Sometimes it seems that there's another style street sign for every street in Toronto, and in fact there are countless looks from over the years and from all of the former municipalities that now make up the megacity (rhymes with sagacity) of Toronto. While it can be looked on as a mess, variety is the spice of life, right? It's that variety that photographer and UrbanToronto member Edward Chamberlain is celebrating with his wonderful matrices of Toronto's street signs in a recent thread in UrbanToronto's City Photos & Videos forum.

Chamberlain shot his first street sign in January 2002, shortly after moving to Toronto from London, Ontario. Why? He was intrigued by a name on a map: Plug Hat Road. It's a weird one all right, and it sits in the midst of rolling Rouge Park farmland north of the Toronto Zoo. That name just got Chamberlain more curious, and led him to scan through a street index with a highlighter in hand, and then to innumerable trips all over the city with camera in hand. The result 8 years later is a very clever and comprehensive collection grouped by look, by locale, and by theme. We are told that over the coming decade the street signs in this city will all become variants of the Kipling Av sign seen at top right of the matrix below. If that happens, we will still have Edward Chamberlain's wonderful art to remind us of the marvelous mess we have now.

The following are five of Chamberlain's matrices.

General Typology:

General typology of Toronto street signs

West End Neighbourhoods and Business Improvement Areas:

West end street signs and BIAs

The City/Country Divide:

Differences in urban and rural signage

Toronto, we're not in Kansas anymore.

Sexy street signs

Final Proof that Toronto is the Centre of the Universe? Okay, Solar System?

Mythic street signs

Enjoy all of Chamberlain's work in his Street Signs thread.