Cutting down trees to make way for a surface parking lot in Downtown Brampton
Earlier this April, contractors hired by Metrolinx cut down trees on its Downtown Brampton property, where twelve houses once stood. The work, originally scheduled for the week of March 22, did not begin until April 12.
The tree removal brings Greater Toronto’s regional transit operating and planning authority one step closer to building a new 200-plus surface parking lot in a city that hopes to renew its downtown core.
Starting in 2016, Metrolinx purchased over a dozen homes along with two four-storey office towers in an area bounded by Railroad, Nelson, and Elizabeth Streets, immediately south of the Brampton GO Station. It vacated and demolished the houses between 2016 and 2019, and left the two office buildings vacant. Metrolinx’s plan was to build a new surface parking lot to expand parking capacity, though in early 2018, the Liberal provincial government announced a new Ryerson University/Sheridan College campus on the existing main parking lot on the north side of the station. Metrolinx’s acquisition of occupied homes — including heritage-listed buildings and a rooming house — made more sense.
After the election of a new Progressive Conservative government led by Doug Ford, funding for the educational campus was pulled, though the City of Brampton and Ryerson University continued to advance plans for the downtown area. The city bought up more of the downtown core, including the southeast corner of George and Nelson Streets, across from the vacated office buildings, as well as the thirty-year old office building at 2 Nelson Street West, below which is the Brampton Transit downtown terminal. These newly acquired lands would be home to a larger bus terminal that would link to an expanded GO station and a proposed extension of the Hurontario LRT, and an Innovation Centre that would serve the education campus and include a new central library.
The old plans for the Ryerson Unversity/Sheridan College building on the GO Transit parking lot, and a Centre for Innovation on the southeast corner of George and Nelson Streets. The Metrolinx lands are in the block between the Centre for Innovation and the GO Station/proposed Ryerson building
Already, there are several high-rise developments in the downtown area under construction or in the planning phase. More development lands will be unlocked with the Riverwalk project, which will improve flood protection along Etobicoke Creek while providing an improved public space.
A two-tower rental highrise development is progressing on the old Dominion Skate Factory lands, across the tracks from the GO Station, bringing hundreds of new residents to the downtown core and right to the station.
Given Brampton’s urban aspirations for its downtown core, another surface parking lot — adding 200 spots to the existing 861 spaces — is not the right idea.
At Bramalea Station, construction has nearly finished on a 1,300 spot parking garage, part of a larger project that also includes a new, larger station building, a larger bus terminal, additional pedestrian tunnels, and improved platforms and security features. Bramalea already has over 2500 parking spaces, but unlike in Downtown Brampton, this is a logical space for parking expansion. The station is surrounded by warehouses and factories, at the intersection of two major truck routes, and close to highways. It is not a place that is easily urbanized. However, improved pedestrian and cycling access is very much warranted.
New garage nearly complete at Bramalea GO Station
With the expansion of parking at Bramalea GO, why is Metrolinx eager to add another parking lot in Downtown Brampton, especially with Ryerson’s downtown plans on hold?
Misleading “no exit” signs, like these on Maitland Place at Jarvis Street, will soon be changed by the City of Toronto to indicate that indeed, pedestrians can continue through
Though these signs are required under traffic codes and regulations, they do not reflect that in many cases, there is an exit for pedestrians.
I quickly created a Google map of all locations in the City of Toronto marking such locations. Through a social media campaign led by Walk Toronto, we were quickly able to map over 450 locations where a pathway, sidewalk, or staircase allows a pedestrian to continue their way where motor vehicles are forced to turn around.
The motion, which was amended to strengthen the wording, requests city staff to develop a new signage standard to indicate where “no exit” signage betrays a pedestrian passage, and to begin installing these new signs this year.
Councillor Paula Fletcher’s motion (inspired by @Walk_TO) to have staff modify “No Exit” signage in places where there are, in fact, exits for pedestrians carries via show of hands, with some amended wording. https://t.co/owNfqtPgNUpic.twitter.com/eevn2bMwkN
The map that I created based on Dylan’s initial suggestion will be used to help identify these locations.
Given the ongoing pandemic, where we are all subjected to yet another lockdown, walking is one of the few permitted ways for each of us to get outside, enjoy the fresh spring air, and get much needed exercise. Knowing where one can walk, especially away from heavy traffic or busy sidewalks and paths, will only help unlock the city for more Torontonians.
I want to thank everyone who submitted locations for the map to Walk Toronto or to myself via Twitter or directly to me on this website. This couldn’t have happened without the help of fellow Torontonians.
