Posts Tagged ‘row houses’

farther west on Gerrard

Posted: February 4, 2023 in alleys, construction, graffiti and street art, locations, old buildings, reflections
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mural, purple letters on black and orange background, word says broadview

traffic signal, red light, on pole with many street signs, plus 40 kmh sign, Broadview and Gerrard

A short while ago, I posted some pictures from Little India which is centered on Gerrard Street.  If you travel farther west on Gerrard you come to what has become known as Chinatown East (as you approach Broadview).

construction infill on Gerrard, building behind the stores,

below: Nappa, Chinese cabbage, and White radish,

on display outside, for sale, chinatown, veggies,

below: Scenic Aqualium Co., Exotic Fish and Bonsai (yes it has an ‘L’).

a woman walks down gerrard street, past scenic aquarium store with exotic fish and bonsai for sale

window of a chinese restaurant, orange walls inside, copies of the menu taped to the window, open sign is lit

sushi restaurant, a fruit and vegetable store, and other shops on Broadview

below: Shoes, boots, and umbrellas.

small shoe repair shop on gerrard, umbrellas for sale, red chinese lantern hanging from ceiling

piles of taro root and butternut squash for sale

below: Carrots and tomatoes

carrots and tomatoes for sale, chinatown

vegetables for sale in chinatown

below: Pomegranates in boxes and forks on the wall

interior of fruit and vegetable market in chinatown

outside display boxes painted green and full of citrus fruits for sale, chinatown store, awning overhead, people walking by

stores on gerrard, in chinatown east

under a blue awning, shelves of plastic wrapped fruits and vegetables for sale

hung hair salon on gerrard street

faded menu board on the sidewalk, chinese restuarant, also a van from orkin pest control parked there

xray and ultrasound sign in chinese, also law office, and other businesses

below: Aging price list

an old weathered sign outside a hair salon on Gerrard Street, red lettering on white but moldy grey

a woman walk spast mi mi restaurant on gerrard street

below: Old Lumberking ghost sign on the southwest corner of Logan and Gerrard

building at the southwest corner of Gerrard and Logan, has a yellow ghost sign for Lumberking

below: Broadview and Gerrard – looking east along Gerrard

looking east from Broadview, Scotiabank on the north side of Gerrard and A & W burger restaurant fast food on the south side, both in old brick buildings, rainy day, wet pavement

below: Streetcar stop on the southwest corner of Broadview and Gerrard

people getting on and off TTC streetcar at Broadview and Gerrard

an ad for boba boy bubble tea in an old window, surrounded by street art mural

bike rental stand in front of a vacant lot with a large mural to one side, mayan temple from central america

below: Square and orange on top.

row houses, square roofline, two storey, orange brick upper, bay windows, stores on ground level,

below: More stores  –  Jiahua Trading Company with its assortment of goods beside the Dai Kuang Wah Herb Market.

stores in Chinatown East, Jiahua Trqding Company and an herb store

late afternoon in the rain, a person waits with a black dog for the traffic light to turn green

below: One Plus One Hair Salon, Tung Hing Bakery, and Sing Sing BBQ House – all adding to the eclectic mix of store fronts in the area.

businesses and stores on Gerrard Street, Chinatown East,

below: House reflections

reflection of a house in a window surrounded by street art

below: No more ‘Epoch Times’ in front of this store.

window in front of a store in chinatown, western union ad, lotto 649 ad, empty newspaper box, other goods behind glass

below: A get together of paper characters – The Incredible Raffa, Las Mujeres Vampiro, Life (that’s the one-eyed daisy), T-bonez got knifed in the back.

pasteups in a group on a brick wall, urban ninja squadron, mask, daisy with one eye,

below: Peace, in red

red urban ninja squadron t bonez sticker on a grey metal utility pole, giving peace sign

below: White roses to heal with

large painting in white on black brick white roses, and text that says here to heal, a woman's face is partially hidden by the white roses

below: Homer Simpson with 64 slices of cheese!

painting by Chris Perez on the side of a cheese store, Homer Simpson in his underwear sitting at a table and eating cheese

a sign outside a store that says repair unlock and then words in mandarin

below: Santa Claus and a skeleton – covering more than one holiday at a time.

a skeleton halloween decoration is on the railing of a porch, in front of it, on the grass is a small santa claus in a red sleigh on a small pile of snow

alley behind Gerrard St., large old garage, leaning, covered with grey shingles, old tree‘

below: Old mural street art painting in the alley (from 2016)

part of a mural in an alley, on a wood fence, nose and open mouth of a furry animal with big teeth and fangs

close up of a monkey or ape face with bright red nose, mural in an alley

looking down an alley, with houses on the street at the end of the lane, garages, winter but no snow, fences, old trees,

below: Infill – new housing being constructed in the alley

plywood covers a new building, infill housing being constructed in an alley,

backyard on a laneway that is all mud and puddles
looking down a lane with an orange jeep parked by a green garage, a brick building at the end with blue doors

in a driveway or parking lot, with a white metal gate, along one side of a store, a mural of many flowers

part of a painting on the side of a store, a blue fish and some lotus leaves

Dundas Street runs parallel to Gerrard, just a bit to the south…. and that is where you’ll find this dog sitting outside in rain or shine.

