Hot Off The Press!! New pix of Toronto

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Someone suggested to me that I copy my SSC photoblog of pictures that
I have been doing since last Winter. I originally posted too many pix all at
once, forgetting that I needed to add a few blank entries in to replace the
comment ones for SSC, or they would all pile up on one page here. So...
I start first with pix from early Spring. I hope you enjoy my on-going photo blog
of my city, Toronto!

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The first photos I posted were from April 3/05.

"I'll start a thread of new photos taken around our city. I took these in the past couple of days. They are in no particular order, andI hope you enjoy the tour despite the fact it is still very early spring here and the trees are not green yet!
Looking South from the rooftop patio:



Looking North from the rooftop patio:





Then off to another rooftop bar to snap some more pix:










Renovation of the Royal Conservatory of Music















And for some reason, this building always reminds me of the opening credits
for the old tv show, Dallas!! LOL!

















A view down on the construction of the Royal Ontario Museum renovation:







Note the moon above the First Canadian Place.. it is not a disco ball!

























Pictures taken around 1am of an almost empty Union Station:










And lastly, my favourite shot of the session:

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A few more pix I took this morning, while out walking the dogs. This time in my
neighbourhood.







The almost completed new home for the National Ballet of Canada School:



Allan Gardens, where my dogs love to run. It is the home of the Toronto Horticultural
Society, formed in 1834, and a fine place to go on a chilly day when you want Spring
to hurry up!!

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Yesterday was a lovely sunny day, so I grabbed my camera and went out snapping..
the first fellow is a bit of the "local colour" who wears this outfit year 'round and is always eager for any publicity!



Some pix taken more uptown, toward Yonge/Eglinton, and Yonge/Summerhill:



An old train station beautifully renovated into the largest and best liquor store in Canada-an 8000 sq metre Temple o' Booze:





Then hop on the subway and head downtown:











these shots were all on Bloor St, and here is one looking West:



Back on the subway, and right downtown to the financial district:













Then a wander over to Queen Street, and the entertainment district:



Dinner at the Queen Mum, in an old building that started out as a tailor shop in 1850



Catch a movie ( Ice Age 2):





And up the long escalators.......



View out the lounge window after the movie:



then the walk home- here is the almost completed new home of the Canadian Opera
Company, that will open this year with a series of four epic operas Der Ring des Nibelungen:



and finally, as Samuel Pepys famously said "and then to bed"!

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I know this seems a bit "bloggish", but here are some pics from my past week. I
like to jump on the subway or streetcar and photograph some of the neighbourhoods
in Toronto. This week I was briefly in Little Italy/Portugal, and yesterday I visited
The Beaches (or, as some yuppies insist, the grander sounding "The Beach"!).
I will start with a few pix from Little Italy:





The Beaches is an area about a mile or so due East of downtown. There are several
lovely beaches there, and it is about as closest thing to Vancouver life that exists
East of the Rockies. Fiercely proud and very family oriented, the Beaches are always
an excellent place to visit on a sunny day. As always, my pix are in no particular order,
just snapped as I go along my wanderings. Let's start with the 1850's Ashbridge House, which still charms us to this day:



The beach I chose to go to yesterday was Kew Beach, in the heart of "The Beaches".
It is still too early for sunbathing, but the charming Victorian habit of "promenading on
the boardwalk" is still a big part of life in the beaches. Yesterday was no exception and
the boardwalk was crowded all afternoon:







Even the housing is different in The Beaches... because there is very much a
"seaside" feeling (albeit on a lake), much of the residential architecture has a
mediterranean flair, with an emphasis on outdoor balconies:





the quaint old 1915 Beaches Library:



and some street scenes:













The Beaches has a bit of a reputation as being a laid-back, hippie community
which stems from the 70's. Remnents remain. This is the Church of the Universe:



Let's catch the streetcar and head toward downtown.



Here are scenes along the way:

St Paul's Basilica.. a Roman Catholic church which is an unusual Italian Renaissance
style:





The old 1879 Dominion Brewery, since renovated for office space:



and various downtown shots:












Our Lady of Lourdes Church across from the No Thrills in Jamestown:













Here is an empty old Georgian style brick building, almost 200 years old.
Handsome, but in poor shape... will this survive into its second century?