Former Canadian Pacific locomotive #136 hauls excursion trains at the South Simcoe Railway in Tottenham, Ontario
December 17, 2023: The complete map has been migrated to a newer ArcGIS Online account, on account of ESRI suddenly changing its monthly service account to charge bandwidth. That was a pay-as-you go account that helped me get re-acquainted with the ESRI ArcGIS Online platform before I set up a full online subscription to support a small business I co-founded in 2021.
However, I am happy to announce that I completed updates to the Ontario Intercity Transport Map and the 1955 Canada Passenger Rail Map, and that they are safely on a new subscription server at ESRI Canada. Please let me know if you have any suggestions or corrections to the maps, especially during the migration phase.
Sadly, passenger rail has faced a long, slow decline in Canada. Though commuter and regional rail systems in the Toronto and Montreal metropolitan areas have expanded tremendously over the last fifty years, rail service in general has declined in frequency, reliability, and even in speed. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, just six trains a day in each direction operated direct between Canada’s two largest cities, the fastest of those trains taking 4 hours 48 minutes to go 539 kilometres to get from Toronto to Montreal.
Seventy years ago, 28 trains on a typical weekday called at CN’s Hamilton Station, departing for Toronto, Niagara Falls, London, Guelph, Barrie, and Simcoe, with another 12 trains calling at the TH&B station on Hunter Street. In 2019, just six GO trains departed Hamilton for Toronto each weekday, with no direct connections even to Niagara, London, or Guelph.
There are several causes for the decline in passenger rail. In 1955, which the map below depicts, passenger train revenues were augmented by express cargo and mail, with the mail contracts alone helping to subsidize many branch lines. Lightly-travelled branch lines were served by mixed trains, which carry both passengers and freight. In Northern Ontario and Quebec, many highways were still of poor quality or unfinished — Highway 17 along the Lake Superior coast was not complete until September 1960. Construction of Highway 401 was just getting underway in 1955. In addition, the airline industry was still new, and air travel was expensive.
Improved highways drew more passengers to coach buses, while the move to trucks for cargo and mail deliveries made many branch lines unprofitable. Larger jet aircraft made air travel cheaper and more convenient for long distances. The major railways concentrated their energies on modernizing their freight networks, with CN and CP building new freight classification and intermodal yards outside of central Toronto, while focusing on bulk freight and shipping containers.
Though CN made efforts to win passengers back in the 1960s and early 1970s with new fare structures and equipment like the Turbo train between Toronto and Montreal, the government of Canada stepped in and took over most intercity passenger rail services in 1977. Though VIA Rail Canada acquired new modern locomotives and rail cars for the Ontario-Quebec corridor services, cuts to government subsidies made in 1981, 1989-1990, and 2012 forced further service cutbacks. British Columbia and Ontario also cut passenger services on their own rural railways.
I mapped the year 1955 for several reasons. I have CN and CP schedules for those years in my collection, while I found contemporary Ontario Northland and New York Central schedules online. It was also the year both railways inaugurated new transcontinental trains: CP launched the Canadian, while CN launched the Super Continental, luxurious diesel-hauled trains with modern sleeping cars and lounges. There were six trains a day leaving Montreal and Toronto for Vancouver that year. In 2019, there were just two trains a week.
In 1955, there were still many branch passenger and mixed trains in Ontario and Quebec, most of which were gone by 1965. Mixed trains were notoriously slow, though, but in many cases, there was a faster parallel highway coach. 1955 was also the last year for CP’s electric trains between Kitchener and Lake Erie, with the London & Port Stanley and Montreal & Southern Counties railways ending passenger runs a year later.
For Ontario and Quebec, I used Paul Delamere’s amazing Ontario Railway Map Collection and Quebec Railway Map Collection, adapting his work to identify those routes used by passenger trains in 1955, then mapping them on my own server. Mapping other routes was much more labourous.
Original version of interactive map
Please contact me if you have any suggestions, corrections, or other feedback.
The starting wage for an Amazon fulfillment centre employee is $17.00 an hour, despite notoriously tough working conditions. With most professional and office workers at home, and with ongoing pandemic restrictions, Amazon has enjoyed significant sales increases. But those workers picking and packing orders are not able to work from home – and workplace spread has been a significant factor in COVID-19 transmission in Ontario.
Brampton, home to two of the GTA’s fulfilment centres, and close to Amazon’s Mississauga, Milton and Bolton warehouses, has been a COVID-19 hotspot. Like Toronto, Peel Region has been under lockdown and stay-at-home orders since November.
