people | as I walk Toronto

Posts Tagged ‘people’

south from Liberty Village

Posted: October 26, 2025 in history, locations, old buildings, public art, transportation
Tags: Allan Lamport stadium, BMO Field, condos, construction, cranes, Dufferin Gate, E.B. Cox, Elford Bradley Cox, Exhibition Place, Gerald Glastone, GO trains, Greek gods, Lakeshore Blvd., Liberty Village, McGillivray Fountain, Mino Bimaadiziwin, Ontario Place, people, Scadding cabin, sculptures, Shrine Peace Memorial

Liberty Village is the neighbourhood that is south of King Street, west of Strachan, and east of Dufferin. It’s southern boundary is a combination of the Gardiner Expressway and the railway tracks (CN, VIA, and GO)

below: A temporary park has taken over a corner of the parking lot on Hanna.

below: The sign says Ontario Place straight ahead.

below: Dream Big

below: Allan Lamport stadium concrete

below: Looking north from the goalposts in the stadium.

below: Once it was a carpet factory – The Toronto Carpet Factory was spread over 8 brick buildings on a 4 acre site. It was built between 1899 and 1920. The company was established by F. Barry Hayes in 1891 and was originally at Jarvis and Esplanade. At the end of WW1, 1250 people were employed here. The factory remained in production until 1979, although the number of carpets that were made annually was greatly reduced by the end.

below: Streetcars waiting at Dufferin Loop, Dufferin south of King.

below: View from the bridge at the south end of Dufferin looking west along the Gardiner Expressway towards Etobicoke and Mississauga.

below: Eastern view

below: The arch marks the Dufferin Gate, the west entrance to the Exhibition Grounds.

Part way between Dufferin and Strachan is Exhibition GO station. The station has been designed to provide access from both sides of the tracks which in turn offers another walking route south from Liberty Village. The area north of the tracks is a bit of a mess as the new Ontario Line will terminate at Exhibition and the completion of that project is still a few years away.

below: The pedestrian tunnel under the tracks.

below: Looking north under the Gardiner – Liberty Village provides that background in this image.

below: More Ontario Line construction as seen from Platform 4 at Exhibition station

below: South end of BMO Field, looking east towards downtown and the CN Tower.

below: BMO Field is home to both the Toronto Argonauts (CFL, football) and the Toronto FC (MLS – Major League Soccer). It has just undergone upgrades (think $$$) to make it ready to host some of the FIFA World Cup soccer/football games in mid 2026.

below: Some of the lights seen at the Exhibition – with the CN Tower in the distance.

below: rooftops

below: One of the latest public art addition to the Exhibition Grounds is “Mino Bimaadiziwin”, an Anishinaabemowin phrase that translates to “Good Life”. The mural was developed in partnership with the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation 50-meter-long artwork honors Indigenous history and culture and was unveiled in October 2024.
The installation is part of a plan to separate Exhibition Place from the Gardiner Expressway.

below: The McGillivray Fountain was designed by Canadian sculptor Gerald Gladstone and donated to Exhibition Place in 1968 by Gordon B. McGillivray in honor of his father, John A. McGillivray.

below: The Scadding cabin was originally built in 1794 by John Scadding on land that he owned east of the Don River. He owned more than 200 acres and his property stretched from Lake Ontario to what is now the Danforth. The next owner of the property used the cabin as an out-building. In 1879 it was donated to the York Pioneer and Historical Society who arranged to have it moved close to its present site to celebrate the opening of the Industrial Exhibition (now the CNE).

below: The title printed on this image is “Log Cabins of the York Pioneers,Exhibition Grounds Toronto 1880. Lithographed and printed at the Exhibition Building, Rolph, Smith & Co. Toronto”. The cabin on the left is labelled Simcoe 1794 (i.e. the Scadding cabin) and the other is labelled York Pioneers, Lorne 1879.

below: Shrine Peace Memorial

below: There is a collection of twenty small sculptures representing Gods, heroes, and monsters of Greek mythology in what is called the Garden of the Greek Gods. They were created by Elford Bradley Cox (1914-2003) in the 1960s.

below: Hercules is the tallest of the sculptures.

