Posts Tagged ‘St. Clair’

Silhouettes on the door

Posted: October 9, 2023 in construction, graffiti and street art, locations, transportation
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I heard about these silhouettes that have painted on the plywood used to board up the doors and windows of five empty houses so I went to see them for myself.  They are on Raglan Road which is close to St. Clair and Bathurst.

black silhouettes of people painted on plywood used to board up doors and windows of empty houses waiting to be demolished

black silhouettes of people painted on plywood used to board up doors and windows of two empty houses waiting to be demolished

black silhouettes of people painted on plywood used to board up doors and windows of empty houses waiting to be demolished, older woman

“Took a walk and passed your house late last night
All the shades were pulled and drawn way down tight
From within, the dim light cast two silhouettes on the shade
Oh, what a lovely couple they made”

two black silhouettes painted on plywood covering a window, parent holding up young child in air above head

row of houses boarded up and empty

I am not sure how long these houses have been empty but there is graffiti in the back too.

graffiti across the back of two empty houses

As I was in the neighbourhood, what else is there to see here?  Anything new? Back in 2015 I posted a few pictures from the St. Clair and Vaughan Road area (see Intersections).  This time I stayed within the northwest quadrant of that intersection.   Like most places, somethings have changed while other things remain the same.

Back to early October 2023 …  many other houses were empty and boarded up

behind metal construction fence, an empty house that has been boarded up

yellow fire hydrant in front of hoardings around old houses waiting to be demolished. The hoardings hava painting of a young man, a red poppy and a large orange flower

… and many other houses have already been demolished.

man walking past construction site with tall condo tower as well as single family houses in the background

vacant lot with houses and highrises bhind

red and blue barrels in a vacant lot in front of other buildings

In the above picture you can see that this area has some older smaller apartment buildings.  Raglan Road runs parallel to Vaughan Road, home to many mid-sized older buildings.

front entrance of an older brick apartment building

three storey brick apartment building on Vaughan Road

three storey brick apartment building on Vaughan Road

cement truck delivering cement to a work site beside an older brick apartment building

below: Linked buildings

elevated corridors, open to outside, linking buildings

Once it was the Happy Family Restaurant.  Now someone (a happy family?) lives there.

squarish building, two storey, lower level once a store, now a residence, two entrance doors, old yellow sign

…. other businesses are boarded up.  This was the Dutch Dreams Ice Cream shop before they moved farther south on Vaughan Road.  While it sits empty it is a space for graffti.  Dutch Dreams had moved out before December 2015.

old black Mercedes car parked beside a boarded up red brick building

below: Just wait – Not sure what we’re waiting for but I see an alpha and an omega on a death moth?

paper graffiti with words just wait, black and white drawing of a dragonfly, on red brick

below: Peeling and faded.  Sailor dude and some colourful designs.

peeling and faded paper graffiti

below: Elaborate probably female form with gown and hat beside a not so elaborate wine bottle.  The label on the bottle says Lutte Libre Bruht.

black stencil graffiti on plywood

below: They’ve been here a while – Urban Ninja Squadron’s T-Bonez in various poses including dressed as Robin, the Boy Wonder.

peeling pasteup graffiti on plywood

below: Give Love and be a Hero

paper pasteup printed in red, on plywood board covering window

In the summer of 2020 there was fire in the adjacent building that impacted the old Dutch Dreams building too.  That was three years ago.   It is a pity that empty buildings sit for so long especially since nothing good comes of it.

in alley, back of buildings that had burned, fence with no trespassing signs around them

More people – Street musicians playing on the sidewalk.

mural on a box on the street, a group of musicians playing, trumpet, bass, singing,

As I walked around the neighbourhood I noticed a mix of architectural styles and building sizes.

