Riverdale | as I walk Toronto

Posts Tagged ‘Riverdale’

art walk – outside and in

Posted: April 3, 2024 in galleries, graffiti and street art
Tags: alleys, Anya Mielniczek, art gallery, blazeworks, Chief Ladybird, gallery, Gerrard St., karen couillard, Kyla Yager, lanes, Little India, Marina Doukas, Mimmo Baronello, Miyakah Emon, Natalie Plociennik, owls, painting, Poonam Khanna, Riverdale, Riverdale Hub, Robyn Asquini, SOWL, Steve McDonald, street art, tommy drift

… As seen on Gerrard Street East and the alleys that run behind it.

below: Paintings in a little outdoor gallery space – along the fence on Craven.

below: Swirls in black and red

below: Monstrous creatures and flowers on the stairs.

below: In a parking lot behind Gerrard, south side.

below: More laneway art

below: Close up view of a woman’s portrait painted by Anya Mielniczek

below: Part of a mural by Chief Ladybird and Auralas

below: It looks like the Venus Flytrap is trying to hide…

below: More illustrations of his work at SOWL, Art of Sowl

below: Tommy Drift characters on two sides.

below: The life of a mural isn’t always nice – the bottom part was tagged over and then painted.

below: Part of mural on the side of Whole Foods store

below: Large yellow flowers on Kohinoor Foods store.

below: More flowers, bright bold coloured flowers

below: And a red rose in Blazeworks mural

below: Woman in a pink head scarf overlooks the street

The Riverdale Hub and Gallery is on Gerrard Street. It is now home to three floors of gallery space. The remaining images in this post is a sampling of what I saw there when I visited back in March.

below: Poonam Khanna, Rainy Day series

below: Robyn Asquini

below: Detail, close up, of a Steve McDonald artwork.

below: Kyla Yager, “Looking for Words”

below: Three little pieces by Natalie Plociennik

below: Karen Couillard, part of a series, “ Beautiful Chaos : Nature’s Resilience”

below: Marina Doukas, “Performance by Bob the Drag Queen”.

below: Miyakah Emon, part of the “Invisible Playground” exhibit.

below: Mimmo (Domenico) Baronello, owls, the story tellers.

a tale of two bridges

Posted: September 15, 2023 in construction, locations, old buildings, transportation
Tags: Canadian National Railway, CNR, construction, dump truck, Eastern Ave., GO Transit, Leslieville, Metrolinx, Ontario line, Queen St. East, Riverdale, Riverside, street, traffic, train, trucks, TTC

Traffic on Eastern Avenue near Broadview has faced construction and traffic delays over the past few months. The slow downs are ongoing as work on the railway bridge progresses. This work is because Metrolinx is adding tracks to make room for the new Ontario Line. Like many parts of the city, there are many changes occurring in the area.

Demolition on the north side of Eastern, and poof, gone, one large 5 storey Self Storage facility at 356 Eastern. Removed to make way for new tracks. The beige house faces Lewis Street.

… and now sitting gutted on the south side is another not old building (South side of Eastern Ave between Broadview and the railway tracks).

South side of Eastern, from another angle.

West side approach to the Canadian National Railway bridge

Along with the new railway line, Metrolinx is building what they are calling the East Harbour transit hub. This involves a new Ontario Line station as well as a new GO station on the Lakeshore East and Stouffville GO lines. Eventually, plans are to have TTC streetcars or LRT link here (it is directly south of Broadview and there is a plan to extend Broadview).

below: Construction along the railway line, south of Eastern Ave

below: One side (the east side) of the railway tracks has been demolished. Ultimately the whole bridge will be replaced but it is being done in stages to allow GO trains and VIA rail trains to continue running throughout the process.

A constant flow of dump trucks back and forth, in and out, of the construction site south of Eastern (on both sides of the railway tracks). The 38 acre site that includes the old Lever Bros (Ponds, Sunlight etc) soap factory is being redeveloped at the same time – it extends south to Lakeshore and west to the Don River.

Looking west on Eastern Ave, back towards downtown.

405 Eastern Ave, immediately east of the railway bridge, is also under construction. It has nothing to do with transportation as it is a new Enbridge building. A large 3 storey building with both offices and industrial (computers?) will probably be built here.

Makes sense, gas pipelines on site.

