There are two large murals by Nick Sweetman that cover both sides of Bathurst street as it passes under the 401 highway. The murals are a collection of animals – birds, frogs, cows, cats, foxes, bats, tigers, and more. This blogpost is a selection of images from those two walls.
below: People walking on Queen Street West. Do you think that they realize that a large yellow eye is watching them from behind? This is the eye of a very large painting of a cat, probably a Japanese cat.
The mural, the JapanTown mural on the side of the Sanko Trading Company, has been re-painted. The previous mural dates from 2013/4. A blog post with photos of what that looked like in 2015 is at: Sanko Wall. This blog post should give you an idea what it looks like now.
The group of artists (‘The Summit’) who painted the mural also made a video for youtube: The JapanTown Project No. 5
After I got off the subway at Bloor but before I got to the street, the first construction change of the day hit me in the face (luckily not literally!). Bloor Street East is now a mess.
below: “The Bay” sign has been removed from the old store. Founded in 1670 to control the fur trade in the area, the Hudson Bay Company used to lay claim to being North America’s oldest continuously operating company. The company went bankrupt late in 2025 and all of their stores have closed including this one. The complex (includes 34 storeys above) was opened in 1974 and was referred to as the Hudson Bay Centre. Now it is just 2 Bloor St. East. The next question is how does one re-purpose a large windowless space on a busy street? (personal aside – I started by honeymoon at the Plaza II which was the original hotel in the complex. I won’t tell you how long ago that was, but the Quebec Nordiques were in a playoff game that day).
below: Upwards at Yonge & Bloor
Of shorts and strawberries, and hoping for spring . So far it’s been a cool (or rather cold) May.
Shorts!
below: On the south side of Bloor is another concrete building from the 1970s, the Manulife Centre, which has undergone a transformation at street level in recent years.
below: Found on the City of Toronto archives website, a photo from its early days. (As another aside, after graduating from high school, I worked for a few months at a store in the basement – back in the day when Ashleys, Creeds, and Birks had stores there. Bay Bloor Radio may be the sole survivor?)
source: Fonds 200, Series 1465, File 750, Item 14
below: A contrast between the Manulife Centre and the new towers on the south side of Bloor (east and west of Yonge)… even the upper levels of the Hudson Bay Centre can be seen in the distance.
below: A little farther west on Bloor…. another concrete building with recessed windows. Very much the style at the time!
below: Northwest corner of Bay & Bloor with yet another concrete building from the 1960s and 1970s (1200 Bay Street was built in 1966). The last time that I walked here, the lower levels were boarded up and painted black. Now they are hiding behind a large expanse of Tiffany Blue. There are rumblings of an 87 storey tower being built here. Dutch Dutch developers Kroonenberg Group and ProWinko filed a development application with the city to build such a tower back in 2020.
below: Looking west on Cumberland Street
below: But there are things that don’t change – like cars getting stuck in an intersection on a red light.
below: Never ending renovations at the Royal Ontario Museum
below: It has been sitting empty for years. The McLaughlin Planetarium closed in 1995 after the provincial government cut its funding. It wasn’t even thirty years old at the time; it opened in 1968. It is a big cement box with a large dome on top and is not very photogenic! It was sold to the University of Toronto back in 2009 but it is only now that redevelopment is about to occur.
below: Backside view. This post has been difficult to write – so many changes. One of the reasons that I started this blog was to document the changes happening in the city. I hadn’t expected those changes to be quite so relentless. Never ending. A perpetual motion machine of changes. Are we tired of winning yet? This picture is already out of date – there are photos of the demolition popping up online now that show the dome broken open and disappearing.
below: Museum subway station is getting a new elevator entrance from the sidewalk on University Avenue in front of where the Planetarium is/was.
below: Little blue signs of spring dot the lawn. Emmanuel College (U of T) is in the background. It is affiliated with the United Church of Canada and is one of the members of the Toronto School of Theology.
