, aka Evond Blake, in 2017.
below: Nearby at the intersection of Queen and Jones is this mural by Elicser Elliot (2016).
below: The Coca-Cola Coady Sweets ghost sign is still there but the convenience store under it has been replaced by a Spanish restaurant.
below: Queen Street East
below: This is on the wall beside a vacant lot on Queen Street East that has been empty for years.
below: Another vacant lot but more recently so.
below: An alley view, behind Queen Street East
below: Waiting for spring?
below: Dundas Street East
And how can we end without re-visiting the doll house?!
above: Bright pink flowers by Blazeworks
I shared David French Lane with some garbage men, a bright green truck, and a lot of smelly garbage the other day. Luckily there were lots of murals to distract me from the smell!
below: The north end of David French Lane is at Barbara Barrett Lane, immediately south of Bloor. Here, elicser painted a mural in his characteristic style that I have already blogged about. It is also where there is a mural of a blue and white train. I didn’t take any photos of it this time because it isn’t new and it wasn’t part of the Wall Expressions project.
Quite a few of the garages in David French Lane had been painted sometime in the past. Many had been tagged over or were in need of updating. The ‘Wall Expressions – You are Here’ project provided the lane with a fresh coat of paint back in mid-September.
below: A large TTC bus drives into the alley by dudeman, surrounded by skulls of many colours.
‘You are Here’ was the result of a collaboration between StreetARToronto, the Tranzac Club, the local community, and last but not least Team Spudbomb who organized the artists who participated.
below: More colours here too – lots of movement and energy too. Mural painted by Chris Perez.
below: Almost didn’t get this shot – the garage door started opening as I stood there. A geometric abstract mural by Andre Kan. It reminds me of the chaos of roads in the city
below: Another geometric design – this time by mediah.
below: whales by wales, swimming in the lane
below: Midtown cinema by ACK
below: A portrait of Ed Mirvish holding an iconic Honest Eds sign, painted by spud.
below: Mural by fly vandals
below: An apt phrase – ‘Be Here Now’ beside a fence of spudbombs.
Have a seat!
It’s another tour of laneway street art.
Today’s blog features Paul Estrela Lane which runs for one block on the northside of the Danforth ending at Woodbine Avenue. Some of the garages and fences have been painted with bright and cheerful murals. There are quite a few paintings considering the fact that the lane is only one block long. Here they are…..
below: A mural by mediah and the CBS crew.
below: Another contribution from the CBS crew but this time in collaboration with kanos, a French artist, from Paris. More of his work can be seen under ikanografik on instagram.
below: A warm summer day by the surf.
below: Toothy grins and googly eyes, coloured monster faces all squished together to completely cover the back of this building. It is the work of monicaonthemoon.
below: Listening to music as her orange and pink hair blows in the wind, by Kim
below: Marine life swimming in the laneway, an octopus with orange eyes looking at you, and what I think is a squid on the left. Painted by kittzen.
below: Wings by monicaonthemoon aka Monica Wickeler
below: The work of dajenesis aka Jeannie Priscila
below: More goofy faces
below: Japanese characters painted by Tokyo. Hint to street artists – if you want to be found, your moniker should be something that doesn’t bring up millions of unrelated hits on a search engine. Any ideas about what he might be saying?
below: And last, partially obscured by the car, a profile in shades of blue in front of a cat with marvelous green eyes.
as I walk Toronto 