Miscellany Toronto Photographs: Then and Now

[Mustapha]

Similarly (I suppose), King/Queen/Roncy back when Lake Shore Road also plugged into the intersection (pre-Gardiner).

Lawrence avenue east and Mount Pleasant road is another intersection now where a set of phased lights lets turns and other automobilic activities occur whilst expediting drivers to pick up their dual official languaged offspring from the Toronto French School.

Twenty years on the waterfront:
1918:

1938:

Fine me or imprison me for the opinion I'm about to offer but whether 1918, 1938 or now, our water front has never had a fair treatment. In 1918 the railways were everywhere, but the Harbour Commission Building occupied a sort of pride of place on the water, physically as well as municipally.

In 1938 the reclaimed lands hadn't been utilized or sold and I see evidence of
ornamental planting.

As for now, I think a moratorium of condo building should be effected but what are the chances? Of some pruning?

Now back to Ave & Dav - at least two Chinese Laundries - three if you include Chow Keong Hand Laundry. Mustapha, was your grandfather's shop on Yonge the one that was referred to in 'good old days' articles in the North Toronto Post? - I believe the writer's father was a tailor?

Anna, I remember that article but didn't save it. It was about a year ago I think? Anyways, it wasn't my gramps' place. His was located at 2616 Yonge. Chinese laundries were as prevalent then as Korean operated convenience stores are now - one on every block. They were there whether they were money makers or not; that's what that community did in those days. I know of many laundry operators who only saw the fruit of their labours when their stores - land - were sold.

Pic of Chow Keong:

http://books.google.ca/books?id=0-d...Q#v=onepage&q=Chow Keong Hand Laundry&f=false

in any case, all the buildings are still largely intact except for loss of lovely narrow windows on 2-story block in center, which is a shame.

And the shame of the builders plaque sawn in half.

Oh, thedeepend, not to put too much of a Catholic spin on it, your indulgence is granted.





December 21 addition.

Then: NW corner of St. Clair and Avenue Road.

Now: October 2009.

 

[thecharioteer]

Edwardian Christmas at the St. Charles Hotel (NW corner of Yonge and Melinda):

Outside:

Inside:

The rest of the year:

 

[LowPolygon]

December 21 addition.

Then: NW corner of St. Clair and Avenue Road.

Now: October 2009.

This is one of seven identical versions of this sculpture. The original is from 1912, and is in Kensington Gardens in London. it was created by the sculptor George Frampton and was personally commissioned by JM Barrie. it was also put up secretly!

from The Times, May Day 1912:

‘There is a surprise in store for the children who go to Kensington Gardens to feed the ducks in the Serpentine this morning. Down by the little bay, at the south-western side of the tail of the Serpentine, they will find a May Day gift from JM Barrie, a figure of Peter Pan blowing his pipe on the stump of a tree, with fairies and mice and squirrels all around.

It is the work of Sir George Frampton and the bronze figure of the boy who would never grow up is delightfully conceived.’

The spot chosen for the sculpture is the very spot where Peter landed in Barrie’s story, and it was intended to give "quiet pleasure to nannies and their young charges as they walked or played in the park".

There are other copies in Brussels, Liverpool, Camden, N.J (?), St. John’s Nfld…

 

[Urban Shocker]

As a child in the late '50s and early '60s I'd sometimes see the statue when we'd go up to London by train for the day to visit the museums, galleries or historic buildings.

It was modelled on a photograph of Michael Llewelyn Davies ( the inspiration for the story ) dressed as Peter Pan . He apparently committed suicide at the age of 20 in a drowning "accident" with his gay lover. Forever young, indeed.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2a/Michael_Llewelyn_Davies_as_Peter_Pan.jpg

 

[Mustapha]

...the St. Charles Hotel (NW corner of Yonge and Melinda):

And to think that the building that replaced all this is now itself almost a hundred years old.




December 22 addition.



Then: November 19, 1924. Looking S on Oakwood. St. Clair in the distance. Such civic pride in those days; what a turnout...

