I wanted to give you an idea of the crowded sidewalks along King St during the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF). This pic was taken in front of the Royal Alexandra Theatre just down the block from 2 theatres showing films during TIFF. If you weren't going with the flow it was almost impossible to move along at times. I was there later at 10:30 pm when a nearby Blue Jays baseball game had just finished and movies were finishing and it was chaos along the sidewalks with so many people!
Kinky Boots, a Broadway musical, has been here since July and has just been extended until December.
Taking part in Signs, Signs. Click HERE to see more signs from around the world.
I stood for a while trying to get an unobscured pic of this sign on King St for the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) but had no luck since it seems to be the place where people meet up with their friends and there was also a steady flow of people on the sidewalk. This was the 40th year for the festival which ran for 11 days in mid September, showing around 400 films to over 450,000 moviegoers. The city is alive with movies and actors for that time period and many people take their holidays to see as many movies as possible. A friend saw 34 movies this year at the festival! Check out the guy at the right of the pic - I hope he made some money.
I have shown you some of these fun LovBots before (click the Lovbot label below) and I recently spotted this one on a site that I think is to become another condo. I had to fit my lens through a chain-link fence to get the shot. This looks like a very happy LovBot don't you think?
Taking part in Monday Murals. Click HERE to see more murals from around the world.
St Thomas's Anglican Church is located right in the midst of the U of Toronto campus but isn't part of the university. It is a church of Anglo-Catholic tradition and was established in 1874 although this building was constructed in 1893. This Arts & Crafts church was designed by architect Eden Smith who designed many of the homes in Wychwood Park as well as 3 Carnegie libraries in the city, and several churches. Love that nice red door!
Taking part in Inspired Sunday. Click HERE to see more religious buildings from around the world.
A tree by one of the homes in Wychwood Park had to be taken down but the homeowners saved the trunk and had someone do a bit of carving for them. I particularly like the owl peeking out from its hollow!
Have you noticed how much detail disappears from pics in blogger lately?
There are a lot stores in the Junction neighbourhood selling 20th century furniture and most of them are large spaces like this one. Chairs seem to be a popular thing and this store in particular had a lot of crates of different kinds. It's always fun to rummage in this type of place!
This Classical Revival building is one of the neighbours of yesterday's great building in the Junction neighbourhood. It was designed for the Canadian Imperial Bank of Canada and built in 1909 by architects Darling & Pearson who designed many banks and University of Toronto buildings from that era. I'm not sure when it became The Treasury or what exactly that is but it seems to be some kind of apartment building.
I consider that to be a fence running along the top so I am taking part in Good Fences. Click HERE to see more fences from around the world.
This fine building is the Campbell Block located at Keele St and Dundas St W in the Junction neighbourhood. It was built in 1888 but for many years it has been in very bad condition. The bricks had been painted and the paint was badly faded, the windows were rotting and there were many empty storefronts on the main floor. After being covered with scaffolding for ages it is now revealed in almost its original glory, the whole building has been restored and it now awaits new tenants for the ground floor. The Super Submarine shop has been there for 40 years and they are staying put. The Junction is a very trendy neighbourhood now and this adds perfectly to the street scene.
Taking part in Signs, Signs. Click HERE to see more signs from around the world.
This is another shot along Queen St West showing you what is happening behind the street. The Heritage Conservation Area applies just to Queen St itself so all of the surrounding streets are fair game for development. There are cranes everywhere in this city! At least this building looks like it will be interesting when finished.
I was walking along the railway right of way in mid-town Toronto when I spotted this mural with its subject matter familiar to us all. It has weathered a bit but I think it may have been painted in 2001 so it is actually doing fairly well. I couldn't figure out the artist at all. I haven't seen a roll of film in a while!
Taking part in Monday Murals. Click HERE to see more murals from around the world.
I spotted this church as I was driving in the north end of the city and pulled over for a shot. It is Greenborough Community Church which is an interdenominational congregation and that is about all the info I could find about it. I love its simple lines and that beautiful spire.
Taking part in Inspired Sunday. Click HERE to see more religious buildings from around the world.
Earlier in the week I showed you the Boer War Monument and its fountain which can be found on University Ave. It is not the only monument in the boulevard running down the centre of University Ave. The one I'm showing today is a bronze sculpture of Adam Beck who was the founder of Ontario Hydro who developed Ontario's hydroelectric infrastructure. The piece was designed by artist Emanuel Hahn and was unveiled in 1934. The words Queenston-Chippawa on the base of the sculpture refer to the location of the Adam Beck generating station on the Niagara River.
Wouldn't you love to have that room in the large turret as your own place to escape from the world and all its problems. I've often shown you turrets from the Annex neighbourhood where the homes are much older and not quite so grand. This house is in the Forest Hill neighbourhhood, just a bit of a walk north of the Annex, where there is more space and thus a bigger turret. I love it!
A couple of blocks west on Queen St W from yesterday's buildings you will find this Second Empire building which was in relatively the same condition as they are. This one has become part of a new structure designed by Montgomery Sisam Architects where just the facade has been retained and restored and a side and back addition have been done. So even though this is a Heritage Conservation District that doesn't mean that changes can't happen. For those of you who know Toronto this was the former location of Silver Snail comics who had been there for many many years! And of course there is another condo tower going up in the background.
These two Second Empire buildings are found on Queen St West and have heritage protection and are actually in the Queen Street Heritage Conservation District which applies to several blocks of buildings. They both look like they could use a bit of TLC (tender loving care) soon. You can see behind them the threat of condo development that is happening all over Toronto. Kops is an independent record store while the Condom Shack needs no explanation. I'll show one of their neighbours in this very high rent area tomorrow.