More downtown buildings:



a smart old Greek Revival townhouse from the 1850's:



an old Knights of Columbus hall:



a landmark hotel, The Selby, whose claim to fame was having Ernest Hemingway as a tenant while he lived in Toronto as a reporter for The
Toronto Star:



Victorian rowhouses..



and various downtown sights:



men playing chess:



an old library built in the now toney Yorkville, by the Carnegie Foundation,
about 100 years ago:





an old mid 1800's firehall in Yorkville:





evening sets in:







Construction is everywhere downtown, and only rests at night:







and then finally home, and one last look off the balcony before bed:

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This past weekend I ventured out to Roncesvalles St, which is the heart of the Polish community in Toronto. I went on a Monday afternoon, which is a strangely quiet time to visit the street... many of the businesses close Monday, and as this is a strongly working class neighbourhood most people are at work. There is a sometimes shabby, but very comfortable 50's feel to this street- I think a big wave of Poles came to Canada around that time, and it continued to the mid 80's. Today the neighbourhood is finding increasing influx of other nationalities, and young people from across the city seeking inexpensive lodgings, with good shopping nearby. However, the heart and soul of Roncesvalles remains Polish. I hope you enjoy this little tour, even though
it is not a glamorous part of Toronto, it is part of what makes our city a "City of Neighbourhoods"





I remember years ago when I first became aquainted with this street, I
marvelled that it seemed to be a street where the Churches looked like Banks:



and the Banks (or in this case Credit Union) looked like Churches:



Some street scenes:













The main Polish Church (which does not look like a bank!! )





The best bakery on the street, which makes the best Easter goodies.. Mrs.
Granowska's:







One of the local weekly Polish newspapers:









I was crushed to find my favourite chocolate shop, Wedels, has closed, but
was relieved to find I could still buy some of their products:



Strangely, while one side of the street are solid shops and restaurants, the
other side is almost completely residential. Very post WWII houses, looking
right out of an old Archie Bunker show:













My favourite of the many Polish delicatessans along the street:









There is pretty much anything you need to buy, on Roncesvalles... you just
have to keep your eyes open:





Walking and gawking and snapping pix is hot, thirsty work and a fella works
up a big appetite. I figured I deserved a "fix" of good old fashioned Polish
cooking, so I swung into Krak, my favourite restaurant on the street:



Sure, its a bit hokey and 50's.....





but the people are always friendly, and the food always delicious. Here
you can see I enjoyed schnitzel, cabbage rolls, and meat pierogi. All washed
down with a frosty Zywiec or two.... Nosdrovia!



Thanks for taking this little tour with me through one of my favourite neighbourhoods!

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Hello! Me again... here is what has been going on in my life these past three weeks. I apologize in advance if there are too many pictures... but Spring is such a beautiful time that I have been out snapping photos on any sunny day off. My first stop was on April 28 to the grounds of the Canadian National Exhibition the oldest and largest annual fair in the world. In 1878 it settled in its current location in Toronto and has not looked back. This is off season for the fairgrounds, and workmen are just starting to tinker about and get it ready for the summer season ahead. We enter the fair through the grand gates, which you could say are Toronto's answer to the Brandenburg Gates. Opened in 1927 by Edward, Prince of Wales, these portals are appropriately called the Princes' Gates:







Most of the architecture on the CNE grounds tends toward the theatrical
grandiose.... none of it is a pure style... none of it is done with particular
finesse (concrete statues replace marble ones) but this type of fairground entertainment was the opiate of the masses, and the masses demanded to be awed with some of the grandeur that they imagined lay far from the farming community that they tended. The result is a romantic hodge-podge of styles that has held up remarkably well over the years:


















The heart of the CNE was historically the agricultural show, which carries on to this date in the form of the annual Royal Agricultural Winter Fair. Here is the charming old Art Deco "Horse Pavillion":



Ironically, nearby I encountered a couple of mounted City of Toronto policemen. This mounted force is a vital part of our city life, and we see them downtown frequently on their magnificent steeds:





And, a visit to the CNE grounds is a visit to the very cradle of Toronto... this is
where Europeans first settled and built a fortification in 1750 called Fort Rouille:



As you can see, this fort held a commanding view of the Harbour:



Also on the grounds sits the oldest existing residence in Toronto... a humble log cabin built in 1794 by John Scadding. I have a mental image of Mr Scadding sitting at his supper table, reading the only newspaper in Toronto at the time, The Upper Canada Gazette, of exciting and rebellious events happening in France that would lead to Napoleon Bonaparte declaring himself emperor ten years later:



The good Mr Scadding and his family must have been short people, for when I stand
upright on his doorstep my chin hit the top of the door! LOL! One hopes Mr. Scadding
was not tall and came home drunk one night.... Mr. Scadding would surely have felt he was drunk had he looked out his window and saw this, North America's first urban wind
turbines, modelled after those in Denmark. So, from the past we go to the future:



The weather was fine, and my day was free... so I wandered back over the bridge to Old Fort York, which dates back to 1793, and was burned to the ground in the War of 1812 by our American friends, and rebuilt as we see it today. Here is a view from an overpass showing the view from the CNE
location relative to downtown. Interestingly, the Gardiner Expressway was closed that day for repairs:



Welcome to Old Fort York:





Where the soldiers slept:



and where the officers took dinner in the Officer's Mess:



The old Union Flag, which changed to the current Union Jack shortly after
this fort was founded:

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Now, onto the streetcar, and then on the subway to High Park, to view the magnicent
display of Japanese flowering cherry trees... these are the earliest to bloom (late April)
and are called Somei-Yashino and were donated by Japan to Toronto in 1960. But first,
a couple of subway scenes as I get off to go to High Park:















and the final picturesque setting of Grenadier Pond.....