Now: October 2009.

 

[Aaron]

I think it had little to do with civic pride and a lot to do with nothin' better to do.

I kid, but not really. I mean, what was there to do? Reshape your hat?

 

[Traynor]

I think it had little to do with civic pride and a lot to do with nothin' better to do.

I kid, but not really. I mean, what was there to do? Reshape your hat?

LOL

I was going to say that! With no TV, DVD's, video games, fashion malls, iPhones or even movies with sound... I'd go watch a streetcar drive by as well.

 

[Goldie]

401 bypass - day & night

LOL

I was going to say that! With no TV, DVD's, video games, fashion malls, iPhones or even movies with sound... I'd go watch a streetcar drive by as well.

Speaking of "streetcar drive by", here's a modern version of a drive by:

 

[Mustapha]

I think it had little to do with civic pride and a lot to do with nothin' better to do. I kid, but not really. I mean, what was there to do? Reshape your hat?

Aaron, Aaron Aaron; you got your hat blocked in those days. Blocked.

LOL I was going to say that! With no TV, DVD's, video games, fashion malls, iPhones or even movies with sound... I'd go watch a streetcar drive by as well.

Traynor, this also explains the numerous street urchins in these old pictures just standing around. Or those TTC subway construction or track laying pictures always with a crowd of men - they were always men - standing around looking.

Speaking of "streetcar drive by", here's a modern version of a drive by:

You can probably see this highway from outer space. Or near space.

 

[Anna]

Aaron, Aaron Aaron; you got your hat blocked in those days. Blocked.

 

[Traynor]

Traynor, this also explains the numerous street urchins in these old pictures just standing around. Or those TTC subway construction or track laying pictures always with a crowd of men - they were always men - standing around looking.

This reminds me Mustapha, someone always comments on the lack of people in the street scenes of the NOW photos as compared to the THEN ones from the archives. Especially in the downtown streetscapes.

But I hazard to guess that particularly when the financial district is concerned, many of the THEN photos were taken on a weekday by a paid city photographer. However, many of the NOW ones are taken by amateurs on their days off, more than likely Sunday afternoons.

Would this be the case?

 

[Mustapha]

Lots of small fashion details here. Skinny lapels and ties are back in fashion again, of course, but there's more. Bob Hope's "3 to 2 roll" jacket - 3 buttons but the top one is hidden behind the roll of the lapel - note the unused top buttonhole. An Ivy League affectation.

If a Toronto man wears a traditional hat like that he can still get it blocked, but now only at one place in Toronto.

http://www.thestar.com/News/GTA/article/562783

 

[Mustapha]

This reminds me Mustapha, someone always comments on the lack of people in the street scenes of the NOW photos as compared to the THEN ones from the archives. Especially in the downtown streetscapes.

But I hazard to guess that particularly when the financial district is concerned, many of the THEN photos were taken on a weekday by a paid city photographer. However, many of the NOW ones are taken by amateurs on their days off, more than likely Sunday afternoons.

Would this be the case?

This would be the case. Sometimes Saturdays and holidays too. I have 5 weeks holidays now so I have to use 'em or lose 'em.

 

[voxpopulicosmicum]

I walk past Cherry and Lakeshore twice every weekday, and you can still smell the petrochemicals, which are floating on the watertable about two metres below the ground.

Weird -- I have always noticed a very distinct odour of catspunk at the corner of Cherry & Lakeshore. Are you aware if catspunk and petrochemicals emit a similar odour?

Edit - Question answered several posts later. Much obliged.

 

[adma]

And to think that the building that replaced all this is now itself almost a hundred years old.

And to the right of it, the original Dominion Bank building--in the late 1870s, it might have been the first downtown core building with "skyscraperesque" pretensions.

Then: November 19, 1924. Looking S on Oakwood. St. Clair in the distance. Such civic pride in those days; what a turnout...

Now: October 2009.

And a yuck to the surelevation of the semi to the right of the St Clair + Oakwood commercial block.