a small dark brown brick house with a window, some stickers in the window, and a large paper paste up of a dog beside the window

below: The Dundas Street Public School class of 2022 left their mark on the fence with their messages of love and peace.

chainlink fence by a school has many little square paintings attached to it, each one was by a student from the class of 2022.

below: As did the the class of 2021

chainlink fence by a school has many little square paintings attached to it, each one was by a student from the class of 2021.

This blog post may be getting too long so I will start to end it here with a brief survey of the older residential architecture on Gerrard and Dundas and the streets in between (for those of you who are interested in such things).

below: A semi with a shared central peak.

red semi detached house on gerrard with pointy roof in the center, one side has built an enclosed porch by the front door

below: Little diamond windows

flat roofed seim detached house in fake brick, two small diamond shaped windows in the front, both sides with white porch

old brick two storey rowhouses with black mansour roof with upper windows in roof

bay and gable row houses on gerrard street, painted in different colours, grey, white, maroon, one with a bright red staircase and railing.

below: Details made with contrasting colours of bricks

a row of brick houses, most with yellow brick contrasting detail near the roofline

below: Another semi detached house with a shared central peak.

white two storey plain semi house with shared central peak

below: Flat roofed houses with blues and reds.

below: Shapes – rectangles on top, rounded windows,

square roofline brick building with green trim

below: Cameras on the corner…. and a megaphone too?

on the northeast corner of Gerrard and Logan is a pole with security cameras and a loud speaker, looking diagonally across to southwest corner, TTC streetcar stopped there

And lastly,  a shout out to Lamoon Thai Cafe where I stopped for a hot drink (great Thai tea!) and to get out of the rain for a few minutes.

side of a building, window, with interior lights on, illuminated sign of a cup of tea in the window, Lamoon Cafe, Thai drinks and food

Dundas, Jones and a bit of Gerrard

Posted: April 19, 2019 in general Toronto
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This blog post is a result of a walk from last week, from Dundas and Jarvis to Jones and Gerrard – from downtown into Leslieville/Riverdale on a beautiful day for a walk.   As usual, I strayed onto a few alleys along the way.   The pictures below may or may not be in sequential order but it doesn’t matter, does it?

below: Although many of the buildings around it have been demolished, Filmores Hotel remains.  I’m not sure if that’s a comment on the ownership of the building, or its use.

Filmores Hotel with large sign above the hotel and a black and white sign over the front entrance, old brick building

Once upon a time, e.g. in 1916, Dundas Street only existed westward from Ossington.   There was no Dundas Street downtown or in the eastern part of the city.  After WW1, a collection of smaller streets were widened and joined together to form Dundas Street as far as Broadview.   That is why there are these curves in the street between George and Sherbourne.

construction on dundas street, a vacant lot where a building was demolished, construction equipment and a dump truck working at the site, old building beside

below: Maybe it was once someone’s large house?  Now it’s looking a little run down but it’s still home to George’s Pizza and George’s BBQ.  The one on the corner is Piassa Injera and Takeout which is Ethiopian.

a large old victorian brick building, once a large house now divided up, 3 restaurants at street level, Georges Pizza, Georges BBQ, and one in a foreign alphabet, Ethiopian restaurant Piassa Injera

below:  Looking back towards downtown and the wall of glass and steel that has been erected.

dundas street east, looking back towards downtown from Sherbourne street, new condos and highrises in steel and glass overwhelming the older shorter buildings on Dundas such as Filmores Hotel and Georges pizza

below: The True Love Cafe at the corner of Sherbourne and Dundas. It’s had a fresh coat of paint and the hearts on the exterior wall have been fixed up. Only the sign needs a little TLC.

the True Love Cafe on the corner of Dundas and Sherbourne, purple walls on exterior ground floor, large red awning over entrance,

a man with a cane in one hand, and pushing a bike with other walks down an alley. he also has a backpack on his back

below: The redevelopment of Regent Park continues.

reflections in hoardings that are covered with a picture of yellow curtains and brown wood, sidewalk beside the hoardings and a wood structure over the sidewalk

below: New buildings in Regent Park.

looking through the window of a building under construction, concrete walls, some black pipes, also in orange paint the word exit with an arrow


below: I stopped for a drink at Daniels Spectrum where I came across an interesting exhibit…. A sample of some of the photographs on display at Daniels Spectrum. They are part of a project, #ShootForPeace, by Yasin Osman. Each features youth from Regent Park with the theme of the exhibit being family and how family can be defined.

