Ready to roll again?!
The last blog post ended at Dundas West Station where the Giraffe Building sits on the northwest corner of Bloor and Dundas …. so let’s picked it up from there…..
If you go north on Dundas from here you’ll find yourself in the Junction.
below: A quick peak north on Dundas West at Edna (first block north of Bloor).
But not today. Today we’re heading south on Dundas until it meets up with Roncesvalles. Then we’ll walk generally north and east until we cross Dundas at Sorauren. A brief stroll north on Sterling will bring us back to Bloor. That’s the plan!
below: Crossing Bloor at Dundas
below: Waiting by Jimmys Coffee
below: Walking their bikes
below: Jac’s Milk on Roncesvalles still has a mural depicting the 504 King streetcar. The boys at the table were selling eye protectors for watching the solar eclipse (that dates this walk!)
below: White Corner Variety
below: Outclass reflections
below: Jogging on Roncesvalles
below: Totally gutted
below: Also under renovations is the Hindu Prarthana Samaj Temple, the oldest Hindu temple in Toronto. Prior to being demolished, this was an old church building dating from 1886. First it was Ruth Street Presbyterian Mission and then later it became Fern Avenue Church of Christ until the Prarthana Samaj congregation bought the building in 1979. Soon it will look more like a Hindu temple!
below: Flowers on the side of a garage in an alley
below: New infill in an alley
below: With another one under construction nearby. Construction of these laneway homes was allowed beginning in the summer of 2018. Since then, their popularity has blossomed.
below: Wilson’s Variety & Grocery on a corner in a residential area.
below: No payment entertainment and BE BETTER where Sorauren meets Dundas West.
below: Same corner, southwest side. Pink door beside Timmy’s Variety.
below: The West Toronto Railpath runs up the east side of the railway tracks.
below: You can tell by the sweet chocolatey smell in the air that Nestle is still making chocolate bars and other candy here.
below: You are greater than everything
below: Halfway up Sterling Ave, around the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), there has been a flurry of development activity.
below: Development on the north side of MOCA.
below: A pair of anser eyes
below: Land Back, Turtle Island style.
below: Catchoo paste-up, catching a hand grenade
below: One wet fish dripping on Feelings Boi. The fish is probably the work of Rowan McCulloch.
below: More houses….
below: A row of bay and gable houses.
below: And that brings us back to Bloor …. Bloor Gift and Smoke Shop across the street from the north end of Sterling Ave
below: Looking west on Bloor from Perth. The southwest corner remains vacant. Old concrete steps go nowhere now, and haven’t for many years. The old tires are a more recent addition to the landscape. Unfortunately this one of the many sites in the city where development is in limbo. As early as 2010 there was a 12 storey building proposed on this site (1439 Bloor West plus 80 Perth). At the moment, there seems to plans in the works for a 14 storey building but the plans seem rather fluid (i.e. they keep changing).
below: Back in 2014 or 2015, the concrete walls of this underpass were painted with murals. Now almost all of it is tagged over or scrawled on. It’s a mess.
below: UP Express train stopped at Bloor West station on its way to Pearson Airport. The UP Express was in the news this past week because Metrolinx decided to change the scheduling such that half the trains no longer stop at the Bloor and Dundas stations. Cue the now-normal Doug Ford flip flop when there was a lot of very verbal backlash from the commuters that use these stations. The regular schedule has resumed.
From here it is a hop, step and a jump back to Dundas West station.
In case you are interested – Ten years ago, the building that houses MOCA stood alone. Its life as part of Tower Automotive had ended and its new life as a gallery hadn’t yet begun. Previous posts:
Tower Automotive 2013
Tower Automotive 2014
First visit to the new MOCA 2018