Like most new logistics facilities, the new Scarborough warehouse, like the other five GTA Amazon fulfillment centres, is in an industrial area on the city’s outskirts, where land is plentiful, but transit and pedestrian access is lacking. East of Tapscott Road, Steeles Avenue narrows from four lanes to two, and there are no designated pedestrian crossings at the intersection with Eastvale Drive. The eastbound TTC stop at Eastvale Avenue was removed in 2018 after a passenger was struck and killed trying to cross the street after disembarking from a 53 Steeles East bus. The next nearest stop, at Tapscott Road, is 300 metres west.
Steeles Avenue, looking west towards Eastvale Drive and the signalized intersection beyond, at Tapscott Road
The sidewalk on the south side of Steeles Avenue ends at Tapscott, a few hundred metres west of the Amazon fulfilment centre. On the north side, the sidewalk ends at Ferncliffe Crescent in Markham. Despite a new residential area in Morningside Heights, to the east, there is no sidewalk along Steeles to connect to it. Pedestrians heading to Amazon or towards Staines Road must choose whether to walk in the mud, or on the busy roadway. Though the posted speed limit is 50 km/h, motorists regularly travel at 60 km/h or faster.
Looking east on Steeles from Tapscott Road – despite the sign advising motorists of pedestrian activity, there are no sidewalks leading east towards the new Amazon fulfillment centre (Sonali Praharaj)
A stairway and ramp were built on the north end of the Amazon property, likely with the expectation that a sidewalk on the south side of Streeles Avenue would soon be installed. This would provide improved pedestrian access to the fulfillment centre. But without a safe and logical way to get to it from the street, it remains largely unused.
Passmore Avenue, on the south side of the fulfillment centre, was rebuilt with a sidewalk in the late fall of 2020, months after Amazon opened. However, it requires a lengthy walk north to Steeles Avenue up Tapscott, and there are no sidewalks on Tapscott from Passmore south, towards McNicoll Avenue. The intersection of Passmore and Tapscott itself – controlled by an all-way stop – still does not feature proper crosswalks.
Looking east on Steeles from Tapscott Road – despite the sign advising motorists of pedestrian activity, there are no sidewalks leading east towards the new Amazon fulfillment centre (Sonali Praharaj)
Though there are two TTC bus routes that operate to the corner of Tapscott Road and Passmore Avenue – 53B/953B Steeles East and 102B/C Markham Road – for months, workers had to walk on the roadway, through a construction site to access those buses. Anyone looking to go east, towards Morningside Heights, or southeast, towards Malvern, still face a long, dangerous walk or a lengthy bus commute.
The corner of Tapscott Road and Passmore Avenue
The TTC, starting January 11, 2021, began diverting the 53B Steeles East bus to directly serve the Amazon fulfillment centre, finally serving a major industrial trip generator and reducing essential workers’ travel times. Even still, the new sidewalk on Passmore ends at the warehouse entrance – anyone waiting for a bus must still walk and wait in the snow or mud.
Eventually, Steeles Avenue will be widened, with new sidewalks and bike lanes, and Morningside Avenue will be extended north to Steeles Avenue. However, these improvements have been planned for years and completion is still several years away. Though new warehouses have opened here, civic infrastructure has not caught up.
New TTC bus stop serving the Amazon Fulfillment Centre on Passmore Road (Sonali Praharaj)
The TTC’s service change, adding a new bus stop on Passmore Avenue, was a welcome – yet overdue – acknowledgement that essential workers, especially racialized and lower-paid workers, deserve better. It is inexcusable that new employment uses are planned, approved, and constructed before the appropriate pedestrian infrastructure and transit services are in place. It is also inexcusable that after a TTC customer was killed that a nearby bus stop was removed, rather than safety improvements added instead. This is not just a matter of ensuring a basic level of safety for pedestrians – this is a matter of justice for those we consider essential workers.
At least the new Yonge Street Rapidway would serve York Region’s busiest transit corridor, supporting new high-density development in Richmond Hill. Unlike on Highway 7 or in Newmarket, there are no two-phase pedestrian crossings on this part of Yonge. Unfortunately, a botched connection between the new Rapidway at Major Mackenzie Drive created a new problem for the YRT/Viva transit network.
This issue — along with the other problems with York Region’s Rapidways that I discussed previously — should be held up as lessons on what not to do when building new transit rights-of-way in street medians, be it on Hurontario Street in Mississauga and Brampton, planned BRT lines on Dundas Street in Mississauga, or Queen Street in Brampton.
Earl Place, where “No Exit” signs betray through access for pedestrians and cyclists
Last week, Dylan Reid and I, both co-founders of Walk Toronto, decided to create an inventory of all instances in the city where “No Exit” signs do not apply to all road users. Though these signs are required under traffic codes and regulations, they do not reflect that in many cases, there is an exit for pedestrians. Some of those offer through passage for cyclists as well. We were inspired by a Twitter thread that expressed the frustration of getting around the city by foot, where signage is designed entirely for motorists.
