Queen Street: Thematic Preview

August 3, 2006 1:54 PM

Queen Street: Thematic Preview - "Queen Street is one of Toronto's oldest, longest, and most varied routes. It began in 1793 as a line on a map, running dead straight for ten miles, in modern measure some 16 kilometres. It is the spine, the high street, the main street of many distinct, and quite different, neighbourhoods. The street's fine grain is a cavalcade of urban variety, where the grain is broken by parks, institutions, industry. Queen Street is a promenade of public life, one you can stroll for 16 kilometres. I have, all of it, often camera in hand: I wanted others to see it, to know something of its life. And its gifts — meant to be shared. Here I'll share with you some of what I have seen along, and just off, Queen Street."
posted by heatherann (5 comments total)

When I was being a tourist in Toronto last year, Queen Street amazed me with both its length and its diversity. Great post — thanks.
posted by blucevalo at 2:02 PM on August 3, 2006

An excellent exploration of an excellent street. But it ends on an even better note - Roncesvalles!

Unfortunately it has become dated all too quickly - the Revue is sadly closed and Cafe May has been replaced by the much better Local, the High Park Lofts look nothing like the artist's conception that's linked and one of the delis pictured has closed - Super Kolbasa perhaps. But it's still a great street.
posted by GuyZero at 2:07 PM on August 3, 2006

I had a friend visiting last week, and other than a trip up to Gerrard for Saris and Lahore Tikka, I don't think she left Queen Street in 3 days, yet she did about a zillion different things.
posted by jacquilynne at 2:28 PM on August 3, 2006

What's the number of the last block on Queen?
This sounds like a contender for "cruel places to send the new mail man".
posted by NinjaTadpole at 3:07 AM on August 4, 2006

this site could be an interesting resource and a great thought provoking read, but man! is that writing hard to chew through. This is one "paragraph," in the introduction with my indentation for emphasis:

"People who don't want to know "how things really happen, how things work," how their city, their world works --

where their meat is slaughtered, their clothing stitched;
where lake water is made safe for their kitchen taps, their sewage made safe for the lake (or even whether it is);
where "crazy people" end up;
where fellow citizens get by for years on a fraction of the sticker price for a Lincoln Navigator

-- well, Queen Street, or much of it, just isn't their scene."

dude needs an editor. :)

that said, if we could afford it, we'd be buying a home in the Beach, right on Glen Stewart Park.

thanks for the link.
posted by I, Credulous at 3:59 AM on August 4, 2006