Toronto - West End (w. of Spadina)

All tours go – Rain or Shine

Art & Urbanism at Lansdowne & Bloor

  • Ann Homan
  • Saturday, May 2, 2009
  • 10:30am
  • Walk: 2 hours
open

This walk is limited to the first 10 people arriving for breakie and a chat. This is by no means exclusive, just small and manageable for me, my vocal chords, and the neighbhourhood art galleries. We'll tour the galleries, discuss the rapid changes in the neighbourhood emerging from community-based cultural, social and economic interventions over the past two years, and imagine the future of sites poised for redevelopment.

Meeting Place: The Dale Restaurant, 1285 Bloor Street West (SE corner of Lansdowne & Bloor; one door in)

Tour guide(s): Ann Homan

End Location: Same as start location

Neighbourhood Lansdowne & Bloor, Wallace Emerson

Public Transit Directions: Lansdowne Subway, Lansdowne Exit

Accessible

One small step up

Parking Available

On street; Green P

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Back Alley Bike Tour : Downtown West

  • Shamez Amlani of Streets are for People!
  • Saturday, May 2, 2009
  • 2:00pm
  • Walk: 1.5 - 2hrs
open View Map

Toronto’s intricate network of laneways gives cyclists a chance to escape the hectic, polluted, often dangerous pace of our major arteries.  As familiar landmarks disappear, linking destinations through back alleys feels like a trip through a magical wormhole - we zip from Kensington Market to Little Italy to Queen West to Parkdale while passing through Manila, New Delhi, Nairobi and Sao Paulo!  No traffic lights, no door prizes, no road rage – instead, an old man smiles and winks while making wine, a dishwasher takes a much deserved smoke break, kids play stick-ball and smells from a bakery fill your nostrils as we peek behind-the-myriad-scenes of a buzzing metropolis.

Pick up tips on linking parks, parking lots, empty schoolyards and other landscape into new routes while avoiding major streets as you start building your own psychogeography of the cityscape.  As an added bonus, we’ll take a quick pit stop to learn & play a round of bacci ball!

Meeting Place: Outside La Palette, Kensington Market, 256 Augusta Ave.

Tour guide(s): Shamez Amlani of Streets are for People!

End Location: Pedestrian Bridge to Lakeshore and Martin Goodman Trail, foot of Roncesvalles

Neighbourhood West end

Public Transit Directions: Tour participants must arrive by bicycle. Nearest subway is Spadina, ride SW to College & Augusta.

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Bloor is Getting Down to Business: From the Pits Downe

  • Ghazaleh Etezal
  • Saturday, May 2, 2009
  • 4:00pm
  • Walk: 2 hours
open

Join me as I share my experience with TheStoreFront Community project and meet the neighbours that I connected with through this community building initiative. Lets walk and talk about the neighbourhood, the local shops, the vision, the changes, the projects, the diversity, the history, the incredible energy that makes this area who we are...from the Pits to Lansdowne, we're gonna get down to business!

Meeting Place: Christie Pits Park across Montrose Avenue which is a couple steps from coming out of Christie Station

Tour guide(s): Ghazaleh Etezal , TheStoreFront Community Network

End Location: Lansdowne Ave.

Neighbourhood Bloorcourt and Bloordale (Dufferin Grove/Dovercourt-Wallace Emerson-Junction)

Public Transit Directions: Christie Station

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CAMH : Toronto Asylum Boundary Walls

  • Geoffrey Reaume
  • Saturday, May 2, 2009
  • 10:00am
  • Walk: 2 hours
open

This will be a historical tour of the 19th century patient built asylum boundary walls located at the present-day Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH), 1001 Queen Street West.

The purpose of this tour is to remember the contributions of the women and men who lived, worked, and died in the Toronto Insane Asylum, as is represented by the boundary walls that they built which stand as an enduring testament to their abilities, and to use the past to challenge discrimination experienced today by people who have a psychiatric history.

A sneak preview of the wall tour can be seen in this two minute film made by York University students in a project organized by the York Institute of Health Research.