6 black and white photos of people on a wall in a gallery, photos of Regent Park residents, by Yasim Osman

below: One of the stained glass windows from St. Bartholomews church, in memory of Sister Theresa, 1891-1988.  I’ve walked past this church many times but this was the first time that I went inside.   It is a small, quiet church with some nice stained glass.

stained glass window in St. Bartholomews church

below: Graffiti on a wall.

graffiti on a red brick wall that says Space is Fake

below: Walking her dog on the Don River trail.

looking down from a bridge, a woman walks her black dog along a path beside the Don River, also train tracks running parallel to the path and river

below: Looking north towards the Gerrard Street bridge.

brige over the Don River, earl spring, no snow or ice but no leaves yet on the trees, Don Valley Parkway, road, to the right of the river, looking north towards Gerrard street

below: Looking south along the Bayview Extension to the new development in the East Don Lands.

looking south on Bayview street from Dundas as it passes large metal hydro poles, also new development (condos) in East Don Lands, fire truck on road

below: Just east of the DVP a truck was offloading new cars including this black Rolls Royce.

a brand new black Bentley car being unloaded from a truck

below: Same car, looking east towards Dons Milk store

new rolls royce parked on the side of a street after being unloaded from a truck

below: Waiting for summer

a faded red canoe leans against a wood fence in a backyard

In the early 1950s, the City of Toronto began a new road project to extend Dundas eastwards from Broadview to Kingston Road to serve as a new four-lane traffic arterial, intended as an alternative to Gerrard and Queen. Nine streets were widened to form the new Dundas street and in some cases, alleyways were used to connect these streets, and this is clearly visible as garages and backyards continue to front on to Dundas near Jones Avenue.

row of garages facing onto the street, backs of houses and a very large tree

open garage door with a window at the back of the garage, other garage beside it has closed door, can also see back of the two houses

a blue bike leans against a chainlink fence, behind it is a piece of street art that says happy days are here again, with painting of a man walking

Dundas Street is a major thoroughfare in the city – there aren’t many family homes that front onto it.    Jones, other hand, is a residential street.  The houses are an eclectic mix, most of which are fairly modest – or less.

an open gate leading to an entrance, a few stairs up to a porch

below: Flat roofs on small, narrow rowhouses with tiny front yards.

two storey row houses with flat roofs,

below: Half white and half yellow.

a semi-divided house, one side white and the other side yellow

porches on houses

below: Once upon a time, Toronto street signs were these blue and white metal signs that were attached to the buildings on the corners.  They are hard to read from the street!  Beginning in the 1950’s they were replaced with the signs that we are more accustomed to seeing.  There are still quite a few of these old ones spread out around the city in older neighbourhoods.   It is rare to find a house with two signs.

two old Toronto street signs, blue metal, attached to a house at Jones Ave and Sproat Ave

below: An ad for W.N. McEachern & Sons Ltd. that appeared in the Toronto Star on 26 April 1912 (online source).   They developed a few areas in the east part of Toronto including Eastmount Park which was between Danforth and Gerrard on the east side of Jones.

newspaper ad from 1912 in the Toronto Star

row houses in brown, white, and grey

below: Near the corner of Jones and Gerrard, surprise, surprise, a hole in the ground.

a construction site, a hole in the ground, with backs of houses behind the find surrounding it

below: Before I end this post, one last cute little white house tucked in between two larger brick residences.

a tiny, narrow, two storey house beside a larger brick house

Safe walking everyone!

below: Sometimes I love fences!

a medium sized black dog stands behind a chain link fence beside a white pickup truck

a red truck parked in an alley with a lot of stuff beside it

walking dundas and dufferin

Posted: September 29, 2017 in doors, old buildings, stores, windows and walls
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Yesterday I was out near Dundas West and Dufferin to visit an art gallery, the Stephen Bulger Gallery, as they have a showing of photos of the Union Station renovation by Larry Towell.  I don’t have any photos from that exhibit, but it is on for another week if you’re interested.

a woman is looking at clothes on a rack that are for sale outside a store, chalk board syas You Babe, other people on the sidewalk, store in background is Elite Plumbing and Heating

Instead, I have photos from the walk that I took afterwards.  I started walking west on Dundas and south on Dufferin, looking for interesting doors, windows, and stores.  I wasn’t disappointed.  Of course, I was distracted (alleys!) along the way (graffiti!) but I have tried to stick to the architectural shots for this post.  Sort of.  In no particular order….

below: There was a car parked in front of this building so I cropped off the bottom.  The optical illusion covered the whole front of the building.  It’s definitely unique!

the front exterior wall of a building is decorated with a painting of 3D cubes arranged in an optical illusion

below: Two people walk past a forest of trees and shrubs.

lower part of a brick building has been covered with a mural that is orange background, and cut out (wood) flat green trees in various shapes. A real tree grows in front of it, a metal traffic box is painted with a scene of two people walking with the same orange background

below: Lisboa Hardware and Building Supplies with many household items on display outside – including barbecues, watering cans, and carpets. Old paintings linger on the tile wall.

