The last time I walked down The Esplanade, I was struck by how many new condos have sprung up in that neighbourhood. I thought it may be interesting to put together a little photo journal of the structures I encountered that day.
Tag: KingStW
Beaty Boulevard Parkette is a long, finger-like patch of grassy, manicured land situated near the intersection of Queen Street West, King Street West and Roncesvalles Avenue:
There’s plenty to see and do in this historic neighbourhood; if one crosses the Pedestrian Bridge over busy Lakeshore Boulevard West, you will find the Palais Royale, the Boulevard Club, Budapest Park, Marilyn Bell Park and Sunnyside Beach.
A Bit Of History
Beaty Boulevard Parkette is the former location of the Sunnyside Railway Station, located at this King/Queen/Roncesvalles intersection. The Sunnyside Railway Station operated passenger service from 1910 until 1971.
The station was built by the Grand Trunk Railway in 1910 and was well-placed, with access to nearby streetcars and the Sunnyside Amusement Park.
GO Transit began service in May 1967 and took over CN’s Toronto to Hamilton route. While CN’s Hamilton train had stopped at Sunnyside, GO’s Lakeshore West line bypassed the station resulting in a significant drop in its use. CN closed the station in 1971 and its buildings were demolished in 1973.
The Katyń Monument
Beaty Boulevard Parkette is home to the Katyń Monument, which commemorates the 1940 Katyń massacre in Poland:
Made of bronze and erected in 1980, the monument was created by artist Tadeusz Janowski. The monument’s location here is quite appropriate in this, a largely Eastern European, neighbourhood.
But what was the Katyn massacre you may ask? The Katyn Massacre was a series of mass executions of nearly 22,000 Polish military officers and intelligentsia prisoners of war carried out by the Soviet Union, specifically the NKVD (“People’s Commissariat for Internal Affairs”, the Soviet secret police) in April and May 1940. Though the killings also occurred in the Kalinin and Kharkiv prisons and elsewhere, the massacre is named after the Katyn forest, where some of the mass graves were first discovered by German Nazi forces (Source: Wikipedia).
The Smolensk Tragedy
Also in Beaty Boulevard Parkette is a secondary monument related to the Katyn Massacre. The inscription on the plaque for this memorial reads:
In memory of the 96 person Polish delegation headed by the President of the Republic of Poland Lech Kaczynski, who all died tragically in a plane crash at Smolensk, on April 10, 2010, en route to the official commemoration ceremony of the 70th anniversary of the Katyn Massacre. Without the Katyn Massacre there would have been no Smolensk tragedy.
Canadian Polish Congress, April 10, 2011
Memorial For Perished Polish Soldiers & Civilians
A few feet away from the last two monuments there is a third: this is the Memorial For Perished Polish Soldiers & Civilians:
The plaque on the memorial reads:
1940-2000
In Memoriam… Lest We Forget
May the tragic death of tens of thousands of Polish citizens in Soviet forced labour camps, political prisons and execution sites, always remind the world that freedom is bought with great sacrifice.
Dedicated to the memory of over one million seven hundred thousand Polish soldiers and civilians arrested in eastern Poland by the Soviet Secret Police (NKVD) in 1940-1941, for the only reason that they were Polish citizens and were departed to the far reaches of the Soviet Union (Siberia), where many were executed or died of hunger, cold, disease and exhaustion during World War II.
Alliance of the Polish eastern provinces in Toronto, February 10, 2000
Stay tuned for the second part of this post – a look at Budapest Park, which is on the other side of Lakeshore Boulevard West beside Lake Ontario.
Last week I happened across a curious piece found at 220 Bay Street, nestled in a passageway behind the TD Centre off Wellington Street West. Created by Canadian artist Evan Penny, this large sculpture – entitled Pi – is of a man’s head which has been cut into four pieces. The pieces are cut at ninety degree angles with straight lines which are in sharp contrast to the roundness of the outside of the head and the features of the face. The tallest piece measures approximately four feet high.
The features of the man’s face are very strong but they show little expression as if he is lost in thought and the fact that his head has been turned into a puzzle has not registered.
The bronze is a deep green colour which gives this sculpture a warm complexion.
This sculpture has been in place since 1996. I am amazed I had not come across this work until just recently; it resides in kind of a hidden pocket in the King/Bay area so that may explain it.
St. Andrew’s is located at 73 Simcoe Street, on the southeast corner of King Street West and Simcoe Street. The church was built in the Romanesque Revival style and opened for worship in 1876. At that time, its location at King and Simcoe Streets was a busy place and most of the congregation lived within easy walking distance of the church. Across the street stood Government House, the official residence of the Lieutenant Governor of Ontario. Upper Canada College stood on a second corner and on a third was a popular tavern. With St. Andrew’s, the four corners were known locally as Legislation, Education, Damnation and Salvation!!
Located at 121 King Street West, this sculpture is entitled Megaptera, and was created by Transylvanian-born artist George Schmerholz. Megaptera novaeangliae is the scientific name of humpback whales, the name translating to Great Wings.
The humpback whale here is depicted with her calf. The sculpture was carved from a single block of granite, called “Prairie Green”, which was sourced from Riviere à Pierre, Quebec. The sculpture, dedicated on May 18, 1993, weighs 43,000 pounds and took 1.5 years to create.
In front of the Hudson condo at 438 King Street West, there sits a sculpture by artist Jed Lind, entitled Ballast.
Installed in 2013, Ballast is a patinated bronze sculpture of the prow of a ship, anchoring the corner of King and Charlotte streets in Toronto. Rising like a skeletal prow of a Great Lakes freighter, the five-metre tall bronze sculpture is described by artist Jed Lind as a visual metaphor for the transformation of the King Street corridor from working class to creative class. The artwork began as a maquette that was laser scanned and enlarged. After hours of meticulous sculpting and finishing of the enlarged positive form, the sculpture was cast in bronze in small sections. The sections were welded together, finished, and the bronze was patinated.
Jed Lind’s photographs, sculptures, and installations are populated with nautical vessels and vehicles, though they are not always immediately recognizable. On this particular creation, Jed Lind has commented:
Transformation is central to my work whether physical, emotional, or metallurgical. Ballast represents for me a transformation of the King Street corridor which is so drastically different than my memory of it growing up. Ballast is modelled on the frontend of a working lake boat, or Lakers as they are called. The boat is a nod to the blue collar working class that used to occupy the now vacated commercial and industrial spaces, while the geodesic pattern is a reference to Buckminster Fuller who inspired youth culture—in the late 1960s and 70s—to transform their existing circumstances through architecture. I hope Ballast will be a model for the younger generation who have taken over downtown en masse.
Latest Comments
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…
This is such a lovely part of the city. I love how they fixed up that square and the fountain…