Meeting Place: Meet just outside the FRONT DOORS of CAMH, 1001 Queen Street West, which faces onto the corner of Queen and Ossington. If you arrive late and the tour has already started, go along the length of the wall (east-south-west) and look for the tour as it proceeds along the boundary wall.

Tour guide(s): Geoffrey Reaume

End Location: Back to start location

Neighbourhood Queen West

Public Transit Directions: It can be reached by taking the Queen Street streetcar WEST from the OSGOODE Subway Station to the corner of Queen and Ossington. The OSSINGTON 63 bus can also be taken SOUTH from the Ossington station to Queen Street, right across the street from CAMH.

Accessible

Parking Available

Pay parking is available in a parking lot on-site and on surrounding streets.

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Dark Age Ahead - The Wizard of Ossington Jane's Walk

  • HiMY SYeD
  • Sunday, May 3, 2009
  • 6:00pm
  • Walk: 90 min
open

Brief Walk Description:
Jane Jacobs In Dark Age Ahead, identified five pillars of our culture that we depend on but which are in serious decline:

  1. Community and Family
  2. Higher Education
  3. The Effective Practice of Science
  4. Taxation and Government
  5. Self-policing by Learned Professions

The decay of these pillars, Jacobs contended, was behind such ills as environmental crisis, racism and the growing gulf between rich and poor; their continued degradation could lead us into a new Dark Age, a period of cultural collapse in which all that keeps a society alive and vibrant is forgotten.

This walk will tie in ideas discussed in Jane's last book she published before she died, Dark Age Ahead as seen through the lens of the Ossington Avenue, Garrison Creek, and the AfriVillage and Christie Pits Neighbourhoods.

  • See the Leaning Houses of Shaw Street aka the crookedest houses in Toronto
  • Learn about Lost Rivers - Garrison Creek
  • Discover The City of Labyrinths Project and walk any of the four neighbourhood examples
  • ...and maybe Meet The Wizard of Ossington

Meeting Place: In front of Ossington Station

Tour guide(s): HiMY SYeD

End Location: Christie Pits Park

Neighbourhood Christie Pits, Ossington Avenue north of Bloor Street West

Public Transit Directions: Ossington Subway Station

Accessible

Sidewalks mostly

Parking Available

Street parking, and Green P Parking lot

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Davenport: The Stairs Along Lake Iroquois

  • Leehe Lev
  • Saturday, May 2, 2009
  • 10:00am
  • Walk: 2 hours
open
"

12,000 years ago meltwater from retreating glaciers formed Lake Iroquois,
covering parts of Ontario and New York State. The ancient shore remains as
an escarpment overlooking the plain on which Toronto is built. Native peoples
beat a path at the base of this ridge to use as an overland route between
the Humber and Don rivers. French explorers and missionaries followed the trail
to and from Huronia. After the founding of York in 1793, the trail began to
appear on maps of the area. The name commemorates the first house to be
built on top of the ridge in 1797, John Mcgill's "Davenport". One of several
routes developed along an extended aboriginal trail, Davenport Road is considered
one of Toronto’s oldest roads."
http://www.heritagetoronto.org/discover-toronto/map/plaque/davenport-road    

Come join Leehe Lev of Whole Self Fitness as she leads a fitness walk
along the bluffs of the old Lake Iroqouis.  We will walk up and/or down the seven staircases between Spadina to Dufferin.  The route will pass through 4 neighbourhoods including parks with some stunning views of Toronto. Participants can walk each staircase at their own pace, according to their fitness levels.

Meeting Place: Davenport and Spadina: Bottom of the Baldwin (Casa Loma) Stairs

Tour guide(s): Leehe Lev

End Location: Davenport and Dufferin: Bottom of the stairs from Regal Road Public School

Neighbourhood Casa Loma, Hillcrest, Wychwood Park and Regal Heights

Public Transit Directions: Dupont Station, walk north on Spadina two blocks to Davenport 

Parking Available

Meter parking is available on Davenport or Dupont.

