From the Art Gallery of Ontario and Grange Park west to Chinatown, north into Kensington Market, south to Graffiti Alley and west along Queen Street to Trinity Bellwoods Park.
Segments
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Art Gallery of Ontario and Grange ParkArt Gallery of Ontario, 317 Dundas St W → Grange Park
City sidewalk and park paths
The AGO holds more than 120,000 works, but even from outside it is worth the stop. Frank Gehry, who was born in Toronto, rebuilt it between 2004 and 2008, his first building in Canada; the Galleria Italia runs the length of the Dundas Street facade as a long curve of glass and Douglas fir, and a tower clad in titanium and glass rises at the back. Walk around to Grange Park behind the gallery: The Grange, an 1817 Georgian brick manor, faces a park renovated in 2017 with a playground, a splash pad and Henry Moore's bronze Large Two Forms. Look up to the west to see OCAD University's Sharp Centre for Design, a black-and-white chequered box on coloured stilts. Allow 20 minutes outside, or two hours if you go in.
About this place
The Art Gallery of Ontario is an art museum in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Located on Dundas Street West in the Grange Park neighbourhood of downtown Toronto, the museum complex takes up 45,000 square metres (480,000 sq ft) of physical space, making it one of the largest art museums in North America and the second-largest art museum in Toronto, after the Royal Ontario Museum. In addition to exhibition spaces, the museum also houses an artist-in-residence office and studio, dining facilities, event spaces, gift shop, library and archives, theatre and lecture hall, research centre, and a workshop.
Read more on Wikipedia Photo: Canmenwalker · CC BY 4.0 -
Dundas Street to ChinatownGrange Park → Spadina Ave at Dundas St W
City sidewalks
Walk west along Dundas to Spadina Avenue, the heart of one of the largest Chinatowns in North America. It grew here after the original Chinatown, around the site of today's City Hall, was largely cleared in the 1950s. Look for the dragon sculptures on the streetcar shelters, the produce stands spilling onto the sidewalk, bakeries, herbalists and the Chinatown Centre and Dragon City malls. The neighbourhood's population now mixes Chinese, Vietnamese and other Southeast Asian communities. About 10 minutes of walking, plus browsing.
About this place
Chinatown, Toronto is a Chinese ethnic enclave located in the city's downtown core of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is centred at the intersection of Spadina Avenue and Dundas Street West.
Read more on Wikipedia Photo: ぐら(Gura) · CC BY-SA 1.0 - Kensington Market
Spadina Ave at Dundas St W → Bellevue Square Park
Narrow sidewalks and laneways
Cross Spadina and head up Baldwin Street or Kensington Avenue into the market, a National Historic Site since 2006. There is no single building: Kensington is a few dense blocks of Victorian houses turned into shops, their front yards piled with fruit, spices, vintage clothes and cheese. Wander Augusta Avenue, Baldwin Street, Kensington Avenue and Nassau Street in whatever order you like. End in Bellevue Square Park, where a bronze of the actor Al Waxman, star of the 1970s sitcom King of Kensington, sits on a bench. Allow an hour; it is the best place on the route to eat.
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South to Graffiti AlleyBellevue Square Park → Graffiti Alley (Rush Lane), south of Queen St W
City sidewalks and a paved laneway
Head south to Queen Street West and, just west of Spadina, duck into the laneway that runs parallel to Queen on its south side. Officially named Rush Lane, it is known to everyone as Graffiti Alley: about a kilometre of garage doors, fences and back walls covered in murals and tags that change constantly. Rick Mercer filmed his televised rants walking down it. It is not a sanctioned open wall, so work gets painted over and replaced; what you see will not be what the last visitor saw. About 20 minutes to walk its length.
About this place
Graffiti Alley, officially Rush Lane, is a three-block, 1-km alleyway in Toronto's Fashion District, known for hosting street art. Lonely Planet has called the site "possibly the most popular place to check out street art in Toronto". The alleyway was used prominently as the backdrop in Rick Mercer Report's "Rant" segment. Despite its popularity with tourists and leniency by law enforcement, it is not a legal wall.
Read more on Wikipedia Photo: Dillan Payne · CC BY-SA 4.0 -
Queen Street WestGraffiti Alley at Portland St → Queen St W at Strachan Ave
City sidewalks
Rejoin Queen Street and walk west. This stretch, running out past Bathurst, is the long spine of the city's independent retail: record shops, designers, bookstores, cafes and bars in two- and three-storey Victorian storefronts, with the 501 streetcar rumbling down the middle. The shops change often, which is why it rewards wandering rather than a list. About 20 minutes of walking, more with detours.
About this place
Queen Street is a major east–west thoroughfare in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It extends from Roncesvalles Avenue and King Street in the west to Victoria Park Avenue in the east. Queen Street was the cartographic baseline for the original east–west avenues of Toronto's and York County's grid pattern of major roads. The western section of Queen is a centre for Canadian broadcasting, music, fashion, performance, and the visual arts.
Read more on Wikipedia Photo: GTD Aquitaine · Public domain -
Trinity Bellwoods ParkQueen St W at Strachan Ave → Trinity Bellwoods Park, dog bowl
Park paths and lawns, gentle slope into the ravine
Enter through the stone gates at the foot of Strachan Avenue, all that remains of Trinity College, which stood here from 1852 until it moved in 1925. The park sits in the buried valley of Garrison Creek; the sunken lawn in the middle, known locally as the dog bowl, is the old ravine. Watch for the park's white squirrels. In late April or early May, the cherry trees near the southeast corner bloom with the CN Tower framed behind them. On a warm evening this is where half the neighbourhood comes to sit. Stay as long as the light lasts.
About this place
Trinity Bellwoods Park is a public park located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, bordered by Queen Street West on the south and Dundas Street on the north. The western boundary of the park is Crawford Street, several hundred feet before Crawford intersects with Dundas St. West, the park juts toward Shaw Street, westside of the Crawford Street Bridge. Most of the park's area lies in the original Garrison Creek ravine and this creek, now a buried city storm sewer, still flows beneath the park from the northwest to the southeast corners.
Read more on Wikipedia Photo: Dillan Payne · CC BY-SA 4.0
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