Toronto Through My Lens
Using a filter and utilizing some moody street lighting, my intent was to emulate – if possible – those wonderful, grainy old 1940s/50s night images of a large urban centre in the wee hours.
I captured these images a few weeks ago when walking in the Yonge-Dundas area:
I love Roncesvalles (aka Little Poland) – it has such a welcoming village-feel to it and exudes a laid-back yet slightly hip vibe. Roncesvalles Avenue itself stretches for 1.8 km, and is filled with gardens and charming, independent shops along the way. About 15,000 people live in Roncesvalles Village’s vintage buildings.
Known as “Roncy” to the locals, Roncesvalles consists of the stretch of Roncesvalles Avenue from Bloor Street south to Queen Street West.
Roncesvalles Avenue was originally owned by Colonel Walter O’Hara who named the street after the Roncesvalles gorge in Spain, where he had won a battle against Napolean’s army circa 1813. British settlers began to arrive in the early 1900’s as residential homes appeared. After WWII large numbers of Polish immigrants arrived and set up all sorts of businesses; that is why this neighbourhood celebrates the Roncesvalles Village Polish Festival every year.
Culturally, the area is known as the centre of the Polish community in Toronto with prominent Polish institutions, businesses and St. Casimir’s Catholic Church located on Roncesvalles Avenue. The businesses along Roncesvalles have formed the Roncesvalles Village Business Improvement Area and hold the largest Polish Festival in North America, which takes place every September.
Roncesvalles is very well known for the large number of small restaurants, cafés and specialty food shops of various cuisines. There are several bakeries and delicatessens found along the full length of Roncesvalles.
I’ll leave you with a couple of sites to explore it you’d like to learn more about Roncesvalles:
From Destination Toronto:
An excellent post on their website
Roncesvalles BIA:
Local info found here
Yesterday I thought I might go to Chinatown to shoot the events of the Lunar New Year celebrations at Dundas Steet West and Spadina Avenue (it’s Year of the Dragon, by the way). When I got there I found the Dragon City Mall to be a little too packed for me, so I headed through Chinatown to see what other photo opportunities might present themselves.
Walking along Dundas Street West opposite the AGO, I spied Vincent van Gogh in front of the Mayberry Fine Art Gallery at 326 Dundas Street West:
One of the things that made this piece so compelling was its presentation in a three-dimensional perspective. van Gogh’s face is carved and embedded into the rest of the frame; unfortunately the effect doesn’t translate well in a photograph but is still impressive nonetheless.
I always love passing by the Mayberry Gallery as they consistently exhibit such interesting pieces street-side. This recent installment was promoting the Immersive van Gogh Exhibit at the Lighthouse ArtSpace Toronto, located at 1 Yonge Street. More info and tickets here. By all appearances it looks like a great exhibit.
I made a turn on to McCaul Street and headed north. One very short block north of Dundas Street West I encountered a laneway leading off McCaul Street:
I could see quite a bit of colour in the distance so I went further in to check things out… I wasn’t disappointed with my findings:
Walking further north up McCaul Street, I encountered another scenic laneway just south of Baldwin Street. This alleyway art was not quite as extensive as the previous lane, but interesting all the same.
Clearly, the artist was a Dr. Seuss fan:
The last mural before heading home:
This post was originally from a couple of weekends ago when the weather was not cooperating. I am reposting this one as I don’t believe it was published recently given all my trouble with my automated sender.
This post is one-part city walk mixed with two-parts photography experiment.
It’s a distant foggy memory, much like the weather we’ve had recently. Given that, I thought it would be interesting to take a walk in the fog/darkness and shoot in black and white to emphasize the moodiness.
I love shooting in black and white; it makes everything look so different and dramatic – details stand out, creating emotions. In addition to shooting in soft black and white I used a diffusion filter which removed much of the “digital edge” from modern digital cameras, leaving a soft B&W treatment looking like it was shot on film. The shots are intentionally dark and muted, and the fog enhanced the effect.
Located at 247 Yonge Street, across from the Eaton Centre, is OctoZone. OctoZone is a huge claw machine-themed gift shop. The interior is very Asian-styled, infused with copious amounts of bright turquoise and hot pink neon (the effect lost, of course, in my black and white shots). I’ve passed this place several times and have always wondered what it is; this time I decided to take temporary refuge from the fog and drizzle, go in and check it out. It’s quite an interesting place: click here if you’d like to watch a short YouTube video about OctoZone.
Next stop: home, where it’s warm and dry! 🙂
Renfrew Place sounds like a posh street but in actuality is a back alley. It’s located one block north of Queen Street West and runs between Simcoe Street and John Street:
An interesting and colourful segment of Renfrew Place is the small section between St. Patrick Street and McCaul Street, which is where I captured these images:
Crossing McCaul Street and moving toward John Street, the alley is a little bland at first but becomes more interesting and colourful as you progress further west:
As I moved further west down Renfrew Place I became aware that everything was bathed in this odd green light. The green glow in these shots is from the setting sun reflecting off the green exterior of the Umbra building on the corner of Renfrew Place and John Street. It was late afternoon when I took these shots, so the slowly setting sun was strong, illuminating everything in the alley and turning it green:
If you’ve been following TO Cityscapes for a while you’ll find the occasional post about the very talented Toronto street artist Elicser. I’m a big fan of his urban art. His style is instantly identifiable and his murals can be found in so many interesting spots in the city. I was pleased to find some more of the man’s work in this alley.