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Diversity of Ossington Avenue

  • St Christopher House
  • Saturday, May 2, 2009
  • 1:00pm
  • Walk: 1.5 hours
open

The neighbouhood surrounding Ossington Avenue is more than meets the eye. It is home to a diversity of languages and origins. Join the Portuguese and Vietnamese seniors from Ossington Avenue as we explore Trinity Bellwoods Park and its monuments, the changing make-up of the neighbourhood, the leafy streets around Dovercourt and theatre at St Christopher House. The tour begins at St Christopher House and will end with a look at the spot that is home to the Portuguese Women 55+ group.

Meeting Place: St Christopher House, 248 Ossington Avenue, corner of Ossington and Dundas

Tour guide(s): St Christopher House

End Location: Trinity Bellwoods Park

Neighbourhood Dundas and Ossington

Public Transit Directions: Take the Dundas 505 streetcar to Ossington Ave, or take the Ossington bus south to Dundas

Accessible

There are no accessibility limitations

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Dovercourt Village

  • Lewis Poplak
  • Saturday, May 2, 2009
  • 1:00pm
  • Walk: 1.5 hours
open

Explore the intriguing past of a typical Toronto streetcar neighbourhood developed in the late 19th and early 20th Century.

Highlights include a discussion of the area's classic planning template which includes a park at the centre, a commercial strip at Dovercourt/Hallam, and corner stores that interact with the sidewalk. We'll also talk about the history of place names like Dovercourt and Hallam and find out about some interesting people that have come from the neighbourhood including Marilyn Bell.

Meeting Place: On the pathway beside the tennis courts in Dovercourt Park (corner Salem and Fernbank Avenues).

Tour guide(s): Lewis Poplak

End Location: Same as start location

Neighbourhood Dovercourt Village

Public Transit Directions: Exit Dufferin Subway station, walk north on Dufferin, east (right) on Shanly, and north (left) on Salem into the park; Or exit Ossington Subway Station at west (Delaware) exit, walk north on Delaware, west (left) on Shanly, and north (right) on Salem into the park. It is an easy ten minute walk from either subway station to tour start.

Accessible

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A Green tour of Davenport

  • Green Here volunteers and staff
  • Sunday, May 3, 2009
  • 11:00am
  • Walk: 1.5h
open

The objective of the Green Tour of Davenport is to educate people about the urban forest and forestry issues, why we need trees in the city and how trees affect the people and the environment within the city.

The tour will focus on the Davenport neighbourhood and the industrial, residential and park areas within the CNR/CPR tracks to Dufferin St. Bloor St. to St. Clair Ave.  Throughout the tour we will weave in and out the industrial parts of the area to the green spaces, while discussing the history of the neighbourhood, the trees/ green space and the work done to date by GreenHere and other local community, and environmental groups.

Meeting Place: 1900 Davenport Road Toronto, Ontario M6N 1B7

Tour guide(s): Green Here volunteers and staff, Andrea Dawber

End Location: St. Clair Ave West and Lansdowne Ave (Earlscourt Park)

Neighbourhood Davenport West

Public Transit Directions: Dundas West station take the 168 Symington bus and get off at Davenport Road (5-7min bus ride) and walk west to 1900 Davenport.

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Humber River: Heartbeats of History

  • Madeline McDowell
  • Saturday, May 2, 2009
  • 1:00pm
  • Walk: 2 hours
open

See a majestic White Oak that has a living memory of Frobisher, Simcoe, and Peter Jones. Visit one of the largest Dry Stone Walls in the GTA. See the Site of a Seneca Village and the French Trading Forte of 1720 amidst remnant aboriginal forest. Walk the Western Beltline Railway. Listen to the Toronto River aka The Humber – Canada’s 26th Heritage River and maybe see a Heron or a Great White Egret. Walk in the footsteps of Jacques (James) Baby, Upper Canada Minister of Finance and Sir William P Howland, Canada’s only American born Father of Confederation. All this while treading the bottom of a glacial lake. Finish with a visit to the Lambton House, a 150-year-old Stage Coach stop and then catch the Lambton Bus back to the subway.

This walk is supported with visual material in the form of some historic photographs of the neighbourhood.

