Toronto Through My Lens
That’s right – I started this blog on July 31, 2022. Happy First Birthday!
Thank you to all my loyal subscribers for sticking with me all this time. There’s still a lot more TOcityscapes to come!
If you’d like to take a look back at the year that was, I’ve created an Archives page where you can select and view any post from the past year.
As a bit of a retrospective, here are links to a few of the posts that generated the most viewer response or comments from the past year. Enjoy!
At 10 Niagara Street, on the corner of Portland Street and Niagara, sits Victoria Memorial Square:
Victoria Memorial Square is a park and former cemetery. It was established in 1793 as the burial place for those affiliated with the nearby Toronto Garrison (Fort York). It was the first cemetery to be used by European settlers in what would become the city of Toronto. Originally known as St. John’s Square, the park today is part of Fort York National Historic Site.
This monument in the Square is entitled The Old Soldier, and was erected by the British Army and Navy Veterans’ Association. It was erected to honour the dead of the War of 1812, on this site of an old burial ground used between 1794 and 1863 for soldiers and their families from nearby Fort York.
The memorial was designed and constructed by Walter Seymour Allward. He designed a bronze half-length figure of an old one-armed soldier in the uniform of 1812 holding his military cap, the George IV medal on his chest and the end of one empty sleeve pinned up.
The memorial’s cornerstone was laid on July 1, 1902. The cornerstone featured a time capsule, including newspapers, coins, and other documents of the day. Veterans of several wars were on hand for the ceremony, including those who had served in the Crimean War, Second Opium War, Indian Rebellion of 1857, Second Anglo-Afghan War, Fenian Raids, North-West Rebellion, and the South African War. The official unveiling was on July 5, 1907, after nearly 20 years of planning and fundraising.
DEFENCE OF YORK (NOW TORONTO)
IN MEMORY OF OFFICERS, NON-COMMISSIONED OFFICERS AND MEN WHO WERE KILLED OR DIED OF WOUNDS IN THE FOLLOWING REGIMENTS OR COMPANIES OF REGIMENTS ENGAGED IN THE DEFENCE OF YORK (TORONTO).
APRIL 27TH 1813
ROYAL ARTILLERY
ROYAL NAVAL ARTIFICES
8th REGIMENT (OF FOOT)
ROYAL NEWFOUNDLAND REGIMENT
CLENGARY FENCIBLES MILITIA
INCORPORATED MILITIA
IN MEMORY OF OFFICERS, NON-COMMISSIONED OFFICERS AND MEN WHO
WERE KILLED, DIED OF WOUNDS AND DISEASE, IN THE FOLLOWING REGIMENTS OR COMPANIES OF REGIMENTS ENGAGED DURING THE WAR OF 1812-1815 UPON THE WESTERN CANADIAN FRONTIER, WEST OF KINGSTON.
Royal Artillery – Royal Engineers
19th Dracoons 41st Regiment 100th Regiment
1st Regiment 49th Regiment 103rd Regiment
6th Regiment 82nd Regiment 103th Regiment
8th Regiment 89th Regiment
Royal Veteran Rect.
Royal Newfoundland Rect.
Prov. Dracoons Militia
Wattsville Rect. Militia
Canadian Fencibles
Simcoe Militia
Clencary Fencibles Militia
York Rangers Militia
1st Norfolk Militia
Coloured Corps & Indians
“Dead in Battle – Dead in the field”
More than his life can a soldier yield?
His blood has burnished his sabre bright
To his memory, honour: To him, good night”
This monument is to perpetuate the memory and deeds of the officers, non-commissioned officers and men who gave their lives in the defence of Canada in the War of 1812-15 and is erected by the British Army and Navy Veterans residing in Toronto. Aided by generous subscriptions from the British Army and Navy, and the citizens of Canada.