below: Part of University of Toronto Law School.
below: Annesley Hall, Victoria University, U of T,was built in 1903 in the Queen Anne Revival style. Annesley Hall was the first university residence built for women in Canada and is still used as such. (What?, no changes?)
below: Charles Street West where a few original houses remain steadfast.
below: Still on Charles Street – but it is a perspective that is now very common around the city as everything moves upward, taller and taller. Egos get stoked and massaged as yet another “tallest” tower gets built, only to be outdone by someone else down the line….
below: “La Scala”by by Canadian sculptor and architect William McElcheran. The women are walking up the stairs, or walking around in circles…
below: A peak at what is behind – lots of balconies and stairs and even an upper level addition.
below: St. Nicholas Street runs parallel to Yonge, one street west. It runs south from Charles Street to Wellesley.
below: 81 St. Nicholas is this red brick building with the interesting contrasting brick detail across the top. It was built in 1912 and is known as the Robert Barron Stables. In 1889 Robert Barron built a store at Yonge and Charles. A few years later he added this building, his stables, behind the grocery store.
below: There are stretches of Yonge Street where there are many closed storefronts. This usually indicates that a developer is sitting on a chunk of properties and is in the process of accumulating more… or is waiting for approval to redevelop what he already has. Nothing moves quickly. It’s just sad to see the emptiness and decay in the meantime.
below: Filed under “learn something new everyday” is the fact that there is such a thing as soy milk volcano buns. I assume that they are $7 each and not $70!
below: Charles Street East (just east of Yonge). The large mural on the side of the apartment building is “Toronto & Stadt Frankfurt Am Main” and it was painted by Justus Becker (aka COR). The reflection within the glasses depicts the skylines of both Toronto and Frankfurt and represents the sister city relationship between the two cities. See that orange and white awning? That’s a gelato place – a fabulous gelato place!… and that is where I ended my walk, almost a circle back to Yonge & Bloor.
Back in 2012, the city approved the naming of an alley… Dew Lang Lane. You can find this lane just north of the Danforth near Donlands. Prior to the legal change, “Dew Lang” had been used as the unofficial name by local residents. The name comes from parts of the two streets Dewhurst (Dew) and Langford (Lang) that the lane runs between.
below: Omen514’s fist bump
below: “Turn the lights off and look to the sky” by Jerry Rugg (aka Birdo) & Wales.
below: Spud1 left his mark here along with the advice, “Live, Love, Paint”.
below: Signs of spring that can’t be held back
below: In a very tight spot but bursting out.
below: One of the latest trends in urban living is the laneway house. They are popping up all over the place and this area is no exception.
below: Another trend, this one in home renovations, is building upwards. Adding a third floor or a rooftop deck is now common (and is often more noticeable from the back).
below: The repurposing of church buildings is another trend (albeit a bit older than the above two). In this case, Temple Baptist Church, opened 1925, is now residential. A small plaque in one corner of the building serves as a reminder of its original function. From the application for heritage status for the building: “Temple Baptist Church is a fine example of a revival of the Georgian Classical Style adapted for Post-Reformation churches in 18th century England.” Not many Toronto churches were built in this style.
below: The central window with its leaded coloured glass and Credit Valley stone trim around the windows.
below: A beckoning summer scene, Muskoka chairs on the dock. Have a seat and watch the sunlight play on the water.
below: Old black line drawings on old white garage.
below: The new west entrance to Donlands subway station opens onto Dewhurst.
below: Inside
below: A second pigeon…. this one wear a cheerful bright red cap as he struts around
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).
Cliffcrest is a neighbourhood in Scarborough that includes a section of Kingston Road between Brimley and Bellamy Roads. The southern boundary is Lake Ontario including the eastern portion of the Scarborough Bluffs.
below: At the corner of Kingston Road & St. Clair is one of the Scarborough Heritage Trail murals funded by Mural Routes. It is “In The Way of Progress” and shows a Kingston Road radial railway car at Stop 17 with Scarborough High School (later changed name to R.H. King Academy) in the background. It was painted in 1996 by Phil, Jennifer, and Jamie Richards.
below: 1922, Kingston Road looking west towards St. Clair with Scarborough High School near the intersection.
