Islington

In 1968, the westerly and easterly extensions of the Bloor-Danforth subway line into Etobicoke and Scarborough marked a triumphant moment in the history of ‘Metro’ Toronto: rapid transit finally connected these suburban municipalities, and their residents, to the central downtown. Islington station supplanted Keele as the new western terminus, a full six stops away.

The balefully glowing, doomed bus sheds of Islington

Understanding the historical context is key to our appreciation of Islington—a suburban station, serving Etobicoke as a hub for numerous feeder surface routes. Its existential purpose was to link travellers to the core (“Simpson’s... only 26 minutes from Islington Station” trumpeted one typical commercial advertisement).

The individual covered bus bays and roomy interior ‘mall’ epitomize a particular era of station configuration, matched at the other end of the line by Warden and (in a previous iteration) at Eglinton. This type of layout is no longer understood as optimal for passenger efficiency (not to mention being inherently inaccessible); plans to demolish the bays and modernize the station have periodically circulated, but never quite materialized into actuality. It will happen! Just on the TTC’s timeframe.

The tunnel-like interior of one of the bus bays

The suburban weltanschauung is also evident in the commuter lots—described as ‘spacious’ in a TTC service notice from the period—that abut the station. Why fight traffic, when you can conveniently park at a suburban lot and ride the subway into town?

Admire this beauty directly on the platform

Premier John Robarts unveiled a commemorative photo montage in the mezzanine at the opening ceremonies on May 10, 1968, but sadly no trace remains of the display. I wonder if it’s tucked away in a storage warehouse somewhere, along with other flotsam and jetsam from the TTC’s visual past?

Historical tidbit: Islington is named for the native town of Elizabeth Smith, the wife of innkeeper Thomas Smith. As lore has it, in 1859 a Public Meeting was held at Smith’s Hotel to decide the nomenclature of what was then known as Mimico village, but a unanimous selection could not be attained. Elizabeth was called in from the kitchen for her input, and so we have Islington.

Photo Gallery

Tour the station, and view captioned historical images from its past:

Transfer:

Islington station transfer

More about Islington

TTC Station info | Map | Wikipedia: Islington

My next stop: Kennedy
Previous station: Wilson

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Wilson

Wilson station is a jazz tune gone sour.

An ungainly Brutalist exterior; a crazy-quilt interior

A bewildering labyrinth of halls, corridors, and tunnels awaits visitors to this station. Perhaps intended as a powerful showcase of modernist transit design, Wilson instead reveals the disconnection of its engineer-planners from actual users—unlike the other stations of the Spadina line, Wilson and St. Clair West were architected in-house by the TTC, under the direction of Herta Freyberg.

Sections of the station are wonderful. The problem is, the incongruous parts don’t match or flow well with each other.

The subway platform at Wilson: plenty of visual stimuli

The primary complaints with Wilson are the distance and change of levels between the subway and the bus platforms—for transferring passengers, the extended layout translates into missed connections, as precious minutes are eaten up by the laborious trek from one area to the other.

That concern aside, I had a blast exploring Wilson’s Byzantine nooks and crannies. I have a perverse attraction to architecture that doesn’t mesh, holistically.

The Wilson Lounge: the saddest artificial plants you shall ever see... (to my vast disappointment, this area is no more)

Ted Bieler’s aluminium wall-relief sculpture, Canyons. 

My nomination for ‘most-unwelcoming public section of the TTC subway system’ is the fearsome view that greets you from the south-east commuter parking lot entrance:
‘

Beware: the Minotaur awaits.

There isn’t much point in dressing up a parking lot tunnel. Why bother? Still, it’s shocking to be confronted by such a raw vista [see Update 3 below] (Midland’s east-side automated entrance is the rival that comes to mind for barren disdain).

Contrast this with the placid circular hub at the heart of the station:

Meet me at the circle!

