Toronto's hidden laneways

[Urban Shocker]

Discovered another small, hidden, unpaved laneway yesterday. Walking up Munro Street in Riverdale I noticed a mud track with heavy tire tracks, between numbers 178 and 180. It leads to the rear of a few houses, where cars are parked and there are some trees - overlooking where the old Don Destructor used to stand, I think.

 

[paraone]

If you walk through the main driveway at 175 broadview (the ugly townhomes that replaced the YMCA back in the early 80's). Hang an immediate left down the steps, it's a small walkway that leads you out to Allen Ave next to the eastdale playground. The houses on Allen back onto it, my son always thought it was the "secret way" home. It was handy to have save fpr the high school pot heads that would gather at lunch hour.

 

[DSC]

It is worth noting that there are two kinds of lane - City owned ones and privately owned ones (and maybe some whose ownership is unclear!). The City online map http://map.toronto.ca/imapit/iMapIt.jsp notes City owned lanes in grey and ignores the private ones. Several local neighbourhood associations have been active in giving names to the unnamed City lanes in their areas and Cabbagetown is now blossoming with new lane signage.

 

[nfitz]

The City online map http://map.toronto.ca/imapit/iMapIt.jsp notes City owned lanes in grey and ignores the private ones. Several local neighbourhood associations have been active in giving names to the unnamed City lanes in their areas and Cabbagetown is now blossoming with new lane signage.

It seems pretty good - in my neighbourhood at least, for city-owned lanes that are used by vehicles. But seems to miss a lot of walkways that the city owns. One of more dramatic examples is the pedestrian walkway over the CN tracks at Pape!

 

[Evildas]

Hi all,

This is a pretty fascinating thread, but my question is why do laneways exist in older parts of the city? Currently people use the garages to store cars, but during the early 1900's (pre-automobiles) did people use these garages to store horses/carriages?

 

[Urban Shocker]

See post no. 7. I think they were added later, when cars became more common.