July 1st 1902
BATTLE FIELDS
RIVER CANARD
BEAVER DAMS
BLACK ROCK
CHATEAUGUAY
CHRYSLER FARM
DETROIT
FORT NIAGARA
FORT ERIE
YORK
FORT GEORGE
LUNDY’S LANE
THAMES
STONY CREEK
The park is Toronto’s oldest cemetery. The downtown site was used as a burial ground for nearly seventy years, from 1794 to 1863. During that time, it saw hundreds of burials, including many soldiers from the War of 1812.
The park was created by Lieutenant Governor John Graves Simcoe shortly after the establishment of the Garrison at York and the founding of the town. Simcoe’s infant daughter, Katherine, was one of the first to be buried at the cemetery which was closed in 1863 when it was deemed to be full.
The cemetery was converted to a park in the 1880s. Its grave sites were levelled, paths were established, and the 17 surviving headstones gathered along the park’s western edge:
References
Is no historic building safe!?
Passing these beautiful old brownstones on Maitland Street last week I noticed that a rezoning proposal has been submitted for 36 and 42 Maitland Street. These buildings are known as The Maitlands and managed by Hazelview Properties.
The building proposal would incorporate the two existing facades, which are Heritage buildings, at 36 and 42 Maitland Street and would look like this:
I find this trend of filling in quieter, charming streets with towering monoliths alarming. I’m no Jane Jacobs or Christopher Hume, but I must say that this type of city development destroys a neighbourhood; it also saddens me. Currently Maitland Street is a quiet, orderly, leafy and calm residential street. If these proposed changes go ahead, Maitland Street will suffer the same fate as Charles Street – a once-beautiful, tree-lined, quiet street, full of character, turned into a major thoroughfare with towering condos every few feet.
Oh, say it ain’t so… Across the street at 37 Maitland Street, this beautiful building (currently law offices) is also being threatened with a zoning proposal for a 49 storey condo building.
‘Tis a sad day on Maitland Street… 🙁
About 10 years ago, there was a successful and productive project called The Church Street Mural Project. The mural project adorned walls up and down Church Street, from the south-facing wall of The Marquis of Granby pub (now defunct) to the northernmost mural on the 519 Church Street Community Centre.
The Church Street Mural Project involved the participation of 25 artists and was a key part of the community’s preparation for the massive World Pride 2014 festivities that year. One of my favourite murals from that project is a massive piece entitled Ultra Church: 50 VIP Party People – 1948-2014, produced by artist Lily Butter of Butter Land Studio. The mural is 90-feet long and runs down a laneway (recently dubbed Dapper Lane) behind the jumble of stores at 568 Church Street. The mural contains dozens of portraits of people who have been integral in the LGBT party scene over the past 60 years.
The mural is still there at this location, but it is now very faded and fragmented, and soon (or so we’ve been told) this block of old stores will be pulled down to make way for more condos, taking the mural with it. I’m glad I took these shots when I did as the mural was still very vibrant then and still reflected the vibrancy of our community.
On my way to photograph Victoria Memorial Square (stay tuned for a future post on that) I passed through the Portland Street and Wellington Street West area. Here’s a bit of what I encountered:
I found this graffiti and artwork in an alley behind Portland Street, south of Richmond Street West. Lots of colour here:
Clarence Square
On the corner of Wellington Street West and Spadina Avenue
RC Coffee (short for Robo Café) kiosks are popping up around Toronto.
So far in my travels I’ve come across two locations – one near the St. Lawrence Market area, and the other at 475 Yonge Street, above College Street.
So what are they, exactly? RC Coffee’s website proclaims themselves Canada’s First Robotic Café – Fully Automated Coffee Kiosk, Open 24/7. Serving coffee without a live person present is the name of the game here. From their website:
RC Coffee is filling a void in the market for high-quality unattended coffee kiosks. We’re looking to change the perception of self-serve with sophisticated technology that brews coffee up to the standards of seasoned coffee connoisseurs. No more drip, no more pods. RC Coffee taps into the potential of the latest Eversys Cameo espresso machine technology to rival the coffee from any café.