Until the end of Wilson’s reign as the terminus of the Spadina line in 1996, the two-level bus platform was a maelstrom of activity, serving 17 routes at its peak (in fact there was even a secondary North Terminal constructed to handle the overflow; this structure was subsequently mothballed when its routes were mostly transposed to Downsview (now Sheppard West)).

The depressing and bleak double-decker bus platform

Isolated, convoluted, and inharmonious, Wilson station officially opened January 27, 1978, with public access the following day. I like to claim erroneously that it was named after the widely-respected and influential civil-engineer, Norman D. Wilson, who helped plan and design the original Yonge subway (as well as the wye connecting to Bay Lower for interlining). I say erroneously because in fact, Wilson Ave. (formerly Twentieth Ave.) was named after Arthur L. Willson, a clerk and treasurer of York Township. In spite of this historical fact, I like to pretend that Norman D. got a sly nod regardless. The nearby Wilson Yard houses and services the trains for Line 1.

One of Shalak Attack’s Guardians beneath Wilson Station

Update: On October 26, 2016 the city enthusiastically showed off Shalak Attack’s The Guardians, a vivid work of magical realism celebrating women’s empowerment, in collaboration with StreetART Toronto and the TTC. The Canadian-Chilean artist’s installation deftly embraces the dark and foreboding underpasses supporting Wilson’s subway platform and the Allen expressway, and is well worth exploration.

Please touch! The sinuous curves of Outside the Lines

Update 2: In late 2019 Wilson received a third art installation: Outside the Lines, by Christine Leu and Alan Webb. The seven spread-out, squiggly powder-coated steel tube sculptures that make up the work prompted derisory comparisons to a certain familiar children's toy. But abstract absurdity deserves a spot in the spectrum of public art we encounter, and the explicit tactility of Outside the Lines makes it unique—in the multi-layered visual cacophony of Wilson station, it’s yet another strange, cerebral, discordant note thrown into the mix.

Update 3:  Wilson station keeps mutating! Elevators for accessibility, the disappointing replacement of the ‘Lounge’ with a relocated news-stand, and some storage space taking up some of the main mezzanine, are all material alterations. But the major modification to appreciate is a fourth art installation, located at the very spot I’d mocked in my gallery as being horror-movie-worthy: the south-east lot entrance [speaking of the south-east lot, the latter no longer exists, having been subsumed by the craptacularly banal ‘Shops At Wilson Station’ complex]. 

The Snowy Owl, one of three murals making up Shalak Attack’s Daily Migration: asking you to contemplate your own journey

Unveiled on October 17, 2021, Shalak Attack’s Daily Migration ‘shares stories of movement across urban spaces and nature, human relationships to the animal world, and the ties that connect us.’ The third installation that Shalak Attack has completed for the TTC (see Lawrence East for #2), Daily Migration boldly addresses what was unquestionably an inhospitable, gloomy physical space at the station.   

Photo Gallery

Tour the station, and view captioned historical images from its past, including photos of new artwork The Guardians, Outside the Lines, and Daily Migration:
(hint: turn on the captions)

Transfer:

Wilson station transfer

More about Wilson

TTC Station info | Map | Wikipedia: Wilson

My next stop: Islington
Previous station: Scarborough Centre

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Scarborough Centre

When I was a young boy, my family occasionally visited the Scarborough Town Centre Mall during trips to Toronto. Whenever we went, I was entranced by the shopping centre’s miniature hot-air balloons. I always begged to be allowed to watch their languorous rise and fall, over and over again. It was a hypnotic dance. So I looked forward excitedly to my present-day foray to neighbouring Scarborough Centre station; it would serve as a perfect excuse to pop by the mall, and marvel at the balloons again.

I was thus crestfallen to discover that the balloons were removed during a renovation in 2008! Sic transit gloria mundi.

View from the south: the 3 levels of Scarborough Centre

As for the station, it makes for a fascinating study on passenger circulation movement and design. The three levels feel very distinct and clumsily integrated.

