Random Pics From the 501

[spmarshall]

With the beautiful weather, I tried something new: taking random pics from the streetcar on Queen Street. I started out on the Queensway, but didn't really get busy taking pics until past Spadina of the north side. I got a lot more on the westbound trip later in the day (south side).

I found it to be fun. I found i easier to take picutres of random and interesting human activity as well as buildings. The streetcar is slow and smooth enough for it to work. The 506 would also be well suited to this.

Roncesvalles Carhouse

Wow! There is a Queen Street Subway, and it opened in 1897!

By Spadina, I started taking lots of pics.

Maritime Life Building art and everyone's favourite downtown parking lot.

Ashbridge House, across from Russell Carhouse.

The Beach(es). Where the stores cater to dogs.

 

[spmarshall]

Return trip, going westbound, south side of Queen.

Russell Carhouse

Opera House

I heart Morgan

CAMH

 

[JoeyCuppa]

Was this today?

I was on Queen in the Beaches for a big chunk of the same time, judging by shadows.

Can't see myself in any pics though.

 

[spmarshall]

Yep, this is from today.

The bright sun was a bit of a bother, but the later daylight time helped (I started at Queen and Windermere around 1:45, got back to Queen and Dufferin around 5).

 

[ganjavih]

Ah, Queen St... Toronto's best. Nice to see more people out on the street these days.

 

[wyliepoon]

Wish I had free time to sit in a streetcar all afternoon like you!

 

[Christopher DeWolf]

great tour. i've tried to do the same on buses but, well, they're far too jerky.

 

[Christopher DeWolf]

oh, and by the way, i notice that shoppers/pharmaprix has decided to blight toronto with its awful new stores. they started popping up here recently and, as much as i love a new drugstore... this kind of suburban standardized big-box approach to urban stores really doesn't work.

notice the new pharmaprix in the background of this photo, over by the left. pretty tacky.

 

[Sir Novelty Fashion]

^ I don't know, CDW. I've been a devotee of the Dupont / Spadina big box ever since it opened. Not for a moment do I feel bad for the grimy, dirty, overpriced, unhygeinic ma-and-pa convenience store across the road (still in business a year later, I might add). As the Queen Street Man put it... Shopper's Drug Mart: mother's ****ing milk.

 

[kpad]

Wow! There is a Queen Street Subway, and it opened in 1897!

Ha ha! Crazy 19th century English. A "subway". HA!

In any event, I'm with SNF on this one. I really like the new Shopper's. They remind me a lot of the Boots in England. Very clean, very sleek. Such an improvement over the old colour schemes and layouts (think LCBO 1993 v. LCBO 1997).

 

[Darkstar416]

In any event, I'm with SNF on this one. I really like the new Shopper's. They remind me a lot of the Boots in England. Very clean, very sleek. Such an improvement over the old colour schemes and layouts (think LCBO 1993 v. LCBO 1997).

True, although the one in question at Queen E & Parliament hasn't done much for the streetscape. Two of the walls are dead and covered merely in SDM ads. I'd think they'd want people to see into their new beautiful store, but apparently not.

 

[Christopher DeWolf]

i'm all for new shoppers -- the selection is great, so's the interior layout. but the exterior design is really appalling.

 

[shawnmicallef]

The one at Dupont and Spadina is better because it fits in well enough -- all glass walls and then the doors....it isn't a big-box like this one at Parliament and Carlton.

The Ma and Pa across the street (I assume it's the one on the corner of Spadina and Dupont) is 24 hours, so perhaps why it stays open. Also I'm forever behind people buying cigarettes in there, which they don't sell at Shoppers.

 

[adma]

An interesting twist on the big-box nouveau Shoppers: the one on Dundas W of Runnymede is converted from an old Bell garage--inside, the big A-frame steel trusses rule the joint...

 

[Long Island Mike]

What a great photo tour of arguably Toronto's neatest streetcar LRT line! This shows a total cross section of Toronto from neighborhoods E and W to University Avenue downtown-arguably Toronto's nicest thorofare! LI MIKE