If you’re interested in reading some of my previous posts featuring Elicser’s mural art, please check out the posts below:
Barbara Barrett Lane is located just south of Bloor Street West, running between Brunswick Avenue…
Walking down Queen Street East this past weekend on my way to photograph Riverside, I…
I recently walked College Street from end to end; here’s some of the street art…
I call this street art site Apple Alley because of its location: the first alley…
I discovered this street art in an alley off King Street West, east of Strachan…
The colours of these Elicser murals may seem a little odd but, again, the alley was bathed in a strong reflected light from the Umbra building on John Street:
Renfrew Place terminates at John Street. Just before exiting the alley to John Street, a couple more Elicser murals can be found:
All this inclement weather lately has put me in mind of the infamous Toronto ice storm in late December 2013. This happened 11 years ago now, so I guess it qualifies for one of my so-called From The Vaults posts (i.e. Toronto events and photos from several years past).
At the time of the storm I took a little walk around the neighbourhood to see everything more or less encased in ice:
The massive ice storm began on December 19, 2013 and dispersed on December 23, 2013. In addition to hitting Ontario the storm also reached Quebec, Atlantic Canada, Maine, New England, New York, Michigan and even Arkansas. In Toronto, the ice was so heavy it resulted in damaged hydro lines and trees weighing down onto roads and vehicles.
The 2013 ice storm consisted of 40-plus hours of freezing rain and more than 30 millimetres of ice, leaving 416,000 customers without power, 500 wires down and two million trees damaged. During the ice storm, Toronto Hydro said 73,000 metres of service wire and 80,000 pieces of hardware had to be replaced. The storm had a total cost of $200 million.1
The storm killed 27 people, particularly from carbon monoxide poisoning in enclosed and poorly ventilated areas as people attempted to keep warm and cook with gas generators and charcoal stoves.
At the time I remember thinking how weird everything felt; the city had mostly came to a halt throughout the storm. The ice storm of 2013 remains yet another Toronto vignette I will never forget.
1 Stats courtesy of The Weather Network
Finding a few dry moments from the incessant rain of late, I took a little spin last night to see some of the Christmas lights in Rosedale and on Bloor Street East.
The owners of this Rosedale home went to some *serious* effort to recreate The Grinch Who Stole Christmas, along with a miniature Whoville:
Allegedly, there are 138 lit Christmas trees along Bloor Street this Christmas; I never stopped to count…
This is the third and last instalment of a 3-part post focusing on some of the murals and artwork in the Wilson Heights area of the city. Here, we visit some community artwork just outside of Yorkdale Mall.
These murals were created several years ago and I’m afraid that time and tide have taken a toll on many of them as they are quite faded and fragmented. The murals can be found on the outside of the north subway entrance into Yorkdale Mall.
I couldn’t find too much information on this particular Art Start project; the listed website on the murals is no longer active. I did, however, source some information on the Art Starts organization in general, courtesy of their website.
Art Starts is a program benefiting thousands of people living in marginalized Toronto neighbourhoods by providing a safe, supportive and inclusive environment for self-expression and creative collaboration.
The organization affords opportunities for vulnerable people of all ages to contribute to the creative ecology of their neighbourhoods, using the arts to help end the negative cycles associated with marginalization and poverty.
Art Starts nurtures local talent, beautifies public spaces and provides safe, inclusive environments for self-expression and collaboration.
I believe many of the subjects in these murals were the actual artists from the neighbourhood.
This is the second instalment of a 3-part post focusing on some of the murals and artwork in the Wilson Heights area of the city.
There is a newly developed area on the south side of Wilson Avenue called – strangely enough – Southside. This area has a very colourful subway station entrance and tunnel.
Next post: Wilson Heights, Part 3: Yorkdale Murals
This is a 3-part post focusing on some of the murals and artwork in the Wilson Heights area of the city.
First up are the Wilson subway station murals. These murals are located on Wilson Avenue under the Allen Road underpass, at the south exit of the Wilson subway station. There are 40 pillars of artwork, created by street artist Shalak Attack and her collaborator Bruno Smoky. The colour of the artwork certainly gives a lift to an otherwise drab, depressing part of the city.
Next post: Wilson Heights, Part 2: Wilson Station South Exit
I love black and white! Great job on putting together this collection.
There is nothing like a courtyard! And this one proves that. It is so enchanting and serene. I will put…
I have always loved 401 Richmond and used to go there a lot. I do find there is a diminished…
[…] weekend: the Roncesvalles Polish Festival and the Bloor West Village Toronto Ukrainian Festival. I’ve posted previously about the Ukrainian…
© 2025 TO Cityscapes
Theme by Anders Noren — Up ↑
Join my mailing list to receive an email alert when I publish a new post.
I came upon this by accident with a friend when it was under construction. At the time we said we…