Meeting Place: The fountain on north west corner of Bloor and Jane

Tour guide(s): Madeline McDowell

End Location: Lambton House, Old Dundas Street by Humber River (near bus back to Jane Station)

Neighbourhood Humber River, Baby Point

Public Transit Directions: Jane subway stop

Accessible

Not accessible, stairs, uneven walkways, hills

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Junction-High Park: West Bend Community Walk

  • Duncan Farnan
  • Saturday, May 2, 2009
  • 9:45am
  • Walk: 2 hours
open

The West Bend is one of the original neighbourhoods of the former City of West Toronto Junction, which this year celebrates its merger in 1909 with the then-bankrupt City of Toronto. Ecologically the area is an extension of High Park's Carolinian Forest and historically it is part of the Junction's commercial and industrial strip. The West Bend is one Toronto's lesser known neighbourhoods but extremely rich in social and visual history --- site of the first TTC route, 19th and 20th c. vernacular architecture, the Riwoche Tibetan Buddhist Temple, the 1923 Mechanics Institute, as well as turn-of-the-century Edwardian and Victorian houses.

Come explore the Indian Roads (famous for lost pizza drivers), flourishing laneways and the equally famous Girls (Edna, Wanda, Annette) that form the interior of this scrappy little enclave north of Bloor, east of Keele and beside the great curve of Dundas Street West and the CPR-CNR Main lines.

The walk will be lead by Duncan Farnan, resident and dealer with an interest in unknown, unsigned and lost art. Birders and flaneurs welcome.

Meeting Place: West Toronto Lawn Bowling Club - Baird Park (Keele Street and Humberside Avenue)

Tour guide(s): Duncan Farnan

End Location: Returns to start

Neighbourhood High-Park Junction

Public Transit Directions: Get off at the Keele Subway Station, take Keele 41 or Weston Road bus north two traffic lights to Humberside.

Accessible

Just a light Spring stroll.

Parking Available

Lots of on-street parking.

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Kensington Market Gastro-Fantasy

  • Mika Bareket
  • Sunday, May 3, 2009
  • 12:00pm
  • Walk: 2 hours
open

Kensington Market is one of the last bustling communities in North America without a single Starbucks in sight. But with so many stores up for lease, could this reign of independence soon come to an end? Perhaps not. Join optimist Mika Bareket, a longtime Market resident and new shop owner on a part real, part fantasy tour of the area. She’ll point out the current spots to best devour Kensington culture, where to buy groceries (including places where notable Toronto chefs do their shopping), and on the fantasy-side, will suggest what types of businesses might fill in the gaps to make the area Jane Jacobs-approved. No special goggles are required for the virtual element of the tour, but please bring your imagination and opinions. A sketch of the Dream Market will be drafted along the way and made available at a later date. Special guests have been invited, some may attend.

Meeting Place: Bellevue Square, by Al Waxman statue,that little parkette on Wales Avenue between Augusta and Bellevue Avenues

Tour guide(s): Mika Bareket, to be announced

End Location: to be announced

Neighbourhood Kensington Market

Public Transit Directions: Bathurst or Spadina streetcar to Nassau Street. Walk towards Augusta, turn south and continue for 2 blocks. Presto!

Accessible

Some stores may not be accessible.

Parking Available

Green P at 20 St. Andrews for $5 a day.

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The Meeting Place: First Nations on Queen

  • Bridget Wabegijic, Leslie Saunders, The Meeting Place & St Christopher House
  • Saturday, May 2, 2009
  • 12:30pm
  • Walk: 1 hour
open

Before contact, the area that is now called Toronto sustained a very vibrant First Nations culture. Today, about 43% of the people who come to the Meeting Place drop-in at Queen and Bathurst are First Nations people. This tour of the immediate neighbourhood around the Meeting Place will explore what this neighbourhood means to First Nations people, both in a historical context and today. We will see how First Nations people lived and used various parts of what is now Toronto, for markets, ceremonies and gathering places. We will explore the ways we can work together to weave a range of resources and people to build a healthy community for and with, people who are extremely marginalized.