Here at RC Coffee, we understand that it’s more than just great coffee that keeps people coming back. Our robots delight users with their speed of service and accuracy. Our simple mobile app makes it easy to find the closest Robo Café, remotely view the menu, and load an account via credit card. Next time, you can load your previous order or select from saved favourites, selecting personalized blends at the touch of a button.
So much for the personal touch. Oh well, automation marches on, I guess.
Other RC Coffee locations in Toronto are at:
Toronto General Hospital, 200 Elizabeth Street
Kensington Market, 160 Baldwin Street
Little Italy, 550 College Street
Lyndhurst Centre, 520 Sutherland Drive
Dundas Station, 1 Dundas Street West
St. Joseph’s Hospital, 30 The Queensway
Bickle Centre, 130 Dunn Avenue
You can learn more about Robo Café here on their website.
The 51st annual Festival of India (also known as Ratha-Yatra) took place this past weekend in Toronto. The very first Festival of India in Toronto launched in 1972, and has been growing steadily every year.
This year’s Festival of India parade ran down Yonge Street to Queens Quay West. Three giant floats (called Chariots) were hand-pulled by thousands of attendees and spectators, and there was much singing, chanting, drumming and dancing in the streets. Everyone was encouraged to participate. The parade attendance and spectator involvement this year was massive, due I’m sure to the public returning en masse to events post-COVID.
To answer that question, I’ll refer to a bit of explanatory text from the Festival of India’s website:
The parade down Yonge Street echoes an annual procession that has occurred for centuries in the ancient city of Puri, India. There, three mammoth chariots, known as rathas are taken on a jubilant procession, called a yatra. Hence, the Festival is also known as Ratha-Yatra or “chariot procession”. In Puri, this age-old Ratha-Yatra procession continues to attract over a million people every year!
Seated on each float (chariot) are beautifully bedecked Deities of Jagannatha (another name for Krishna or God), Baladeva (Krishna’s brother), and Subhadra (Krishna’s sister). The procession itself symbolizes the pulling of the Lord into our hearts and this is done with great pomp and grandeur.
In the late 1960s, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, the founder of the worldwide Hare Krishna Society (ISKCON), inaugurated the North American and international versions of this ancient Indian festival. With roots steeped in spiritual traditions, the festival is now celebrated in every major city around the world, including London, Paris, Sydney, and New York.
If you would like to view my 2017 album of the Festival of India, which includes the post-parade activities, click here. That year the event was much less crowded and had a more subdued vibe to it.
On September 29, 2022, a new park opened to the public – the Dr. Lillian McGregor Park. The park is located at 25 Wellesley Street West and encompasses the lot bounded by Wellesley Street West to the north and Breadalbane Street to the south. Bay Street condos to the west and the condo at 11 Wellesley Street West to the east form the rest of the border.
But who is Dr. Lillian McGregor, you may ask? Dr. Lillian McGregor (1924-2012), hailing from Whitefish River First Nation, was a dedicated nurse and community leader, recognized for her work in promoting indigenous culture and education. She received the City of Toronto Civic Award, the National Aboriginal Achievement Lifetime Award and the Order of Ontario and was the first indigenous woman to be awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Toronto, and was the University’s first Elder In Residence.
The park features include pathways, seating, a playground and artwork by Kenneth Lavallee, a Métis artist from outside of Winnipeg. The artwork in the park recognizes regional Indigenous histories and cultures and honours themes important to Dr. McGregor, including health, spirituality and language.
The art is inspired by Dr. McGregor’s family clan sign (the crane) and by the elements of her childhood home on Birch Island (rock outcrops, water, and reeds). The aim was to envision the Park as a small natural refuge in the midst of downtown Toronto, a home away from home. The artwork is weaved throughout the site and fully integrated with the landscape.
A family of cranes consisting of four separate, bent aluminum sculptures are perched on stone foundations. Each crane depicts a different stage of life according to the Medicine Wheel: Childhood, Youth, Adult and Elder.
The laser cut aluminum screens are painted a teal shade of green to mimic the tall reeds in which cranes make their home. The placement of the Reed screens is flexible and expandable to cover any structure within the Park.