Immediately south of the Exhibition Grounds is/was Ontario Place. This pile of rubble is all that remains of what was on West Island – mostly the decaying amusement/theme park that hasn’t been in operation for years (death by neglect).

below: The round Cinesphere is still there but everything west of it is gone. Once it was the pride of Ontario – built in response to Montreal’s Expo ’67 – but slowly over the years many of its features have been altered or removed (Children’s Village, the Forum with its free concerts, and more). Having said that, other sections have been renovated – Trillium Park on the east end for example. I didn’t get that far on this walk but you can some of it in Ontario Place 2.0 from 2017.

market day

Posted: August 14, 2025 in general Toronto
Tags: asparagus, bakery, blueberries, brie, cheese, crab legs, fish, food, fruit, kebabs, market, pasta, peaches, people, salmon, sandwiches, shops, strawberries

A few scenes from the St. Lawrence Market on a busy summer afternoon

Ontario Line – north end of Pape

Posted: June 22, 2025 in construction, locations, stores, transportation
Tags: catchoo, construction, Cosburn, Donlands, graffiti, hoardings, lemon bucket orchestra, Metrolinx, Ontario line, Pape, people, Ritz restaurant, stickers, subway, trp 613, TTC

On a hillside along the Don Valley Parkway (DVP), there is a large construction project underway. This is where the new Ontario Line subway will go underground after crossing the DVP by bridge.

From this angle it’s difficult to see the work that has been done on the north side of the DVP but the ground has been cleared for construction of the support pillars for the large bridge that will take the LRT from Don Mills Road to this point at the top of Pape.

It has altered the quiet East York neighbourhood at the north end of Pape.

Ontario Line construction has also affected Pape Avenue. Here at Cosburn, a long stretch of what used to be stores and restaurants are now behind plywood hoardings. The main entrance to the station will be on the northwest corner of Pape and Cosburn. The final decision on the look of the station is not yet made (according to the Metrolinx website) but at least some of the renderings show that Infrastructure Ontario is involved and maybe the site will include other uses such as housing or offices.

Demolition has started but it looks like this project is going to take a while. The subway is going to run just west of Pape, under these buildings. Construction will kill (has killed?) street life but traffic shouldn’t be affected as much. Someone somewhere made that decision.

below: Some of the buildings from the back side, behind the plywood

below: There is a large Coca-Cola advert on the side of the building that is about to be demolished.

below: Bethany Baptist Church

below: There are little semi circular “ears” at the top of this building. I doubt that they had a function but along with the 3-D pattern across the top of the building, it adds a little bit of interest to the street scene.

below: Cat and dog at Floyd … while the crossing guard takes a break.

Back in November 2024, I posted some photos of the changes around Pape station (at Danforth). I ended that post just north of Danforth with the comment, “There is another station under construction at Cosburn, a few more blocks north but that’s for another day.” I guess that you could say that now is that day.

below: The top sticker is for the Lemon Bucket Orchestra and on the bottom it’s something about Kirby and Zaku and if you are into such things you might understand the reference.

some Parkdale doors and windows

Posted: March 31, 2025 in doors, stores, windows and walls
Tags: chairs, corset, doors, guitar player, Gumby, Lee's Variety, Luigi, people, Queen Street West, stores, T.dot Variety, Tammys, windows

below: Have a seat! Let me show you a few interesting and colourful doors and windows that I have seen along Queen Street West.

below: We’re all in this together. Recognize the font? the style? It’s a throwback to Honest Eds.

below: Passing in front of Bone & Busk store.

below: Art frames the windows

below: Facial time, with love from Pepe!

below: An abstract painting of a musician in hot reds and oranges covers this door.

below: Welcome, but closed.

below: Luigi plays Tetris

below: Grocery Coffee

below: In a quiet niche, a guitar player finds a place to play.

below: Advertising their wares, phone accessories, backpacks, incense sticks, cat dog food, ice, beer, and key cutting… and many more inside!

below: T.dot Variety

below: Gumby lies in the window of Tammy’s wearing white boots and pink thong. Not the Gumby of your childhood!

below: Mailboxes and stickers

below: A peachy scene

below: Mary stands outside a window of Our Lady of Lebanon Church

I have chosen to focus on the content or the character of the windows and doors at street level. There is at least one, and probably more, stories that could be told about the doors and windows of Parkdale from an architectural perspective (commercial, and then residential…). I will leave you with a couple of examples but I will have to save the rest of the subject for another post.