Source: City of Toronto Archives, Fonds 1488, series 1230, Item 2064
In 1893 the Toronto and Scarborough Electric Railway, Light and Power Company started running a one car train along Kingston Road. The tracks went as far east as West Hill. A couple of years later, this line became part of the Toronto and York Radial Railway (TYRR). The TYRR had four branches radiating from the city, one to the west, 2 northward, and this one east along Kingston Road. The stops on the Scarborough route were numbered, starting at Victoria Park Avenue. Stop 17 was at St. Clair East & Kingston Road.
below: This 1922 photo is actually from a bit farther west, at Victoria Park. What I wanted to show was how the railway tracks just ran between the road and the sidewalk. Very simple infrastructure! Not too feasible in a city, but in 1922 this neighbourhood was more rural than urban (and they still got transit!)
Source: City of Toronto Archives, Series 71, item 1607
below: You can’t see it in this photo but the mural above is on the wall of Stop 17 Variety (by the parking lot on the right).
below: From 1973, forty years ago – looking at the southeast corner of Brimley and Kingston Road. The bus is northbound on Brimley.
Photo Credit: Richard Glaze photo 1973, Transit Toronto website. If you are interested in anything to do with transit in Toronto, check out their website. They have an extensive collection of photographs, maps, and documents. They also feature all the latest news about slow downs, route changes, and service advisories (among other things).
The same motel is still on that corner of Kingston Rd and Brimley. I don’t have the exact replica photo but this is what the Hav a Nap Motel looks like now.
below: Moving slightly west, photo taken from approximately the corner of Brimley and Kingston Road.
Once upon a time, Kingston Road was a major east west route in and out of the city. There were many motels along here. Their heyday was the 1950s and the bigger, fancier ones are long gone, leaving behind some of the smaller ones.
below: As a shoutout to these motels and their stoy is this sidewalk box decorated with images of old motel signs. The Americana and the Roycroft signs can be seen on this side.
below: The Americana Motel still exists in the Cliffcrest neighbourhood (close to Brimley). The Roycroft is farther east, beyond McCowan.
below: Henry’s Motel
below: The sign of things to come.. and yes, it’s a condo with retail at street level.
below: The north side of Kingston Road, just east of Brimley – it looks like changes are happening here too.
Brimley Road is also the main access for Bluffers Park at the foot of the Scarborough Bluffs.
below: Dairy Queen at Kingston Road and Harewood is closed for the winter
below: An alley runs behind the south side of Kingston Road
below: Mailbox with a porpoise (or two)
below: On the side of a Wild Wings restaurant.
below: Carusos Fruit Market, Groceries, Hardware & Gift Items
Other Scarborough Heritage Mural posts:
1. Heritage Murals – Kingston Road, 2014
3. Heritage Trail Mural 8, 2014
4. Scarborough Bells, 2020
5. Birch Cliff, Kingston Road, 2021
More than three large murals by Elicser Elliott can be seen on some of the interior walls of Runnymede subway station. Together, they form “Anonymous Somebody”
They date from 2019 and are part of the TTC Public Art Program.
There are a couple that I missed. Like the ones shown here, they feature a diverse group of people that represent the people who use this Bloor West stop on a daily basis.
Thankfully they are more cheerful, more positive, than the images at Union Station!
…. A short distance but with a lot happening.