Instances where pedestrians or cyclists may continue past a “No Exit” sign include traffic calming measures meant to keep out through motor vehicles on once-continuous roads. The intersection of Earl Place, Earl Street, and Huntley Street is just one example: curbs and bollards restrict motorists from continuing through, though a narrow passage allows cyclists to continue past; sidewalks also allow through pedestrian movement.
Earl Place and Huntley Street
In many other cases, suburban street designs, such as cul-de-sacs, limit vehicular movement though residential subdivisions, but narrow public walkways allow pedestrians access to parklands and neighbouring streets. In other cases, changes in grade between streets allow for a staircase, but not a through roadway down a steep hill. These are common in the Swansea, Baby Point, Silverthorn, and East Toronto neighbourhoods.
As of January 30, 2021, I have mapped over 250 misleading “No Exit” signs throughout the City of Toronto, though I know there are many more. Please send them to me via Twitter or via a direct message, and I will be sure to add your submission.
Our goal is to convince the City of Toronto to add signage recognizing where pedestrians and cyclists do have an exit. Perhaps too, this might inspire you to get outside, and walk around the neighbourhood, checking out passageways you might have not known about.
In June 2020, Toronto-based artist and activist Andrew Lochhead launched a petition to rename Dundas Street, one of Toronto’s oldest, longest and best-known arterial roads. Lochhead states that Henry Dundas, 1st Viscount Melville “actively participated in obstructing the abolition of slavery in the British Empire from 1791 to the end of his political career in 1806.” While some historians may argue that Dundas was a pragmatic moderate, rather than an anti-abolitionist (unlike slave-owning Torontonians like William Jarvis or Peter Russell, who have streets named after them), it’s still worth wondering why Toronto has a street named after the Scottish politician, who had nothing to do with Toronto’s colonial history.
Until recently, I gave Dundas Street little thought. Years ago, I wrote about how the street was pieced together in the late 19th and early 20th century to provide a new through east-west route across central Toronto. Though I was aware that Dundas Street began at the present-day corner of Queen Street West and Ossington Avenue, I had long thought the road was named for the town of Dundas, to which it leads.
The end of Desjardins Canal, in the old Town of Dundas
Dundas Street was established as a military supply route by order of John Graves Simcoe, the first British governor of Upper Canada. At first, it was surveyed and cleared in 1794 and 1795 between Cootes Paradise (at the very end of Lake Ontario, beyond Burlington Bay) and the Upper Forks of the Thames River, at what is now Woodstock. From there, small boats could be used to travel downriver to London and to Lake St. Clair. Though there were several Indigenous trails connecting Lake Ontario and the Thames River (the western part of Mohawk Road in Hamilton follows one such route), the new British colonial government favoured a straight, direct road.
A federal plaque on a cairn in front of Dundas Valley Secondary School in Dundas
Though Dundas Street (which is known as Governor’s Road between Dundas and Paris) features a gentle climb up the Niagara Escarpment, detours were quickly established to get around challenging terrain, such as the confluence of Grand and Nith rivers near Paris. Dundas Street was soon extended westward, to Simcoe’s preferred capital site at London, and extended eastward, to York (Toronto).
Yonge Street, which was originally surveyed and cleared between Lake Ontario and the Holland River near Lake Simcoe, served a similar purpose as Dundas Street. Combined with Penetanguishine Road, Yonge Street provided a military supply route to Lake Huron, though bypassing the established Toronto Carrying Place trail. Though Dundas and Yonge Streets were built with military goals in mind, they, like many other early colonization roads, helped to promote new settlement of lands claimed from local First Nations. Like Dundas Street, Yonge Street was named for a senior British official — George Yonge, who was the British Secretary of War in 1793.
In its early years, Dundas Street’s position inland from Lake Ontario was advantageous as it provided an alternate route in case of invasion. The winding route through Etobicoke and West Toronto to Ossington Avenue allowed travellers to avoid deep ravines and Grenadier Pond.
Lambton House, Old Dundas Street
Other early settlement routes, such as Weston Road, branched off of Dundas Street, leading to newly settled lands to the north and northwest of Toronto. Taverns dotted the route, providing accommodation and libation to travelers, several of which — including Lambton House and Montgomery’s Inn — survive to this day.
In London and Woodstock, Dundas Street formed the basis for each city’s downtown core. In London, it was recently rebuilt as a two-lane flexible street called Dundas Place, intended to host public events and revitalize the street, which has seen a loss of business to suburban malls and big box stores and to trendier bars and restaurants on Richmond Street, closer to Western University.