Meeting Place: The Meeting Place, 588 Queen St West, at Bathurst

Tour guide(s): Bridget Wabegijic, Leslie Saunders, The Meeting Place & St Christopher House

End Location: Trinity Bellwoods Park

Neighbourhood Queen West

Public Transit Directions: Bathurst or Queen streetcars to Queen and Bathurst

Accessible

Parking Available

Parking available on Augusta or Queen Streets

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North Dovercourt: Tracks, Wires, Homes and Industry

  • Netami Stuart
  • Saturday, May 2, 2009
  • 1:00pm
  • Walk: 2 hours
open

The area surrounding Geary Avenue is unique in central Toronto; a truly mixed-use neighbourhood.  In some ways it is a hold-over from another time when planning and land-use controls were far more relaxed – when polluting industries, little houses, local bakeries and railways were placed cheek by jowl. 
Unlike the rest of downtown Toronto, north Dovercourt does not hide its infrastructure: rail lines and hyrdo corridors divide the neighboourhood and create strange spaces in their wake. In the past the area was a centre of manufacturing and workers housing. Today, much of the employment has disappeared and the empty industrial spaces have been repurposed as studios spaces for artists and bands. Unlike other areas of the city that have made a full transition from industrial to creative, Geary Avenue retains pockets from each section of its history: shoelace factories, studio buildings, infill housing and train crossings all co-exist on the most unusual street in Toronto.

Meeting Place: Primrose Avenue Parkette at Davenport & St. Clarens one block east of Lansdowne Ave.

Tour guide(s): Netami Stuart, Edward Birnbaum

End Location: Bartlett Avenue and Dupont Ave. with a debrief at PM Toronto in the Galleria Mall

Neighbourhood North Dovercourt (Geary Avenue from Lansdowne to Bartlett)

Public Transit Directions: Bus 47 Lansdowne to Davenport from Lansdowne Subway.

Accessible

Parking Available

On-street parking only

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Parkdale Activity Recreation Centre Walk

  • PARC volunteers
  • Sunday, May 3, 2009
  • 1:00pm
  • Walk: 2 hours
open View Map

Service ghetto? Gentrifying strip? Arts-infused hipster hangout? Once wealthy suburb fallen into decline? Immigrant settlement area? Drug haven? Rooming house stronghold? The most diverse neighbourhood in North America?

Parkdale is a neighbourhood of conflicting and contested histories that together comprise the area's unique character. During this walk, members of the Parkdale Activity -- Recreation Centre will share their take on the neighbourhood by talking about local histories and visiting sites of importance to them and their communities.

Meeting Place: In Price Chopper Parking lot, behind Gladstone Hotel, 1214 Queen St. W.

Tour guide(s): PARC volunteers, Katie Mazer and Stephanie Gris

End Location: Parkdale Activity-Recreation Centre, 1499 Queen St. W

Neighbourhood Parkdale

Public Transit Directions: The Parkdale Activity-Recreation Centre is easily accessible from both east and west by the Queen Street Streetcar line.

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Queen West: Marginal spaces and modish places

  • Mia Hunt
  • Saturday, May 2, 2009
  • 2:00pm
  • Walk: 90 minutes
open

Queen West is changing fast!  Still we think it has managed to accommodate a great amount of diversity – from “marginalised” people and soup kitchens, to "the well-heeled” and doggy coat boutiques.   All sorts of people play here, work here, heal here, live here, and die here.  We’re interested in this mix of activities and identities, and in how this space has responded to this diversity through time.  The coexistence of the old and contemporary on this strip tells an awful lot of stories – of community membership, but also of exclusion.  We can’t help wondering if the new scales and rates of neighbourhood change are upsetting the collective vibe on Queen West and disempowering marginalised groups.  This is our second year pounding the Queen West pavement asking these enduring questions and hoping you have the answers, or at least some of your own.  Join us!  

Meeting Place: in front of the Post Office at 1117 Queen Street West at Lisgar, one block west of Dovercourt

Tour guide(s): Mia Hunt, Michelle Drylie

End Location: Queen West and Bathurst, followed by bevies and chat at Java House at Queen and Augusta

Neighbourhood Queen West West

Public Transit Directions: Queen West street car

Accessible

We'll be on the public sidewalks, so curbs are the only obstacles

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The Real Parkdale

  • Cheri DiNovo MPP
  • Saturday, May 2, 2009
  • 10:00am
  • Walk: 2 hours
open

Parkdale has a rich and unique history.  From its time as a thriving beach front property for the 19th century upper class to the darker stories of drugs, arson and murder, Parkdale continues to be a vibrant and diverse neighbourhood.