From single family….

tall trees and single family homes

streetscape with different shaped houses

Through midsized apartments like the older ones shown above as well as some newer ones….

midrise apartment buildings with some single family homes in the middle

apartment buildings with green space between them

… To massive apartment buildings

very large, wide, highrise residential building with white balconies

large tag graffiti that says a c k , on the side of a brick house

below: Southwest corner of St. Clair and Vaughan Road

person in wheelchair being pushed across St. Clair at Vaughan Road, southwest corner with CIBC bank in old brick building

beside lowrise building from the 1960s, a single story older brick building, Choice coin laundry

brick buildings on vaughan road, 4 storey apartment building, coin laundry, and a convenience store

mister milk convenience store on vaughan road, once a two storey house, with upstairs enclosed balcony

below: The bright yellow building of Hercules Automotive and Tire Service in an alley behind St. Clair.  The top of St. Alphonsus R C church can be seen above it.

low yellow building in alley, Hercules Automotive and tire service, parking lot in front of it, top of St. Alphonsus R C Church behind it, also three tall condo towers in the background

below: Walking westward on St. Clair approaching Wychwood Ave with yet another vacant lot.

father and son walking on sidewalk, along St clair west, towards wychwood ave

below: St. Clair Avenue Baptist Church, on this site since November 1924.

Baptist church on Wychwood ave., brown brick building

below: Beside St. Alphonsus RC Church at Vaughan Road and St. Clair.

statue of man holding a bird, a small wreath hangs beside the statue

street sign for Helen Porter Lane, with Kenwood Arts sign attached to same pole

below: Kenwood

wood utility pole in alley, painted with pink, blue, and green heart, with stripes and squares below

below: A Jack Layton quote: “Love is better than hate; Hope is better than fear.”

words written in many colours across a board on a wood fence in an alley, a quote from Jack Layton that says

hand written poem story on board, hanging next to a garage with paintings of birds in a tree

“AND people stayed home and read books and listened and rested.
… and learned new ways and stopped and listened more deeply
… and people began to think differently.  And people healed
… AND when the danger ended and people found themselves, they grieved for the dead … and made new choices … and dreamed new visions… and created new ways of living… and healed the earth as they were healed.”

below: “My Blue World – I know a place where the world is still where time and space have no hold”  Painting by Elly Dawson 2020.  Poem by Lanna M.

my blue world, a painting on a wood fence, of two boats in the water,

below: A large Canadian flag hangs over the Toronto skyline.

mural on a garage door, large canadian flag behind the toronto skyline, blue lake in front, blue sky behind

Also in Helen Porter Lane, someone has taken advantage of the space here to build new housing.

new housing built in a lane

 

The orange sign on the streetcar stop says that the 512 St. Clair streetcar stopped running early in September 2023 and will be out of service until summer 2024.   The whole line from Yonge to Gunns Loop

 

bus shelter on route 512, St. Clair streetcar, at Bathurst

below: Westbound TTC buses on St. Clair

2 TTC buses plus traffic, westbound on St. Clair in front of Loblaws just before Bathurst street

While we’re on the subject of the TTC, one very dirty bus shelter!

Stop – Take a Breath

stop sign with words and breathe added to it

locked gate, fence, vacant lot, with lowrise apartment buildings in the background

birdo on St. Clair

Posted: November 13, 2019 in graffiti and street art
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Just outside the street entrance to St. Clair subway station, there is a new large mural by birdo aka Jerry Rugg. It is on the side of 1 St. Clair East.  Leafless tree branches reach above the roofline of the station.    It looks like red and blue cube shapes are suspended from above.

street entrance to St. Clair subway station, some people walking towards it, a large mural on the building behind it

below:  Here is the full mural as seen from a bit farther back.  Now you can see that the wires and cubes are not linked at all.  The wires are those used by the St. Clair streetcar.   This part of the city is also known as Deer Park hence the deer at the top of the mural.
large mural by birdo, vertical, on the side of a building, with a realistic deer head at the top

There are construction hoardings in in front of 1 St. Clair East because the building is being renovated. Several images by birdo are on the hoardings. These are some of them:

Jerry Rugg, a la , birdo, paintings on construction hoardings, various abstract animal forms, owl, deer

below: It’s a flamingo, it’s an octopus, it’s a….?