Dundas Street in Downtown London was recently rebuilt as a flexible street
Outside the cities, though, other routes surpassed Dundas Street in importance by the mid 1800s. The Lakeshore Road soon became the preferred route between Toronto and Hamilton (which overtook the town of Dundas in size and importance), while the railways, established between Toronto, Hamilton, and London in the 1850s, further eroded Dundas Street’s importance as a major through route until the automobile gained in popularity.
Much of the road between Paris and London became part of interprovincial Highway 2, which extended across Eastern Canada from Windsor, Ontario to Halifax, Nova Scotia. The Waterdown-Etobicoke section became part of Highway 5, while the lesser-travelled section between Paris and Dundas (which today is known as Governor’s Road) was established first as Highway 5B in 1938, then as Highway 99 in 1940.
The remains of the old Dundas Street bridge over the Humber, removed in 1928, looking west to the former settlement of Lambton Mills. The replacement high level bridge is seen to the left. The approaches to the old bridge are named Old Dundas Street.
The Dundas-Waterdown section, which winded its way up the escarpment (only to descend it again a short distance east), became a minor road, with part of the original alignment abandoned by the 1850s.
Though it never held the status of Toronto’s main street, Dundas Street would gain in importance and length in the 19th and early 20th centuries. As Toronto grew beyond its early street grid, it came up against the park lot system devised by Governor Simcoe and other officials to establish a landed gentry in the new colony (including the slaveholding Jarvis and Russell families, who worked to prevent Simcoe from instituting a complete abolition in Upper Canada). These lots which were long and narrow, extended north from Lot (now Queen) Street, and each were developed independently. This resulted in a mess of east-west streets that did not necessarily meet each other. Though College Street was laid out with minimal difficulty, there was no continuous east-west street between College and Queen Streets east of Ossington Avenue.
Dundas Street West, looking southeast from Dovercourt Avenue towards the downtown skyline. This is part of the 220-year old western extension of Dundas Street from the head of lake to York (Toronto).
But by the early 1910s, Dundas Street was extended eastward, at first to Bathurst Street, following Arthur Street — which was widened to permit Toronto Railway Company streetcars — and then east to Yonge via St. Patrick, Anderson, and Agnes Streets. Jogs between these streets were slowly realigned, starting with the St. Patrick-Anderson-Agnes jogs between McCaul Street and University Avenue. However, it wasn’t until 1953 that the jog between former Arthur and St. Patrick Streets at Bathurst Street was eliminated. Scadding Court Community Centre now sits on the old roadway, though a small part survives as the centre’s staff parking lot.
East of Yonge Street, Wilton Avenue was extended across the Don River in 1911, extending just east of Broadview Avenue, incorporating Elliot and Crawford Streets. Though the new bridge was built with streetcar tracks and overhead poles, through service did not begin until 1923, as part of a major TTC route restructuring.
By 1920, Wilton Avenue was renamed Dundas Street East, though the through connection across Yonge Street was not completed until 1922, with the block long section east of Yonge left over from the realignment renamed Dundas Square.
Though the early extensions of Dundas Street through the city simplified the street grid and allowed for through streetcar service between West Toronto and Broadview Avenue, the eastern extension built in the 1950s was done entirely for the benefit of the automobile.
Though Dundas Street extended east of Broadview for one block to Boulton Avenue, it was as a narrow residential street, and did not continue beyond (this is why the Harbord Streetcar took a convoluted route via Dundas, Broadview, and Gerrard to get to Carlaw and Pape Avenues). New roadways were planned to expand traffic access to Downtown Toronto from the burgeoning suburbs, including a new extension of Dundas Street east to Kingston Road.
From Boulton Avenue, a new alignment was built east to Pape Avenue, resulting in the demolition of over a dozen houses on Boulton Avenue, De Grassi Street, West Avenue, and Wardell Street, before ducking under the Canadian National mainline in a new underpass built in 1953, and through an industrial area, avoiding major factory buildings.
East of Pape Avenue, the new roadway followed a widened Dagmar Avenue, before bending south though a former alley to Jones Avenue to connect with former Doel Avenue to Alton Avenue. Between Alton and Woodfield Road, another new section of roadway was built, through an old brickyard in the late 1940s, connecting with Applegrove Avenue to Coxwell Avenue. The final section, between Coxwell Avenue and Kingston Road, was built through a minor ravine, connecting with, and replacing part of, Maughan Crescent and Edgewood Avenue.
