Monday was Family Day, so Ursula had the day off. She didn't want to go tubewalking, so we went to see the horses instead. So I did the tubewalk on Tuesday.
I took the subway with Ursula. She got off the Yonge, but I continued to the end of the line.
Most of the time that I have been at Kipling Station, it's been to catch the TTC's Airport Rocket bus.
It was hazy when I got out at Kipling, and the sun was trying to break through. It was much warmer this week. There was little wind, and it was a tail wind.
Kipling Station is a block south of Dundas, so I walked up and headed east. It's a suburban strip mall area.
Dundas intersects with Bloor. When I lived at the other intersection of Dundas and Bloor, when I told people how to get to my place I had to make sure that they didn't come here by mistake. I continued along Bloor. This is an old industrial area which is being condoized.
The subway is above ground at this point, and it crosses over Bloor.
Most of the time that I've been at the Islington Station, it was to catch the Airport Express bus, which no longer exists.
There's a small area of commercial high-rise towers here. Across the street is Orwell's Pub, where I've gone a number of times after hiking.
The subway crosses a small river, and then heads underground.
We get to a standard Bloor Street commercial strip.
There's the Kingsway Theatre, which was part of the Festival repertory cinema chain, until it closed down. I've seen many many movies here.
I came to a branch of my bank, so I popped in and did some banking.
Next there is a huge cemetery. My first New Year's in Toronto my roommate and I missed the last subway. We decided to crash at my roommate's aunt and uncle's place, since it was closer. As a shortcut we walked through this cemetery in the freezing rain.
After the cemetery is the stretch of lowrise apartment buildings. A block or two from here is where my roommate's aunt and uncle lived.
When we first moved here, my roommate's aunt and uncle gave us an old couch and arm chair for our apartment. We carried the chair to the Old Mill Station, and moved it to our apartment on the subway. Then we went back and got the couch. The ticket taker led us through, but as we were carrying the couch to the elevator a couple of TTC workers happened to be there, and they wouldn't let us on the subway with it. We had to take it back, and eventually found somebody with pickup truck to move it for us.
After Old Mill Station the subway emerges from the ground to cross the Humber River, one of two major rivers in Toronto.
On the other side of the river there are more lowrise apartment buildings. They're old and look quite fancy.
Next we come to the close down Jane Theatre. I saw many films here when I lived at Dundas West.
This is the Bloor West Village. It's a trendy shopping area. Ursula asked me to pick up something for her at one of the many bakeries in the area. So I popped into one and picked her up a cranberry tart. I got a raspberry turnover for myself. It was warm enough out that I could eat it while walking down the street. The raspberry turnover was more donuty than turnovery.
There's the old Runnymede Theatre. I saw many films here when I lived at Dundas West. It's been turned into a Chapters bookstore, which is a shame, although they fixed it up nice, so it looks better than it did when it was a theatre.
After the trendy shopping area, it gives way to another section of lowrise apartment buildings.
Then comes High Park. This is a huge park. When I lived in the area I spent a lot of time cycling and walking in it. Many bike club rides started here. There's a skating rink and a swimming pool and tennis courts. There's Grenadier Pond, and a small zoo with yak and bison. There's Grenadier restaurant. In the summer they have Shakespeare in the Park here.
There are small apartment buildings along Bloor, and big high-rise apartments surrounding the subway station a half block north.
The subway emerges from the ground, and crosses over top of Keele Street in an enclosed bridge.
Next to the Keele Station is a 7-Eleven. My roommate and I used to walk down Bloor to the 7-Eleven to get Slurpees. Then we'd walk back to our place along the alley that runs beside the subway which is above ground at this point. It goes back underground just before the Dundas West station. For today's tubewalk I decided to walk along Bloor. Taking the alley there is a lot of nice graffiti.
Beside the 7-Eleven they tore down the donut shop and put up a new Tim Horton's.
I passed the Lithuanian house, where my roommate and I used to see all the old women leaving the bingo game.
This is another commercial strip. Everything is completely different from when I last lived here twenty years ago. Just when I thought there was nothing left from when I lived here I came across Movie Art Decor. This is a video rental place. But more than that it sells movie memorabilia including movie one sheets.
Beside the Dundas West station the chicken place I used to eat at is gone.
Across from the Dundas West station is The Crossways. This is the high-rise apartment building I lived in when I first moved to Toronto. I decided to check it out.
To my surprise my old doctor is still here. I stopped going to see him, because I moved to the other side of town, and he was getting old and a little senile. That was nine years ago.