Just north of Eastern Ave, the railway tracks cross Queen St East., crossing over a bridge of the same style and vintage. Once upon a time this was a level crossing with a railway station on the northwest corner, the Riverdale station on the Grand Trunk Railway. This is soon to be the location of the Riverside Leslieville station on the not yet built Ontario Line.

So far the bridge is still intact but it too will be completely changed by the time Metrolinx is finished. The station itself will be on the bridge (if their drawings & plans are to be believed).

Here there will be 6 tracks – 4 for GO Transit and 2 for the Ontario Line.

all, nothing, and a smattering in between

Posted: August 24, 2020 in alleys, graffiti and street art, history, intersections, old buildings, public art
Tags: all or nothing, angel, bee, Broadview, Dennis House, Dundas East, graffiti, Inside out, Jimmie Simpson Park, Leslieville, Pierre Poussin, Queen Alexandra Middle School, Queen East, railway tracks, Riverdale, Riverside, stencil, urban ninja squadron, words

Most of these pictures were taken on a walk within the area bounded by Dundas East, Broadview, Queen East, and Carlaw.

below: All or nothing

below: Same same but different.

below: “We miss you” at Queen Alexandra Middle School. An older school, built in 1904/5, used to be on this site. It was named after the Queen of England at the time, the wife of King Edward VII, Queen Alexandra.

below: Also at Queen Alexandra Middle School, about 200 large black and white portraits of staff and students were on display on the exterior wall of the school. This installation is part of the global ‘Inside Out’ project. To date, Inside Out has appeared in 129 countries and has involved more than 260,000 people. In fact, they were in Toronto for Nuit Blanche back in 2015.

below: Public art at Carlaw and Dundas. I had mentioned this structure by Pierre Poussin back in March of this year. Not a lot has been done on it in the meantime except for the preparations for some sort of pattern at ground level.

below: The railway tracks cross Dundas Street just west of Carlaw. The tracks run on a NE – SW diagonal as they travel south from Gerrard.

below: Save Jimmie Simpson park poster. The Ontario Line, or the Relief Line of the subway/LRT may or may not come this way. The Relief Line was once planned as an underground line under Pape to almost Eastern before swinging west towards downtown. Someone then said why not run it above ground where the tracks already exist between Gerrard & Pape and the south end of the Don Valley Parkway at Corktown Common- and we can have a Leslieville stop. Has any decision been made? Is Toronto going to leave it all in limbo, or in the discussion/planning stage, forever and ever… and ever….

below: The north part of Jimmie Simpson Park. The park is a right angle triangle with a peak at Dundas East and a base along Queen East. The long side of the triangle is railway tracks which run behind the trees.

below: Once upon a time there was a railway station here, on Queen East at De Grassi that is. It was operational between 1896 and 1932 and demolished in 1974. In the beginning there was a level crossing here but after a number of accidents, including a collision between a freight train and a street car in 1904, the railway corridor was elevated.

below: Old black and white photo from the City of Toronto Archives, found online at “Old Time Trains”

below: Aged and peeling painting of a Canada goose that was on the railway underpass.

below: Eat the rich – and a picnic table is provided for your convenience. Don’t worry about the trains, they’re long gone. This was once a spur line and it hasn’t existed for years . You can still find small sections of track but most of it has been paved over. (near Carlaw and Dundas)

below: Looking west, towards downtown, along Dundas East. The old red brick building is on the northeast corner of Dundas and Broadview.

below: Flipped around and now looking east from Broadview in 1954. The red brick building from the above photo appears to be Dennis House and it seems that they are advertising the fact that they have televisions. On the south side of Dundas is a drug store. That building is still there but now it is a variety store whose windows are often covered with Lotto649 and LottoMax ads. In fact, the picture of the Bell telephone boxes near the beginning of this post was taken here.

photo credit: City of Toronto Archives, found online on a Blog TO page

below: This jumble of colours and lines can be found just east of Broadview and they are just visible in the background of the above picture. I love the little white door that probably leads to a basement apartment (or a secret garden in the front yard?!)

below: If you walk farther east on Dundas from Broadview you will see a collection of old two storey houses with their slate mansard roofs and dormer windows. This roof style is typical of “Second Empire” houses built in the late 1800s. I’ve always been intrigued by this group of houses but I have never been able to find out much about their history.