An early morning walk with a weak winter sun low in the sky. Tall buildings that cast shadows, or reflect light. Patterns of light and shadow.
below: Crossing Yonge from Carlton to College
below: North on Yonge. The facade above Shoppers remains. “….has design value and technological merit as a representative of the 1950s Toronto School of ‘Picturesque Modernism’ in its expressive use of concrete seen in the cantilevered canopy and decorative piercings of the concrete screen for the above-ground parking, in the ‘egg-crate’ elevations designed to reduce solar gain, and in the predominant white aesthetic of glazed white brick and concrete surfaces.” (form City of Toronto report on heritage inclusion)
below: Rising above Yonge and College
below: Looking north, up the canyon that Yonge has become. The very tall building that is obviously under construction in the distance is at Yonge and Bloor.
below: Empty, boarded up and waiting its turn. Southeast corner of College & Yonge. I have vague memories of a candy store on this corner although I think that there were a number of businesses that passed through here.
below: The east half of Yonge street in front of College Park is now a construction zone. An additional entrance on the east side of Yonge along with more elevator service between street and track levels, is being built for College subway station. Are there any streets in the downtown area that don’t have partial closures for construction?
below: Sunspots, reflected light on the side of College Park
below: More emptiness, more waiting.
below: Granby and McGill are two streets that run parallel to College but don’t actually meet Yonge Street, pedestrians only here
below: Looking back at Yonge Street from the same spot. When the area was pedestrianized back in the 1980s, the city purchased added the arch. The arch came from St. Andrews United Church at Bloor and Park Road (not on this site, moved here). The mural on the wall, right hand side …
… is The ‘History of Music on Yonge’ mural that covers two large walls on the same building. This is the south side of that building. It was painted by Adrian Hayles and features music legends who played in Toronto in the 1950s and 1960s.
On the north side of building, the mural shows Ronnie Hawkins, Glenn Gould, Dianne Brooks, Jackie Shane, Muddy Waters, Shirley Matthews, B.B. King, Gordon Lightfoot, and Oscar Peterson.
below: Behind Yonge street, between Granby and McGill (Joseph Sheard parkette)
below: Looking north up Yonge from Granby
below: Aura
below: People on a corner… To the woman in the brown coat – A penny for your thoughts (Does anyone use that expression anymore?)
below: The southeast corner of Yonge and Gerrard is still a construction site….
below: …. but now it is on its way up!
below: On the northeast corner, also Yonge and Gerrard is an older building that is still standing… for now. An almost obscene 76 storeys with 828 residences. No car parking; parking for 828 bikes only. May I recommend the elevator repair business as a career prospect for those who are looking for ideas? Also, we could have quite the discussion about bikes and bike lanes……
below: Looking south on Yonge from Elm
below: The Zanzibar Tavern glows in the morning light
below: Hoardings around the construction site on the northwest corner of Yonge and Elm
below: Orange! Even more construction on Yonge, this time the southwest corner of Yonge and Elm
below: No more pizzas here.
below: Looking west on Elm
below: A quick stop at the Cong Caphe. That’s an iced coconut coffee!!
Sometimes there are silver linings when buildings get demolished. Until recently, this wonderful mural was difficult to get a good look at. Now that there is a vacant lot next door I was able to get a much better picture of it.
The title of the mural is “The Original Family” and it is based on an Anishinaabe creation story. The artist, Philip Cote, has been telling Anishinaabe stories through his mural painting for at least twenty years, including a series of images on the concrete supports of a bridge at Old Mill subway station (see Spirit Stories Under Old Mill in this blog).
The Grand Hotel was demolished to make room for a 68 storey skinny tower (on a larger base – i.e. the lower floors will be bigger, podium-like). No facades to save here. Once construction starts on this new building, the mural will become partially obscured again.
… on view in a mural on the side of 401 Games on Yonge. It was painted by Jasmine Pannu and it features a number of characters that gamers and fans of anime might recognize… such as Picachu, Charizard, and other Pokemon characters…. and Wizards, sorcery, and flaming dice. I am sure that some of you have a much better idea about the source/name of some of these images!
below: The Monopoly Guy aka Milburn Pennybags, or Rich Uncle Pennybags.
as I walk Toronto 