Plan for Dundas Street extension through the rear yards and laneway between Dagmar and Mallon Avenues. From City of Toronto Archives, Fonds 200, Series 2277, Item 32.Just west of Jones Avenue, Dundas Street East is lined with garages, as it passes through an old alley between Dagmar and Mallon Avenues.
Though Dundas Street East was shoehorned into several east-end neighbourhoods through the 1940s and 1950s to provide a new route for automobile traffic, over fifty years later it became an important cycling route. In 2003, the speed limit was reduced to 40 kilometres per hour, and the four traffic lanes reduced to two, with new bike lanes and a centre turning lane. Without streetcar tracks (unlike neighbouring Queen and Gerrard Streets), and with few storefronts, Dundas Street was simple to reconfigure. In 2020, the bike lanes were extended west across the Don River and into Regent Park, as part of the new ActiveTO measures.
Within Toronto, Dundas Street has gone by many names: Arthur, St. Patrick, Anderson, Agnes, Wilton, Elliot, Crawford, Dagmar, Doel, Applegrove, Maughan, and Edgewood. At various times in the first half of the last century, city officials have decided to change their names to Dundas Street.
It would not be without precedent to change Dundas Street’s name as well. Henry Dundas has no connection to local history, and even the historic road that bears his name did not extend any further east than Ossington Avenue.
Retain the legal street names with additional interpretation and recognitions
Retain the legal street names but rename those civic assets with Dundas in their name, except TTC facilities (there are three parks and one library branch that include the Dundas name, and Yonge-Dundas Square; there are two TTC subway stations and one streetcar line that also bear the Dundas name)
Rename the streets and all other civic assets now carrying the Dundas name (including Dundas Street East, Dundas Street West, Dundas Square, and Old Dundas Street).
I would agree with at least the third option, and likely the fourth option, even in part. As one of the city’s most famous and popular meeting places, a better name can be found for Yonge-Dundas Square. As Dundas Street East is a 20th century construct, and less than half the age of the historical road, it too, would be a great candidate for renaming to something meaningful. There are many other streets, towns, and parks in Toronto and elsewhere in Ontario that carry names given by early colonial officials, eager to leave their mark on newly claimed lands. Some are also worthy candidates for renaming.
Other municipalities, including Mississauga, Oakville, Burlington, Woodstock, and London, will also have to decide what they will do with their sections of Dundas Street. There is also the matter of the former Town of Dundas, the Dundas Valley, the United Counties of Stormont, Dundas, and Glengarry in Eastern Ontario (and two townships within it). There are also Dundas Streets in Belleville, Trenton, and Napanee along Highway 2, but otherwise unrelated to the historic road.
But the process must be thoughtful and considerate, and not just a another feel-good exercise that distracts from the real economic and racial inequities in our city.
The interactive map below illustrates the history of Dundas Street, from London to Kingston Road.
A classic Brewers Retail Store in South River, Ontario featuring the 1980s-era branding
While taking a geographic analysis program during my undergraduate years at university, I developed a fascination with retail geography. My 2005 Masters’ paper examined the geographic distribution of payday lenders — which combined my interests in retail geography, urban planning, and social justice. Though my career took me in a different direction, I have maintained my interest in the role of geography in the success — or failure — of retail businesses.
Despite being one of Ontario’s oldest and most influential retailers, there is very little written about the history of The Beer Store. Contrary to common belief, The Beer Store is a private company — not a government monopoly. Following the end of prohibition in 1927, the provincial government established a crown corporation to distribute wine and spirits — the Liquor Control Board of Ontario, or LCBO. However, the province’s breweries were granted authorization to establish their own corporation — the Brewers Warehousing Company Ltd. — to distribute their own products. At first, alcoholic beverages were only permitted to be sold for at-home consumption (while customers were required to obtain licenses to purchase beer, wine, and spirits). Gradually, rules were slowly relaxed to permit drinking in hotels, restaurants, and taverns. Eventually, the company became known as Brewers Retail.
Though the number of breweries declined since the 1930s due to consolidations and bankruptcies, Brewers Retail expanded its retail operations in the 1960s and 1970s. It produced highway maps showing all the locations where thirsty Ontarians could buy “ale & beer.” Customers, freed from having to write out and sign purchase orders by 1971, would place their order with a clerk, then wait for their case(s) of beer to roll out from the cold storage in the back. Though a self-serve store was introduced in December 1971, it proved to be an unpopular concept, especially as the beer was kept warm, rather than in a cold warehouse in the back.
In 1985, Brewers Retail began rebranding its stores as “The Beer Store” with bright orange signage. Two further rebrands have occurred since (it now uses a grey and black colour scheme), yet the 1980s look can still be seen at many stores, especially in northern Ontario.