Taking part in Signs, Signs. Click HERE to see more signs from around the world.
I've shown you the Boer War Memorial that is found on University Ave at Queen St before in 2013 (HERE). It is a wonderful piece done by artist Walter Allward but it has been several years since the fountain in front of it has worked. I think the fact that the PanAm Games were coming here this summer got all of the right people working on solving some of the fountain problems around town finally.
I spotted this very tropical mural on McCaul St near the art college (OCAD) and it looks so beautifully summery that I have decided I must go back when the ground is covered in deep snow for a hit of nicer times. I'm not sure about the artists since there seemed to be a lot of names on it but not one stood out. I like how they have painted the sun around a light fixture!
Taking part in Monday Murals. Click HERE to see more murals from around the world.
We are still at the High Level Pumping Station, in this room which was added in 1911 to the previous 1906 room where the steam engine was located. The electric pumps were replaced in the mid 1950s and the 6 units in this room pump water to west and central Toronto. My water actually comes through these pipes! The one thing that struck me about the whole pumping station was how clean and shiny it was as you can see from the gleaming floor.
There was something about the neat and tidy arrangement of these wrenches hanging on the side of the steam engine at the High Level Pumping Station that I liked. Like everything else in the building they looked like they had been carefully maintained for many years!
These very cool gauges were found on the end of the steam engine which I showed you yesterday from the High Level Pumping Station. There is something fascinating about a control panel like this don't you think!
The first thing you see when you enter the High Level Pumping Station, which I showed you yesterday, is this wonderful old steam engine. It is a vertical triple-expansion steam engine built by John Inglis of Toronto in 1909 and there were stairs beside it which led you down to the pipe gallery below where the water was pumped. This engine and all of the other historic engines in the building were in immaculate shape and there were a lot of very proud City of Toronto people around, such as these 2 men, explaining things to all the visitors. I've always wondered what was inside the building and wasn't disappointed. More pics to come for a few days.
This wonderful building is the High Level Pumping Station, with the 3rd largest capacity of the 18 pumping stations in Toronto. Toronto's water comes from Lake Ontario and the city goes uphill from the lake requiring the use of pumps to deliver the water to the higher elevations. This building was built in 1906 in Edwardian Classical style and it has heritage designation but is still totally functional and is the hub for controlling the transmission of tap water across the city. It was open to the public during our Doors Open event in May but somehow I never got around to posting any pics till now. More pics for the next few days.
It is hard to read it but there is a sign over the door and I am taking part in Signs, Signs. Click HERE to see more signs from around the world.
It is the time of year when we must take advantage of whatever warm sunny days we have before the days get short and winter comes. I took this pic about a week ago at James Gardens which seems to have become my escape place this summer. It is a wonderful place to sit and recharge!
I spotted this lovely creature on Queen St West, wrapped around the window of a shop which seems to be opening soon as a bag store. This another of the wonderfully colourful pieces by the artist Birdo. Everyone looks to be in a hurry as they scurry past!
Taking part in Monday Murals. Click HERE to see more murals from around the world.
This is yet another old church that I found in the Weston neighbourhood of the city. St John's Anglican Church was established in 1856 and this church built in 1879 several blocks north of this location and a fair distance from the downtown section of Weston which was then a small farming town. A decision was made to move it south closer to downtown and the move began in winter of 1894 while the dirt roads were frozen. A thaw came during the move and turned the road to mud and the church was parked in this location on Main St (now Weston Rd) and never moved any further. It thus remained a few blocks from the centre of town. The building has heritage listing and hopefully remains here for many more years!
Taking part in Inspired Sunday. Click HERE to see more religious buildings from around the world.
During the Salsa On St Clair festival there were small dance and performance areas all along the street but there was also this main stage which even had an upstairs area with umbrellas. This is where the larger bands and performers were found and I was lucky enough to catch this band, the "Mexico Amigo Mariachi", playing their set. They were really good particularly the woman singer. So many people around me seemed to know all the words in the songs and were singing along with her. The stage was set up in front of a mural I have shown you before (HERE).
Somehow I missed posting any pics from the "Salsa On St Clair" street festival which took place in July and for 2 days over a weekend closed several blocks of St Clair Ave to traffic including the streetcars. The festival is a celebration of Latin culture and includes lots of food booths, Salsa dancing and great entertainment. As you can see there were lots of people on the street, even on the streetcar tracks, but I'm not sure how many of them go into any of the local businesses. Hopefully they return to the neighbourhood later to shop. Another pic tomorrow.
It is very often that you see a gate like this guarding the grounds of a home in Toronto but this happens to be one of the old original estates in the Forest Hill neighbourhood and I would imagine that it has always had a gate. The home was built in 1915 and designed by architect Eden Smith who designed a lot of the homes in Wychwood Park and other buildings I have shown before (click the label below). Even on satellite pics you can't really see much of this heritage protected home.
Taking part in Good Fences, Click HERE to see more fences from around the world.
This is a relatively new Little Library that has appeared in the Annex neighbourhood. The libraries seem to be popping up all over the city. I did pick up a couple of good reads from this one!
Taking part in Signs, Signs. Click HERE to see more signs from around the world.
The theme for September 1 for the City Daily Photo Blog community is 'Curiosities' and I chose this rather odd truck which I have spotted many times over the summer. I have never seen anything like it and after some google research the best I can do is that it is a VW Vanagon also known as a Doka which refers to it being a double cab. It is probably from the late 80s or early 90s.
Taking part in the theme Curiosities. Click HERE to see more curiosities from around the world.