Back downtown for a well deserved dinner on Queen Street, and just enough energy
for two more shots before I trundle home with sore feet and a full memory chip of pix!





And so, to bed..

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Another day, another photographic adventure. What better way to see April out than to tour through Cabbagetown. Cabbagetown was settled in the 1800's by Irish families who fled the famine to find a new life in Canada. It is one of the largest intact collections of brick Victorian houses in North America, and... if there is a more blatantly picturesque neighbourhood in all of Toronto, then I am a monkey's uncle. Cabbagetown was headed for typical 1950's North American urban decay... but its downward spiral was halted by the wonderful luck of an amazing group of urban planners who took
root in Toronto in the 60's to halt the "doughnut" effect of a hollow downtown with suburbs. In particular, gay men took to the dingy old Victorian neighbourhoods, and soon real estate was spiralling. Today it remains a highly desireable area to live, and is a short 15 minute walk from the gay village. It has a strong community feel to it, and is a wonderful place to raise a family. Come with me on a tour of Cabbagetown in the Spring... a heady mix of fragrant cherry trees and magnolias. Enjoy!!:



























Down to the ravines of the Don River....



and the magnificent Riverdale Park. This extensive park also houses quite an exotic
petting zoo for children, and an 1850's Ontario farmhouse that acts as a focal point
for the park. In the summer on Tuesdays there is an organic vegetable market where
produce of the farm is sold to the public. Lots of old fashioned vegetables grown from
heritage seeds, and bread baked in an outdoor oven:


















Another picturesque Victorian Chapel, St. James-the-Less:



and as we walk back toward the village, an Afghani man peddling some exotic carpets:

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edited to cut down on the number of photos on page one! Sorry....

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Wow, this is one of the best photos threads I've seen in a long time. Well done.

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Another fine day, so on May 17 I set out to enjoy the wonders of Queen's Park. This
glorious park was a "planned" park... laid out and designed in 1860, and named after
the reigning Queen Victoria.





Our provincial legislative buildings:







and across the road to the University of Toronto. The largest university in Canada,
this magnificent downtown campus was granted by Royal Charter in 1827. The
grounds are a peaceful oasis in the rush of downtown life... join me on this spring
tour! Let us start with the 1866 momument to volunteers:



















A couple of lovely stained glass windows installed in old Trinity College in 1949. The
first depicts a hockey scene:



and the second looks eerily like Harry Potter:



who I am sure would have felt right at home in the old halls , such as this one
from Hart House:







The old Observatory:



Old cannons found in the harbour of Louisbourg in Nova Scotia, that were sunk in a
battle in 1750, and transported to the University to take their place on the lawns:























And leaving the campus, we travel south on University Avenue. This is the "Avenue d'etat" of Toronto... a grand boulevard sweeping through the heart of the business district:










and a visit to the gracious Osgoode Hall; home of the Law Society of Upper Canada,
and built around 1830:









I've more pictures, but will save them for another day. Thanks for putting up with
all the heavy downloading!! Cheers!

[Taller Better]

Before I dash off to work, here are some pics that didn't make the cut, but I liked for
whatever goofy reason. Starting with the 1840's House Of Industry which I like mostly
for its name!



Statue detail almost obliterated by weathering:



me in a purple haze:



A clever subway advertisment for the upcoming Toronto Jewish Film Festival. Makes me want to go and see some of the movies!!



a liquour store in Old Town



Our Flatiron Building:



A byzantine church on Bond Street:



an apartment building in my 'hood



City Hall during Tulip season:



a manhole cover installed in 1889 and still doing its job well today. Speaks volumes for
the quality of work then:



And finally, I don't know how I missed this little guy. He is a fierocious monster from
old China who guards the entrance to the Royal Ontario Museum. He looks pissed off!!



ok. I'm outta here. Dang.. just started to rain as I leave for work. Sheesh.