Though the rise of small independent craft breweries in Ontario, the LCBO’s expanded beer selection, and the recent moves to allow supermarkets to sell beer in limited quantities (singles and six-packs) have made it easier to purchase beer, The Beer Store remains the dominant player in the distribution of suds.
Brewer’s Retail, Eglinton Avenue East, 1974. Though the location has seen several renovations and rebrandings, this beer store still stands near the corner of Eglinton and Brimley in Scarborough. Toronto Archives Fonds 1257, Series 1057, Item 8260.
Not only does Brewers Retail sell direct to consumers, it also delivers bottles and kegs to businesses, so it had to establish a distribution network across the province. Most of the large breweries were located in Toronto or in southwestern Ontario, though there were smaller, regional brands such as Soo Falls Brewing and Sudbury’s Northern Brewery. Those products had to be shipped hundreds or even thousands of kilometres. Empty bottles had to be returned to the breweries for cleaning, re-labelling and refilling. Most large breweries, like Labatt’s in London and Molson’s Fleet Street plant, were located next to rail lines for easy shipping.
This is why, in Northern Ontario, many beer stores are found adjacent to rail lines. Though rail shipments to local beer stores have ceased — with one notable exception — this legacy can still be seen, from Pembroke to Kenora.
A thread on old Brewers Retail locations in Northern Ontario.
Unlike the south, most Beer Store locations in the North still have the retro orange signs.
But there’s something more interesting about these stores…
In some cases, such as in New Liskeard, The Beer Store is out of the way, an unusual strategy for a consumer-focused retailer. But since Brewers Retail holds a monopoly on bulk beer sales (not needing an especially visible location), and since rail access was important for the chain until the 1970s, the location makes sense.
In larger cities, such as North Bay, Sudbury, and Sault Ste. Marie, one Brewers Retail store would handle rail shipments, distributing products to restaurants and bars and to nearby beer stores. Thunder Bay had its own dedicated distribution centre in Port Arthur, next to the railway.
Since the 1960s, refrigerated trucks took the place of dedicated box cars. The railway spurs are gone and the loading docks have since been covered or bricked up. Yet in many cases they remain visible, especially during this time of year, such as North Bay’s Main Street store, below.
The Main Street beer store in North Bay has a large warehouse in the back, with the old rail docks still very visible. A 1964 topographic map shows the spur serving the store.
There were a few regional warehouses in Southern Ontario that had rail loading docks. Ottawa’s Bank Street Brewers Retail location, built in 1958, was designed by John B. Parkin and Associates and backed on to a Canadian Pacific freight spur. The warehouse was moved to a modern suburban location and the rail line was removed, though the building survives, with a beer store still operating at the front.
Similarly, the Ritson Road store in Oshawa was built next to the Canadian Pacific Railway, and saw rail service in its early years as it also functioned as a regional distribution centre. The store has since moved to a new big-box plaza built on an old General Motors plant to the north, with the old location now a local craft brewery.
In Oshawa, the old railside Brewers Retail store and warehouse is now a craft brewery. The shuttered rail docks -covered with metal sheeting – are barely visible behind the trees to the rear.
Interestingly, one Brewers Retail store still ships beer by rail — the Cochrane, Ontario location. Mike Robin kindly sent me photographs of Ontario Northland Railway box cars parked on the beer store’s spur. This allows for beer bottles and kegs to be shipped north to Moosonee, which is accessible only by rail or by plane for most of the year.
Cochrane Beer Store, November 21, 2020 – Courtesy Mike Robin
Update December 14, 2020: With outdoor skating rinks fully opened for the season, I have added the washrooms located at each of these facilities open this winter. Though many rinks will have to be pre-booked to use (to limit crowds during the pandemic) the city has provided access to adjacent indoor washrooms. I also noted the addition of a portable toilet at Guild Park, something I commented on previously.
Please note, though, that many portable toilets have not been kept in good service. I suggest bringing hand sanitizer on your walks in case you need to use one of these temporary facilities.
Update November 28, 2020: I have added the list of 51 temporary portable toilets that the city has or will be adding to its parks this winter as part of an effort to encourage Torontonians to get outside for winter walks. Many of these locations are along the major ravine paths, including the Don and Humber Rivers. Most location descriptions were easy to locate, though others were quite vague. I did the best I could with the information given. I also added the toilet locations at Tommy Thompson Park, which is operated by the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority.
There remain some critical gaps, including the absence of Guild Park in Scarborough and along the waterfront between Humber Bay Shores and Marie Curtis Park, but on the whole, this is a positive development. The city also announced new winter maintenance of additional park paths, though ideally, this service would be extended along the entire ravine network.