Join MPP Cheri DiNovo as she walks with the diverse residents of the "real" Parkdale - from sex trade workers to university professors - Parkdale is clearly the hippest neighbourhood in the city.

Meeting Place: Queen Street West at Roncesvalles

Tour guide(s): Cheri DiNovo MPP

End Location: Queen Street West at Dufferin

Neighbourhood Parkdale

Public Transit Directions: Queen Streetcar as well as King Streetcar to Roncesvales and Queen.

Accessible

This walk is accessible.

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Roncesvalles Walk

  • Tonya Surman
  • Sunday, May 3, 2009
  • 11:00am
  • Walk: 1.5 hrs
open

Join Roncesvalles residents Mary Weins, Philip Stern and Tonya Surman on a Jane Jacobs-inspired walk through the Roncesvalles neighbourhood ... from the trim eastern borders of High Park to the overwrought rococo of Macdonell Avenue's grandest homes. Be transported by the fare in our old-world delicatessens and visit the cafés that have made Toronto a world-leader in the Fair Trade coffee movement. Share the sights and stories of Roncesvalles.

Meeting Place: The Katyn Monument- south along King St, just south of the southwest corner of Queen St. and Roncesvalles Av. For more about the Katyn massacre go to tinyurl.com/d94ox9

Tour guide(s): Tonya Surman, Mary Weins, John Bowker, Philip Stern

End Location: Queen St. W.

Neighbourhood Roncesvalles

Public Transit Directions: 504 King St. or 501 Queen St. streetcars to the corner of Queen and Roncesvalles.

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Secrets & Lies: The Imaginary Life of Beaconsfield Village

  • Lisa Pasold
  • Sunday, May 3, 2009
  • 11:30am
  • Walk: 1.5 hours
open

How many secrets will you learn, and how many lies will you notice? I'll be leading a walk through the lovely Beaconsfield Village, weaving a tall tale of Napoleon's Illegitimate Daughter, and her complicated life here. Find out about "Toronto's Girl Problem" of 1890. Discuss the disappearing lake. Learn about the terrible pet porcupine problem. And hear about Captain John Denison's obsessive gardening... carving out an estate from virgin forest in 1815. Along the way, we'll weave the wonderful architecture and real history of the neighbourhood-including the now-demolished Parkdale Train Station, and how Benjamin Disraeli is linked to this area--into our surreal fictional tale. We'll start at the Gladstone Hotel, the oldest continuously operating hotel in Toronto. The walk will be at a comfortable pace and will include historical photographs of the neighbourhood.

Lisa Pasold has spent nearly a decade doing literary walking tours in Paris, exploring its rich and checkered history; she now divides her time between the City of Lights and Hogtown. A journalist and novelist, Lisa has been thrown off a train in Belarus, been cheated in the Venetian gambling halls of Ca' Vendramin Calergi, eaten the world's best pigeon pie in Marrakech, and mushed huskies in the Yukon. She is also adept at catching Toronto streetcars. Her work has appeared in The Globe and Mail, The National Post, The Chicago Tribune, New York Living, and Time Out. She has also counted money in the back room of a casino and worked as a correspondent for Billboard. She has two books of poetry, Weave and A Bad Year for Journalists, and a forthcoming novel, Rats of Las Vegas.

Meeting Place: In Price Chopper Parking lot, behind Gladstone Hotel, 1214 Queen St. W.

Tour guide(s): Lisa Pasold

End Location: Back at the Gladstone Hotel.

Neighbourhood Beaconsfield Village

Public Transit Directions: Queen Streetcar, west to Gladstone Avenue

Accessible

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St Clair West: Caminata de Jane

  • Francisco Rico-Martinez, Tammara Soma, George Martin
  • Saturday, May 2, 2009
  • 2:00pm
  • Walk: 1.5 horas
open

Este paseo urbano se realizará en Español, y se caracterizará por ser una caminata amigable sobre St. Clair West desde Dufferin hasta Oakwood. Tendremos así la oportunidad de hablar acerca de la cultura establecida y emergente del sector, de su historia, su música, su  desarrollo artistíco y sus servicios comunitarios, que hacen de St. Clair West un lugar acogedor y agradable.