Light Years and Modernism

Posted: March 19, 2025 in galleries
Tags: AGO, art, Art Gallery of Ontario, drawings, General Idea, Gerhard Richter, Jeff Wall, paintings, people, photography, Robert Motherwell, Robert Rauschenbrg, Rodney Graham, William Kentridge

A quick, and very selective, look at the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO), focusing on two exhibits, “Light Years, the Phil Lind Gift” and “Moments in Modernism”.

below: Rodney Graham, “Media Studies ’77” . This large installation (lit from behind) will bring back memories if you are of a certain age!

below: Welcome to Vancouver

below: A series of images by General Idea (There are actually 4 pieces in this series). General Idea was a group of 3 Canadian artists, Felix Partz (aka Ronald Gabe), Jorge Zontal (aka Slobodan Saia-Levy) and AA Bronson (aka Michael Tims). The three men met in Toronto in the late 1960s; their collaborative work then continued until the mid 1990s. They were pioneers in the field of conceptual photography.

below: William Kentridge, “Drawing for Another Country, Flooded Street”, 1994. Kentridge was born in South Africa in 1955)

below: “River Road” by Canadian photographer Jeff Wall. The photo was taken along the Fraser River in Richmond BC and was taken in 1994. It is shown here as a transparency over a lightbox so that it is lit from behind.

The “Moments in Modernism” exhibit is a re-working of artworks owned by the AGO. Some of you may have seen one or two pieces before.

below: “Delta Tau” by Morris Louis, 1960.

below: “Abstraktes Bild”, 1986, by Gerhard Richter (b. Dresden Germany 1932).

below: I have seen this before (and possibly shown it here?) and I like it as much as ever. It takes a certain amount of audacity or gumption to create a painting like this. Robert Motherwell painted this – title: “Open No.37A: in Orange”, 1971, charcoal and acrylic.

below: Robert Rauschenberg (1925-2008), mixed media on panel, 1964 (only part of it is shown). Rauschenberg made pieces like these that he called ‘combines’ and they were for stage decorations for performances by an experimental dance group (Merce Cunninham Dance Group). In 1963 they did a world tour called “Story”where they made a different ‘combine’ for each performance. This particular piece was made onstage at London’s Phoenix Theatre in August, 1964.

The modernism exhibit is more extensive than I have made it seem. I didn’t take many pictures of pieces that I had seen before which may or may not have been the right call. Andy Warhol’s large silkscreen image of the 4 identical Elvis Presley’s holding a gun ready to shoot is on display – the one where two Elvis’s are in bright colours and the other two are in black and white. You can also see Alex Colville’s “Woman in a Bathtub” if you want (I think that it is the worst of Colville’s otherwise wonderful paintings). In addition, there are works by Canadian artist Rita Letendre and Norval Morisseau, plus others.

Light Years continues until November 2025,
while Modernism continues until March 2026 (another year)

TTC riders at Runnymede

Posted: December 20, 2024 in public art
Tags: Anonymous Somebody, Elicser Elliot, mural, people, public art, subway, TTC Runnymede station

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!

intersections – Queen and Spadina

Posted: November 20, 2024 in construction, history, old buildings, people, public art
Tags: buses, construction, hoardings, Metrolinx, Ontario line, people, Stephen Cruise, streetcars, subway

Subtitle: More Ontario Line mess

below: Spadina and Richmond…. A giant thimble (by Stephen Cruise) sits on a stack of buttons. Behind it, a building is shrouded in blue netting.

below: Blue, blue, my world is blue… walking north on Spadina under blue netting that protects the sidewalk from work being done on the southwest corner of Queen and Spadina. The whole block between Richmond and Queen is under wraps. This is a future subway station with the imaginative name of Queen-Spadina.

below: Southwest corner of Queen and Spadina

below: A look at what’s happening behind the hoardings….

below: Mcdonalds on the northwest corner is unaffected by the changes around it.

below: Looking south on Spadina with a good view of the southeast corner of the intersection with Queen West.

below: There is a lot happening in the northeast quadrant, all by Metrolinx. the yellow framework that protects and stabilizes a facade is becoming a common sight in Toronto.

below: In case you can’t remember what was on that corner, this is a photo taken back when they were laying streetcar tracks in 1912. Most recently there was a CIBC bank on the corner.

black and white photo from 1912 of brick building on the northeast corner of Queen and Spadina.