The entrance to the Lisboa Hardware and building supply store with lots of household merchandise outside

below: A blue bike is parked in front of the french doors of the Black Dice Cafe.

a blue bike is parked outside the glass windows and door of the black dice cafe

below: A very typical two storey house in this part of Toronto.  This was the predominate style of architecture of residential buildings at a certain time – late 1800’s and early 1900’s I think (and maybe longer?).    I like the Canadian flag in the window and the new tree in the tiny front yard.

a girl on a bike rides past the entrance to an alley. Behind her is a two storey house in tan coloured siding, with darker tan trim, bay window, Canadian flad in the doorway,

below: On Dufferin Street, an increasingly common scene as glass towers pop up all over the city.  The west side of Dufferin Street, just north of Queen.

In the background, two large high rise buildings, modern, in the foreground, a row of older two storey houses

below: A similar scene on a smaller street nearby.

a row of two storey houses on a small street with a two aprtment blocks behind them.

below: Distractions in an alley – this one was a dead end (with the dead end behind me).  One of the disadvantages of having your garage in an alley like this is that getting your lawn mower from the garage to the yard involves a bit of a walk.    But look at all those doors and windows in buildings that look like they’ve been painted from the same palate.

a man walks a lawn mower down a short alley, garage doors on both sides of him as well as in front of him, back of houses behind the garages and taller apartment buildings behind that.

below: Another alley with a different character.  An open door covered with graffiti, balconies above the garages, and what is that?  – a TTC pole at the top of the stairs?

view down an alley,

below: The entranceway of an older brick low-rise apartment building on St. Clarens Ave.

The entrance to a three storey apartment building, with wood railings on fake balconies and some brick work too

below: Another distraction!  A crochet bombed pole beside a bright pink wall.

a utility pole is wrapped in crocheted squares in many colours, the house beside the pole is bright pink

below: I happened upon this cute little free library too –    so cute and whimsical with its big eyes keeping watch.   There has been some controversy about these in Toronto recently.  One owner of little library was ticketed for violating a city bylaw that disallows structures on a person’s property within 3.5 metres of a sidewalk.  It was ordered removed within 14 days or a $100 fine would be levied.   Yesterday City Hall decided not to pursue this.

a little free library in front of a green coloured house. Inside the window of the library are two large googly eyes

below: Nearby was another little free library with a little latched door.  It seems that here you can also pick up a pair of shoes along with a book!

white box on stilts, a little free library, trees and shrubs around it, a pair of shoes on the sidewalk in front of it.

below:  Did I find Toronto’s smallest house?

a car is parked in front of a very small one storey house that is between two large and taller houses,

below: Somewhere in the jungle is a front door or two!  A shared sidewalk to squabble over in the winter – who gets to shovel it.

two overgrown front yards with a sidewalk down the middle, a semi divided brick house in the background.

below:   Gates.  I’ve never understood the reason for little gates like these.  Back in their youth they probably looked quite trim and proper.  Now they are sagging and rusted and showing their age; perhaps that’s a reflection of their owners?  Not a complaint – a rusted gate has great photographic potential.

a fence across the front of two houses, each with their own sidewalk and gate.

 

below: Fire damage that is now being repaired.  The neighbours seem to have built a thriving shrine (good luck charm?, religious offering?  is there a name for these?) beside their front door.

A row of houses where one is damaged from a recent fire. Burned front door. Windows have been boarded over, a skip for garbage isin front, workmen on the site

below: We have our share of ugly doors on ugly walls.

two white doors side by side on a dirty concrete block wall that someone has written the words In Toronto it's okay to hate transvestites

below: Have a seat

two grey wicker chairs in front of two adjacent white doors on a concrete wall. the building beside is orange

below:  On Dufferin Street between Dundas and Queen – Once upon a time this house was totally decorated in pink and white.  Some of it remains – the arch in front of the door as well as the fence at the side of the house.  Now it is bigger, squarer, and uglier.   Even the grominator graffiti on the wall can’t overcome the ‘boringness’ of the renovated structure.

sqaure two storey brick house under renovation, with pink and white metal fence around it. a grominator graffiti on the side

below: I don’t want to end this post on an ugly note, so here’s a cheerful bright yellow door!

yellow door on a rust house