La caminata urbana iniciará frente a la Bibliotecta de Dufferin y St. Clair en donde conversaremos acerca de la restauración de la pintura mural en el salon de lectura central. Terminaremos a caminata con una visita  al centro para refugiados en Oakwood.

Estaremos complacidos de recorrer este sector con residentes del area de muchos años, con habitantes recientes  y con personas que simplemente tienen interés en esta emergente area de Toronto.

This Jane's Walk is given in Spanish only to help facilitate and foster neighbourhood connection and networking. All are welcome.

Meeting Place: frente a la Bibliotecta de Dufferin y St. Clair (1625 Dufferin Street) media cuadra al sur de St Clair.

Tour guide(s): Francisco Rico-Martinez, Tammara Soma, George Martin

End Location: Centro para Refugiados en Oakwood.

Neighbourhood St Clair West

Public Transit Directions: Bus número 512 hacia el Oeste (Poniente) desde la estación de transporte subterráneo St Clair West o el bus número 29+ desde la estación de transporte subterraneo Dufferin.

Accessible

Las actividades de construcción sobre St. Clair pueden generar demoras.

Parking Available

Limitado

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Swansea: Rural Suburb to City Neighbourhood

  • David Crombie
  • Sunday, May 3, 2009
  • 12:30pm
  • Walk: around 2 hours
open

Join David Crombie for a stroll through his childhood neighborhood of Swansea. We will spend around two hours exploring the one square mile that once comprised the inner suburban village of Swansea, prior to its amalgamation with the city in 1969.  Walking along today’s bustling Bloor West Village shopping area, David will refer to buildings of historical significance and sites that saw generations of activity, such as “the Minis” and the old Runnymede theatre. Heading south on Windermere and along Deforest to Lavinia, we will stop at the Swansea Fire Hall and visit the Swansea Town Hall and Community Centre, where the unique character of the Swansea community and its origins has been preserved by highlighting the contributions and legacy of past residents. Continuing down to Swansea Public School and then through Rennie Park, we will finish the walk at the edge of High Park’s Grenadier Pond, a bit of wild in the city.

David Crombie has served as Mayor of Toronto, Member of Parliament and Federal Cabinet Minister. He is the former President and CEO of the Canadian Urban Institute and Founding Chair of the Waterfront Regeneration Trust.  He has received honourary degrees from the University of Toronto, University of Waterloo and Seneca College.

David Crombie is President of David Crombie and Associates Inc. and currently serves as Chair of the Advisory Council for the Nuclear Waste Management Organization (NWMO) and Chair of the Toronto Lands Corporation.  

David Crombie is Chancellor Emeritus of Ryerson University and an Honourary Fellow of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada.  He has been appointed as an Officer to the Order of Canada.

Meeting Place: High Park subway station, Quebec exit

Tour guide(s): David Crombie

End Location: at the edge of High Park's Grenadier Pond

Neighbourhood Swansea

Public Transit Directions: -

Accessible

Save descending some steep hills (not stairs), the walk is accessible

Parking Available

Street parking available

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West Toronto Junction

  • Heritage Toronto
  • Sunday, May 3, 2009
  • 1:30pm
  • Walk: Approx. 2 hours
open View Map

A centre of industry and commerce linked to the Dundas Highway and the junction of several railway lines, this prosperous little town voted to ban the sale of alcohol in 1904.  Find out why - and hear other stories of 'the Junction' - on this tour along Dundas Street West.

Meeting Place: NW corner of Runnymede Rd and Dundas St W

Tour guide(s): Heritage Toronto , Madeleine McDowell and West Toronto Junction Historical Society

End Location: Keele St and Dundas St W

Neighbourhood West Toronto Junction

Public Transit Directions: Take the TTC to Runnymede Station and the 71 Runnymede bus to Dundas Street.

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