Photo taken from WIkipedia Commons, in public domain. Originally from City of Toronto Archives.

below: A couple of the old houses/stores on Queen beside the old brick building seem remarkably unchanged since 1912. (As a light grey car partially blocks the pedestrian crossing at the intersection).

below: The 510 streetcars are not running during this construction.

below: But because the buses are too wide for the streetcar lanes, the middle of Spadina is very quiet… so I can stand here and take pictures.

below: It also means that the replacement buses are now running… and competing with cars for a limited space.

below: Painting over the graffiti

below: Just north of Queen, there is a large vacant lot on Spadina. So large you can see through to Cameron Street.

below: Cameron House and other houses on Cameron Street and beyond.

end of summer = Ex time

Posted: August 31, 2024 in events, people
Tags: Canadian National Exhibition, cheering, CNE, cotton candy, food, games, laughing, midway, people, popcorn, prizes, rides, stuffies, The Ex

As summer slowly winds down and August suddenly becomes September…..

Canadian National Exhibition, CNE: version 2024

Other CNE posts (if you’re not overwhelmed already!)

1. Around and around we go (2022)

2. Into the night (2014)

3. Afternoon at the Ex (2022)

4. CNE (2013)

an evening out

Posted: August 18, 2024 in alleys, doors, graffiti and street art, people, stores, transportation
Tags: College St., couples, Dundas, graffiti, Jarus, Kensington, Kleeshay, motorcycles, mural, Nazare Snack Bar, Nick Sweetman, Ossington, people, posters, reflections, roam_t.o, Sankofa Square, tensoe2, tomatoes

This used to be Yonge Dundas Square (photo below) – soon it will be Sankofa Square. Or at least I think that’s what’s happening as there was some controversy over the name change. Although the name Yonge Dundas is very dull and unimaginative, that is what we’ve become accustomed to calling it. Some of us still claim that the Leafs play at the ACC or that the Blue Jays call the SkyDome home – yeah, we can be rather slow!

Whatever its name, that intersection is usually a colourful place on a summer evening.

So that is where I started walking late in the afternoon the other day. The walk was rather meandering, and did include a quick hop on a streetcar or two. The weather was perfect and the streets were alive. It was nice to see so many people out enjoying the evening. Many (all?) of the curbside patios were busy too.

below: Spiderman sits on a chair waiting for someone to hang out with.

below: Garfield is not amused (but he is shiny… or is that why he’s grumpy?)

below: On a balcony in Kensington, a war protest or at least a pro-Ukraine and anti-Russian statement. Lots of sunflowers fill the space and Putin (presumably) is hung in effigy.

below: August is tomato season in Ontario!

below:Buddha prays (meditates?)

below: A rare species spotted in Kensington – a rainbow tree

below: Shadow play on a Kensington graffiti wall.

below: Laundry time

below: This young man still watches over College Street (mural by Jarus).

below: Lord of the Fries!

below: A creative use of a few chairs.

below: Mural by roam_t.o

below: Where danger lurks around the corner, unseen and unexpected! (mural by Tensoe2 and Nick Sweetman)

below: Nazare Snack Bar

below: Taking a rest from riding on the broom?! Hallowe’en shopping done early!

below: A sign that claims that Ossington is the coolest neighbourhood. Any opinions?

below: Don’t text me!

below: “Freedom is a state of mind” (not just another brick?)

below: Graffiti, text on a poster, by Kleeshay, “All the fun things we did when we were kids never stopped being fun we just stopped doing them”

below: “We are taught to put emphasis on our differences because it would be too dangerous if we ever realized how much we have in common “

below: A third Kleeshay poster – “You might forget who you are if you’re surrounded by people who act like you aren’t who you are. “

below: Turtle Island, bald eagle

below: Locked up; behind bars

below: “Respect the Space”, an urban collage on a door in Keningston. “Baby’s first pistol” – yikes!

below: Another collage, sort of – I find it hard to believe that someone actually taped a coffee cup to a pole… but seeing is believing?

below: Nothing fancy here, but I was fascinated by the old concrete posts that are keeping this fence up. She walked in front of me as I slowed down for a closer look…..

below: This final picture is for the person who mentioned that they once thought of collecting images of all the shopping carts they saw abandoned around the city. Ever since reading that comment, I see shopping carts everywhere!!

below: What do you see when you walk around Toronto?

lookin’ good – Pride 2024

Posted: July 2, 2024 in events, people
Tags: costumes, flags, heart, holding hands, hugs, laughing, LGBQT, love is love, parade, people, pride, rainbow, smiling, stripes, trans

This is a blog post full of people shots from Sunday of Pride week-end. Some taken during Church Street festivities and some along the parade route. There are posed shots, selfies, and a few candids. To me, Pride is about the people – the diversity of the crowd, the non-judgemental ‘come as you want’ attitude. Put on your party hats and join the celebration.