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I like to chose pix that have a bit of a story attached to them! I was going to be lazy and not post pix from this past couple of weeks, but Hey! now I am here I may as well put some on. They are just all jumbled up and are from various areas downtown. Let's start on May 09 with a bicycle tour around Rosedale. Rosedale
was Toronto's first bedroom suburb, and took its name from an old 1821 farmhouse there called Rosedale Villa. It quickly became a leafy retreat for the elite of Toronto, and to this day is home to many of Toronto's older, monied elite families. There are neighbourhoods of bigger, flashier, newer homes... but none have more charm or cachet than these gracious residences. The first picture shows the relation of Rosedale to downtown Toronto:



















The day I rode my bike through, almost all of the houses had their gardeners out working to make the grounds ready for summer. This is not the type of neighbourhood
where the family has to get out and plant the pansies themselves... Even new homes in this neighbourhood make a supreme effort to fit in with the older ones:



































I can just see myself living here:







And cycling back downtown I noticed one of my favourite reno's of an old apartment
building to a very smart condo.









Beside the Rosedale Subway Station:



Ridpaths, an old Toronto furniture shop to the wealthy:

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Now fast forward to today, where I rode my bike downtown. First stopped in at St Lawrence Market for my lunch. This market started over 200 years ago as a farmer's
market, and is still much loved by Torontonians. Wonderful meats, vegetables, cheeses, fish and just about anything else can be bought here:







Popping into St James Cathedral, where an organ recital was about to begin:





This window is called an Amity (friendship window) to display the connection at the time of King George V between England/Canada/South Africa/Australia, NZ, etc... the quality is high, and the window was made by Tiffanys. It felt surreal taking the pix as Sir Edgar Elgar's Pomp and Circumstance crashed away in the background from the organ recital:



One of the older gravestones from the church, laid in 1817:



One of the two oldest Post Office buildings standing in TO, and now headquarters for
the embattled Hollinger, Inc



Annesley Hall, part of the University of Toronto:





One night we went to a Brazilian restaurant, located up in the original Little Italy:









and in closing some pix I took last weekend in my neighbourhood, one some of the
streets I walk my dogs on. So, these are from the gay village, and nearby Cabbagetown:



























And a dear old lion having a snooze after protecting this tombstone for the past 150 years ( I'd want a nap, too)





Nothing is as pretty as dogwood in full bloom:



Hope you liked tonight's tour, and I am so exhausted I am going straight to bed!!!
Cheers!

[Taller Better]

Pix from the last 18 hours... first coming home on my bike last night past the
rather grand entrance of the Princess Margaret Hospital with its superb broken pediment. If I had to take a broken arm anywhere, I would feel slightly better entering a grand portal like this!



Pix from walking the dogs.. just got back into my apartment.



Cawthra Park, where I walk the dogs every day:



If you go through the portal shown, you come across charming Victorian rowhouses... if you look on the RHS, this is the townhouse where a Toronto
barber and his wife had a baby in 1892 named Roy Herbert Thompson. I wonder if Roy, when playing on the steps of these townhouses, had any inkling that someday he would own a huge international fleet of newspapers including The Times of London. He was to become, of course, the famous
Lord Thompson of Fleet.



If you walk down my street, Church Street, be sure to look up at the rooflines of the old Victorian houses. There are some fanciful ones that I
love to gaze upon:



Around the corner, and the dogs lead me to a very English style garden of
Rhododendrons and Azaleas. I refuse to let them pee on one:



One of the hundreds of elegant old brownstone apartment blocks downtown, built to last in the 1800's. This whimsical old one always makes me smile! Plus
I love the late Victorian Art Moderne lettering they used for the rather grand-
sounding "St Charles Court"... the little white lions guarding the entrance look
far from ferocious and appear to be swatting flies.

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I didn't do a major photo shoot yesterday or today; been busy so just snapped
a few pix here and there. Firstly, here is a nice example of an old Victorian building
being saved as part of the wave of condos sweeping the city. This old building used to be a community centre, and played host to "Homo Hops" back in the early 70's.
Times changed, and need for such a space decreased, so this condo development, Jazz, was built:





While walking my ever patient dogs this morning, I snapped a couple of pix at neighbouring old homes on Jarvis Avenue. Jarvis was once THE street to have a
smart house or townhouse on, in Toronto. There are wonderful examples of "Robber-Baron" houses that are all Victorian, and range in style from this fanciful Mock
Medieval:



to more classical Georgian:



A popular style for both residential and public buildings in Toronto during Victorian times
was Romanesque.. here is an example on St. Joseph Street that caught my eye:



And some earlier Victorian townhouses from about 1850, that probably had the Mansard rooflines installed twenty years later as a "modernisation":





I just got home after seeing DaVinci Code, and was famished, so stopped at my "local"
for some take-out Buffalo Wings. The patio was packed with people taking advantage
of the warmer weather:



And, I have to say, the wings were most excellent! Night!

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Finally the dreary rainshowers seem to have left, and it felt much warmer tonight as I cycled home from work. A few random shot... first, our Legislature Building:

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moved these pix to the end where there is more room!

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edited to spread out the pix