Bloor St. West Take 2

May 2018 - Toronto ON

I had been to Lansdowne and Bloor last week to find a gallery but didn't so John headed back with me to track it down.

I have spent years along this area of Bloor but mostly underground on the subway and on occasion by car as a means to get home. We had never ventured along here on foot so it is amazing what can be found!


Found it! And it was closed...Scrap Metal Gallery. The best sign!

So we checked out a couple of galleries close by, where an owner told us that the  Scrap Metal Gallery would open at noon. Galleries started moving here when prices skyrocketed on Queen St. West. These are now converted warehouses.

I'll show more of this exhibit in a post on the Contact Photography event.

New York-based artist Charlie Engman has his first solo exhibition Mom. His commissioned photographs appear in publications such as Dazed, the New York Times Style Magazine, and Vogue, and clients include Hermès, Nike, Stella McCartney, and Vivienne Westwood.
This photo is also the cover of this year's Scotiabank CONTACT catalogue.

John spotted a mural down a lane so we headed there.

More of the murals on St. Helen's Ave.

Over to Sterling Rd. to the Drake Commissary.

Sterling, a two-lane band of roadway that dips north from Dundas St. W. near Lansdowne Ave., is one of those urban industrial zones easily missed from street level. Buffered by the massive Nestlé chocolate factory and zigzagging twice around old factories and along a narrow stretch of Victorian row houses before trickling out at Bloor St., Sterling is as below the radar as it gets.

Operating 24/7, this confectionery factory is one of the oldest in Canada (it once housed Cowan's Cocoa, then Rowntree before Nestle took it over in 1988). As you walk below its skyway, you'll see names of their products enticingly lining the factory's eastern walls.

The Drake Commissary is a culinary hub in a post-industrial area of the Junction Triangle just down the road from the Nestle chocolate factory.
Built in 1906, this building that once manufactured flags, tents, and tarps for Scyco, then condiments for T.A. Lytle, has only recently become a hotspot for folks in the area looking for brews and a good read. 

When the Museum of Canadian Contemporary Art MOCCA finally reopens this month in the old Tower Automotive Building, I will be back to check it out.

I always enjoyed the exhibits that MOCCA put on in their old Queen St. W location.

When we come back for the Banksy exhibit at the end of June we will also check out the interior of Drake.

Back on Bloor St. West and you can encounter a lot of diversity.

Buddhist Association

We had the Brock Sandwich in mind for lunch as they do gluten free, but there had been a fire in March.

I had shown a photo of the Duffy Tavern last week and this is the Duffy Diner here since 1949.

Once fed we continued our explorations.

I had to take John into Ransack The Universe to see all the goods. We laughed as we saw some items we had had back in the 80s.

We also stepped into Dead Dog Records.

Back on the street we discovered a multitude of interesting places.

The addition at the library I showed you last week.

On our way to the subway we passed this creature at Christie Pits, the Christie Pits Tiger.

I discovered that he is lit up at night and is a gift from the Koreatown BIA.