The RT platform sees a lot of usage; this stop is arguably the only major destination / origin for the entire RT line (not counting Kennedy).

Eastbound RT at Scarborough Centre platform

Meanwhile, the second-level concourse hall sits mostly empty, except for the far end connecting to the mall and leading to Scarborough Civic Centre.

The action takes place at the east end of this otherwise deserted concourse.

A pair of commemorative plaques on this level mark the opening of the Scarborough RT. Now we know who to blame! I’m obviously a general transit enthusiast and booster, but it’s important that we acknowledge our mistakes of the past (even as we compound them in the present).

Plaque commemorating the opening of the RT line. I like the bas-relief ICTS car.

I’m genuinely impressed with the awfulness of the bus platform at Scarborough Centre, especially considering that it services the largest number of surface routes for the TTC. This cramped section of the station has all the ambience of a sheet-metal factory. The exposed piping, stained concrete, crumbling floors, and stoic faces—it’s a complete contrast to the roomy level above.

The abysmally grey bus platform: industrial chic? 

Scarborough Centre opened March 22, 1985 as part of the Scarborough RT line. An important transportation hub, the station also connects to the Scarborough Centre Bus Terminal. If and when the Scarborough Subway is ever constructed, this station will undergo major changes.

Should you happen to pass through the stop, the inhuman vastness of adjoining Albert Campbell Square and Raymond Moriyama’s Scarborough Civic Centre are well worth gawking over. Alas, nothing’s ever going to bring back those balloons.

Photo Gallery

Tour the station, and view captioned historical images from its past:

Transfers:

Two variants at this station

More about Scarborough Centre

TTC Station info | Map | Wikipedia: Scarborough Centre

My next stop: Wilson
Previous station: Finch

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Finch

Ever since its opening on March 29, 1974, Finch has served as the northern terminus for the Yonge line. It’s one of the busiest stations in the network, servicing nearly 100,000 passengers each day, mostly due to all the connecting bus routes that feed into it and the increasing density in the surrounding area. That’s a lot of people!

Finch station’s modernist bus platform: concrete and glass

The station is a twisty and ofttimes barbarous maze, plagued by lengthy corridors and entrances in haphazard styles, leading to the station’s various sections as well as to the abutting office towers, condos, and the Finch GO Bus Terminal. There’s a swirling, shambolic atmosphere to the facility, with a constant, dizzying ebb and flow of people hurrying off in different directions.

Circle of power

When I first moved to the city many years ago, within my limited, subway-constrained, downtown-centric mental model of Toronto, Finch represented the mysterious outer limits of urban exploration; to venture beyond it was nigh unthinkable (a myopic perspective considering the station’s role as the area transit hub).

To be honest, I’m not sure much has changed for me. I guess the TYSSE extension to Vaughan (and one day, the Yonge North Subway Extension) will expand my horizons.

Rhythm of Exotic Plants, by Krystyna Sadowska. A bit of a head-scratcher.

Opposite the main fare entrance gates, on the mezzanine level, hangs the large metal sculpture by Polish artist Krystyna Sadowska, Rhythm of Exotic Plants. Donated by Rio Algom to the TTC, the abstract bas-relief was actually created in 1965.

Personally, I struggle with abstract art such as Sadowska’s. What do you think of it? What meaning do you believe it conveys? Its placement in the context of Finch puzzles me—not that I’m complaining; it would be gratifying if more corporations commissioned and donated art for public display. I’d like to know more about the circumstances of its creation and subsequent donation—why did Rio Algom have it made? Why did they part with it? What led to the Commission mounting it at Finch? If anyone knows, feel free to comment.

[Update: I learned through subsequent research that the donation was Rio Algom’s response to the TTC’s 1977 solicitation for corporate financial contributions in support of art on the Spadina subway, then under construction. Instead of being merely one donor of many for that line, Rio Algom decided to gift us with this sculpture directly, thus taking sole credit.]