An abstracted feather becomes a canopy over the Wellesley Street entrance, providing shade and protection from the elements. The white feather is made of laser cut powder-coated white aluminum and supported on thick steel tube quills.
In the central gathering space, a mosaic medicine wheel is inlaid into the pavement, at the convergence of the main paths.
There is a very long and complicated history of this patch of land where the park sits.1
The original plans for the 2.1 acre site worth $75 million back in 1984 was to create a world class opera house. Premier Bill Davis’s Conservative government held a design competition where Moshe Safdie was chosen for the $311 million project. The Opera House Corporation was created to manage the property. Approval was granted in 1988 and the existing buildings on the site were demolished, with plans to begin construction in 1991.
In October 1990, Premier Bob Rae and the NDP were elected. In light of the recession, the province wanted to reduce the project scope. When the Opera House Corporation stood firm, the province pulled their funding. In 1992, the municipal and federal governments withdrew their financial support.
The property became known as East of Bay Lands. The property remained mostly vacant, with the exception of being briefly used as a temporary skateboard park. The land adjacent to Bay Street was sold to Morguard who constructed condo buildings Opera House at 887/889 Bay Street in 1998 and Allegro at 909 Bay Street in 2000. A small piece south of Breadalbane Street was designated as green space. East of Bay Park was opened in 2002 as Leaf Gardens, and subsequently renamed Opera Place Park. The balance of the land east of Bay to west of St. Luke Lane became known as 11 Wellesley and reverted back to the province when Morguard didn’t develop it.
In July 2012, Councillor Kristyn Wong-Tam made a motion to City Council to purchase the land to be used as a park, but lost out in the competitive bidding process that started in August 2012. Lanterra was the successful bidder with a purchase price of $65 million. In October 2012, Councillor Wong Tam was successful in obtaining monies from the City’s Government Management downtown parkland dedication fund for the three Lanterra developments (The Britt, Murano and Burano) in the neighbourhood. Then-Councillor Doug Ford eventually ended up supporting the allocation of funds.
The City’s purchase of the land for the park was finalized in 2013, and a ground breaking ceremony was held in June 2015. The condominium building at 11 Wellesley started being built in 2015 and finished construction in 2020. The building of the park began when the building of 11 Wellesley was winding down, with substantial completion in November 2021. The title conveyance to the City of Toronto became complicated with blanket easements with the adjacent properties. The main portion of the park opened September 29, 2022 with the dog park portion scheduled to be open shortly thereafter.
The City of Toronto, Planning & Development
1 Bay Cloverhill Community Association
This will bring back memories for a lot of people. These shots are from February 2017, so they’re too new to fall into my From the Vaults category, but too old to be considered new cityscapes (if that makes any sense).
Ah yes, Honest Ed Mirvish’s little empire of kitsch at 581 Bloor Street West. This photoset was taken on the last weekend that Honest Eds was open to the public. The store had been emptied and closed prior to this date, but reopened on this particular weekend only for a couple of farewell parties and a massive art installation which took up the entire store. After that weekend the store closed permanently and the demolition began. A new condo building now sits on that famous corner of Bloor and Bathurst, and yet another piece of Toronto history has sadly died.
At 50 Pottery Road, across the street from the Todmorden Mills complex, is a banquet hall and event centre called Fantasy Farm.
The location is surrounded by greenery and parkland and – except for the traffic on Pottery Road – is fairly tranquil and quiet for such a centrally-located area within our bustling city. The site is beautiful and atmospheric. No one seemed to be around when I toured the grounds to get a few shots of this intriguing place:
Now the puppies are nice and warm. Love this fountain.
Pretty sad but it’s time had come
What would be also nice is Ottawa's Remembrance Day Ceremony on November 11. Was there in 2024 and quite loved…
Well done Marv! I walk by this area so often and really take these for granted, but when you highlight…
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This is such a lovely part of the city. I love how they fixed up that square and the fountain…