birdo painting on hoardings at a construction site, flamingo head, toucan beak, and lots of cube and other geometric shapes

below: An owl’s face

birdo painting of an owl's face on construction hoardings, geometric shapes

As an aside re the name Deer Park…. according to Wikipedia, “The name dates from 1837, when the Heath family purchased 40 acres of land on the northwest corner of Yonge and St. Clair…and named it Deer Park. By the 1850s the neighbourhood included a racetrack, a school, and a hotel at which patrons could feed deer which roamed the Heaths’ property. The Heath property was subdivided in 1846 and was entirely sold off by 1874.”

phlegm’s progress

Posted: August 5, 2016 in graffiti and street art, locations, public art
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British mural artist Phlegm has been painting a large mural on the side of 1 St. Clair West.   The first time I saw it, was on the 14th of July when it looked liked this:

below: The white background of the mural was painted first.

a street in Toronto, St. Clair Ave., with an older nine storey building with concrete facing, on the side, above the level of the stores beside it, is the outline of the start of a mural. All painted white, a seated figure.

I have been watching it, checking up on it every couple of days.  At first I took photos fairly frequently because I had no idea how long it would take before the mural was finished.

below:  19th July

a verylarge mural on the side of a building is in the process of being painted. An white outline of a seated person with their knees drawn up, one leg has been painted with a design in black

As it turns out, there is a lot of detail in the mural!  It slowly took shape.

below: 21st July

a very large mural on the side of a building is in the process of being painted. An white outline of a seated person with their knees drawn up, one leg has been painted with a design in black

below: Fast forward to today…. the mural is almost finished. …
but wait!  Isn’t that the CN tower on the shoulder?

large black and white mural by phlegm of a seated person with their knees bent up, made of tiny houses and buildings and other structures

below: Hey!  It is the CN tower.  And isn’t that the Gooderham/flatiron building?  And that building with the little dome, isn’t that on Yonge street?

close up of mural made up of toronto landmarks like the cn tower and the gooderham flatiron building

below: There’s the ROM and its ‘crystal’ too!   This is the ‘bottom’ of the figure and in this photo two things become clearer.  First, the scale of the project and just how big the mural is becomes apparent.  Second, the mural is of a person coming out of the earth, being pulled out by the roots almost.  But is it a person?  Or is it a living city?

the bottom part of a mural, man in scaffolding is still working on it, black on white, pictures of buildings.

below: The head part – play ‘spot the building’!  Is that old city hall?

head part of phlegm mural

below: Scalliwags is on one of the knees along with a lot of trees.

knees part of the mural

below: And last, the feet with more roots at the heels

feet of a person in a mural made of paintings of trees and buildings, roots growing out of the heels. satelite dish in the mural and on the building beside the mural

This project is also a part of the STEPS Initiative program.

This post also appears in a blog about street art. Phelgm’s Progress.

changes under St. Clair East

Posted: January 5, 2015 in graffiti and street art, locations
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St. Clair Ave East passes over a ravine just east of Yonge St. 

a view of the bridge from a path in the ravine from a short distance away. It is winter so there is some snow and ice on the path and the trees have no leaves.

Looking south towards St. Clair

The Yellow Creek flows through this ravine.
To the north, the creek is underground until the south side of Mount Pleasant cemetery. 

A view under the bridge, looking from one side to the other across a creek. The curved metal supports under the bridge are visible. There is snow on the ground but the creek is not frozen.

The ground was slippery and the water in the creek was flowing quickly. 
  In other words, I didn’t cross over to the other side of the bridge.

At some point in the past year the graffiti that was under this bridge must have been “cleaned up”.  Since then, new tags have appeared.
Whether they are an improvement over what was there previously is a matter of opinion.

looking up towards the top of a bridge from a path along the ravine below. two concrete supports are visible as well as part of the road way across the top of the bridge. There is a graffiti tag on one of the supports.

southwest corner of the bridge

Two colourful tags on a concrete bridge support, each one is on a different side of the support

SORT and BEGIN

Graffiti tags under a bridge

Graffiti tags under a bridge