Below the apartment towers is a small mall. I was amazed at how much is still there from when I lived here. The same pharmacy, the same photo place, the same bank, the same convenience store, and even the same travel agent. The grocery store is gone, replaced by public health offices. When I lived here was great to be able to just pop downstairs to buy groceries. There's a new pub where the one was. It's where a crazy person slit the throat of a person sitting at the bar and killed them.
I headed back onto the street. It goes underneath the Go train tracks. I discovered that there's a new bike path that parallels the train tracks.
On the other side we're into a more downscale area. Although it looks like it's starting to be condoized.
This is a very downscale retail area.
It starts picking up as we get closer to Dufferin. Back when I first moved to Toronto, Dufferin was the bike shop area of Toronto. I bought three bikes at three different shops in the area (Toronto is also the bike theft capital of North America). There were two or three other bike shops in the area at the time. Now I only saw three bike shops, none of which had been there back then.
By this point it was overcast, and had started to flurry. I went off route, a block south to Dufferin Mall, to eat lunch. I occasionally went here when I lived in the area. I don't remember too much about it, other than it had to Woolco. That, of course, is a Wal-Mart now. The mall is much bigger than I remembered. It has the same old crap as any other mall. Across the street is a skating rink, where I often went with the bike club.
After eating I headed back up to Bloor. I passed the Bloor Gladstone Library, which was my main library branch when I lived in the area.
I came to the Paradise Theatre. It opened up a month before I moved from the area, which is a shame because I could walk to it from my apartment. It became the flagship of the Festival chain, when the Bloor Cinema was yanked out from under it. Of all the theatres that were part of the Festival chain when it went under, it's the only one that hasn't reopened.
This next stretch seems to contain a lot of Ethiopian restaurants.
Then we come to the Christie Pits. It's an old gravel pit, which has been turned into a park. There are baseball diamonds and a skating rink and a swimming pool in the park.
This brings us to the Korean area of town, with wall-to-wall Korean restaurants.
There's the Metro Theatre. For many years it was a porn theatre. Then, for a few months, it showed regular films, before going back to porn.
Another McDonald's has gone under.
I arrived at Honest Ed's. It's a giant discount store. It's famous for its brightly lit sign.
I once again went slightly off route, a half a block to The Beguiling. It is one of the best comic book shops in the world. If you want something other than superhero comics, this is the place to go.
Next we come to the Bloor Cinema. This was once the flagship of the Festival chain, until it was stolen by a rival. I've seen many many films here.
There's Lee's Palace, where I saw the Skydiggers.
Being near the university, this is a funkier area of town.
At Spadina the Bloor line meets up with the University-Spadina line.
This section I walked last week. It looks pretty much the same walking in the other direction. There is the building with the auditorium where I saw Michael Palin do a slideshow for one of his travel shows.
Once I passed the ROM I'm back in new territory. This is the upscale shopping area of Toronto. Just north of here is Yorkville, where the rich and famous go to shop. There is an entrance to the Bay subway station in Yorkville.
I passed the late, lamented the University Theatre, which is now a Pottery Barn.
I passed my dentist's office.
There are more upscale shops to Yonge, where the Yonge and Bloor lines meet.
Passed the Hudson's Bay Centre, it's office towers and condos.
There's the church where my first roommate went when he was a kid. He said there was a bowling alley in the basement, but rumour has it it's no longer there.
Sherbourne station is where you would go to get your picture taken for your metro pass. I don't know if they still do that.
From here you walk along the top of the Rosedale Valley. Eventually Bloor crosses the valley on a bridge. The subway also crosses the valley on an enclosed bridge.
Bloor crosses the Don Valley via the Prince Edward Viaduct, better known as the Bloor Viaduct. When they built the Bloor Viaduct the city planner decided that they should add another tier below the main road in case they should ever decide to build a subway here. Decades later when they did build the subway, it saved them tons of money.
A few years ago they added a suicide barrier to the bridge.
Looking down you can see the Don River, which is the second major river that runs through Toronto. You can also see the Bayview extension, and the Don Valley Parkway. I drove up the Parkway to work for the last 16 years. Most importantly, you can see the Don Valley bike path, which I have cycled gajillions of times.
On the other side of the bridge, the name of the road changes to Danforth Avenue. I ended my walk at Broadview Station.
It didn't seem worth it to hop on the subway for two stops, so I walked home from here, making sure to take a different route than what I will be walking next week.
Ursula said the tart wasn't very good. The filling had congealed.
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2010 paul Stockton. All rights reserved.
Last updated: February 17, 2010