As of Monday, November 23, Toronto and Peel Region will be in another lockdown. Non-essential businesses and services will close or be open only for take-out and curbside pickup. Gyms, patios, and salons will all be closed. Though we may not be able to socialize with friends and extended family, we can still go for walks, runs, and bike rides to maintain our physical and mental heath.
But with indoor dining prohibited since October in Toronto, and most malls closing down, finding a washroom has become much more difficult. Many outdoor park washrooms are not winterized, so they must close as well. For many of us, having access to open and accessible washrooms is a necessary when leaving the home for long periods of time.
Though there is a list of washrooms open (or soon to open) on the city’s website, they are listed in alphabetical order, without easily-accessible location information. I took the liberty of mapping each park washroom location, as well as selected other city-owned public washrooms accessible seven days a week.
Though winterized public washrooms can be found across the city, there are a few areas left unserved, including the Etobicoke waterfront between Humber Bay Shores and Long Branch, the eastern Scarborough waterfront parks, including Guild Park and the Port Union/Rouge Beach area, and northwestern Etobicoke. Ideally, every Torontonian should live within walking distance of a four-season park.
Even with the impending lockdown, there are some other washrooms that will remain available when necessary. GO Transit has kept washrooms at its stations accessible even during the Spring 2020 lockdown. On the Lakeshore Line, stations are open seven days a week, including Guildwood and Rouge Hill. Many supermarkets have public washrooms as well.
I hope that there will be improved four-season access to public washrooms this year, and every year going forward. Simple outdoor activity, including long walks, are one of the safest and easiest things we can do to keep ourselves happy and busy.
I will update the map as more washroom facilities open.
Just south of St. Thomas — Ontario’s Railway City — sits a small stucco-clad shelter, just below the Sparta Road bridge. Until 1957, electric trains of the London & Port Stanley Railway would regularly pass this little, unstaffed station serving the nearby community of Union.
There are dozens of union stations across North America, several of which are still in regular passenger service. Toronto’s Union Station is the continent’s second-busiest railway station, surpassed only by New York’s Penn Station. Union Stations in Chicago, Washington, and Los Angeles are among the top fifteen in Canada and the United States, while other grand union station buildings still greet rail passengers in Winnipeg, Kansas City, and Denver.
Kansas City’s Union Station, with downtown skyline backdrop
Union stations, by definition, are passenger facilities used by two or more railways. They allowed for shared services and passenger convenience, though they required ample access to each railway’s tracks. Toronto’s Union Station, for example, was built for the Grand Trunk and Canadian Pacific Railways, which both had rail corridors following the waterfront into Downtown Toronto. Ottawa, too had a Union Station that was used by CN and CP until 1966 (and in earlier years, New York Central trains called at Ottawa’s Union Station).
In some cases, a union station might be a small depot at the junction of two railways. The small Inglewood Station in Caledon was technically a union station as it was used by Canadian National and Canadian Pacific.
Great Hall, Chicago’s Union Station
Of course, the little Union Station in rural Elgin County was never a true union station. It was merely a flag stop for the L&PS, where awaiting passengers would signal their intention to board by lowering a wooden board affixed to a pole next to the station shelter.
The L&PS Railway opened in 1856 to connect London to nearby St. Thomas and to Port Stanley, giving the growing city access to Lake Erie. In 1913, the City of London, which owned the line, upgraded and electrified the railway under the direction of then-mayor Adam Beck, who championed public hydro electricity and a proposed network of electric railways across the province.
Though bulk freight was the railway’s bread-and-butter — it connected with a train ferry service to Ohio — the L&PS operated regular local passenger service connecting two cities, four separate railways (CN at London and the Wabash, Michigan Central, and Pere Marquette Railroads at St. Thomas), and the popular summer resorts and cottages at Port Stanley.
With improved highways and increased auto ownership, the L&PS ceased passenger service in 1957, though there was regular bus service until the 1990s. Today, it is impossible to get between London, St. Thomas, and Port Stanley without a car. The railway was sold to CN in the early 1960s. CN used the railway to access a new Ford assembly plant as well as local industry in London and St. Thomas, but eventually ceased freight service south of St. Thomas.
The abandoned track south of St. Thomas was acquired by the Port Stanley Terminal Railway, which today operates family-friendly excursions from the former L&PS station in Port Stanley. Though you can no longer board a train at Union, you can still watch trains go by. A restored LP&S interurban passenger car can be found at the Halton County Radial Railway museum near Rockwood.
Passing by Union Station, riding the PTSR excursion train
