Portraits of Queen West

Dec 23

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Queen St W Block N17 | April 2009

For over a decade the storefront at 1042 Queen St W was frozen in time:

1042 Queen St W | January 2006

Dec 17

Queen St W, Duncan to John | June 2010

Extra street signs here say “Moses Znaimer Way.” This stretch of Queen has been named in honour of the patriarch of the innovative CityTV and MuchMusic empire which reached its zenith here.

When CityTV first moved west into these digs they wired the entire building so every room was a potential studio. Their teams were also very mobile. TV programs could happen EVERYWHERE. City and Much productions would overflow into the sidewalk and sometimes the streets. Anyone could spend a dollar and record a message at Speakers’ Corner.

In this picture CTV is assimilating the landmark building into their bland operations, while elsewhere Rogers Broadcasting operates a station named City TV that bears little resemblance to the influential upstart Moses built.

Dec 14

Queen St W, Simcoe to Duncan | June 2010

I’m still putting together many of the blocks I got to record this summer. This is the Sunday morning the weekend of the G20 meetings in Toronto. A few shops and the bank are boarded up and police are hanging around.

Dec 12

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There’s a new Tumblr blog documenting Changes in West Queen West, part of the area covered here.

The area between Parkdale and Trinity Bellwoods Park was once a bleak wasteland of greasy spoons, dive bars, used appliance shops and inconvenience stores. That’s why I chose to live here.

The rebirths of the Gladstone and Drake Hotels signalled all that was going to change. The photos above show Queen West from Gladstone to Beaconsfield in 2003 and then in 2006. (I have a Flickr set documenting the Queen West Triangle.)

West Queen West — according to the local BIA — is the area from Bathurst to Gladstone. Bathurst is the current dividing line between the Queen West that has been settled by big brands and the part that’s still more uniquely Toronto. West Queen West is the new Queen West.

Changes in West Queen West has only a few posts so far, but each post is a whole story, with interviews from the neighbourhood. Check it out.