Finch subway platform, long view

Elsewhere in the mezzanine, there’s also a pair of commemorative plaques from the opening (thanks Mel Lastman), and at the subway platform level you will find a plaque describing the historical beginnings of the area.

Finch is named for John Finch, the innkeeper whose two-storey hotel operated at the northeast corner of Yonge and Finch until 1873. A parkette immediately east of the station’s bus platform commemorates the site of ‘Finch’s Hotel’.

In 2020 the TTC installed new panelling for the platform walls, but inexplicably chose yellow for the colour, ignoring the station’s existing platform-level scheme, and clashing with the central island tiling. But as I’ve learned on this journey, ever since the 1980’s the TTC has exhibited a perverse predilection for capricious inconsistency, when it comes to station tile colours.

Photo Gallery

Tour the station, and view captioned historical images from its past:
(hint: turn on the captions)

Transfer:

Finch station transfer

More about Finch

TTC Station info | Map | Wikipedia: Finch

Bonus video: Finch station commuter lot time-lapse


My next stop: Scarborough Centre
Previous station: Ellesmere

Alphabetical Station Selector

Ellesmere

Tiny, forgotten Ellesmere.

A translucent star creature about to digest a meal.
Foreground: GO train tracks.

As you ride the toy-like RT to this forlorn transit outpost in the middle of the night, your weary mind begins to wander. You start to reminisce, to muse about that special person who once captured your heart, long ago.

You know who I’m talking about. Her gentle, sad smile clouds your thoughts to this very day. What ever became of her? Where is she now?

Is she loved?

The Great Pit of Carkoon awaits

Arriving at Ellesmere interrupts your reverie, but not the mood of loneliness. By far the least-used station in the entire TTC system, Ellesmere trounces even the infamous Bessarion for lowest ridership—on most days, a single Toronto Rocket train would suffice to contain all those who pass through its gates.

Welcome to Inhospitable Concrete 101

Ellesmere station opened March 22, 1985. A jewel of fluorescent solitude in the evening dark, Ellesmere brooks no rival for contemplative stillness. Enjoy it while you can, and accept that you can never change the past.

Update: Of the three RT stations that retained artwork from the 2018 Nuit Blanche festival, Ellesmere undeservedly got the weakest submission. 

AM I OK? prompts the answer: No.

Tabban Soliemani’s AM I OK? is a cartoony piece that comes off as amateurish. It effectively looks as if the station got tagged with graffiti, and then wasn’t cleaned up. Moreover, did Ellesmere really need an installation that explores ‘the bleak place of emotional and mental confusion led by feelings of helplessness’?

For a one-night event I’m sure it was a provocative work that contributed to the larger exhibit, but I’m at a loss as to why the TTC decided to keep it. Maybe they figured nobody cares about Ellesmere anyway. 

Maybe they were right. 

Update 2023: R.I.P. Ellesmere!

On the evening of July 24, 2023 the last car of a southbound RT train decoupled from the rest of the vehicle and derailed, immediately south of Ellesmere. Service was suspended from that point on. This event proved to be an early death-knell for the Scarborough RT, since it had been scheduled for decommissioning November 19, 2023 anyway. On August 24, 2023 the TTC announced the decision to permanently shutter the Scarborough RT.

Photo Gallery

Tour the station, and view captioned historical images from its past:

Transfer:

Ellesmere station transfer

More about Ellesmere

TTC Station info | Map | Wikipedia: Ellesmere

My next stop: Finch
Previous station: Midland

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Midland

When the Scarborough RT is eventually decommissioned and begins to fade from collective memory, who shall mourn the passing of unloved Midland?

An obdurate starship in an industrial wasteland

I was previously harsh in my expression of disappointment regarding the RT line, as presently integrated into our transit network. Alas, Midland does nothing to alleviate that vexation.

But let’s flip the switch, and embrace this doomed stop with a deliberate sense of rhapsodical wonder. Because who wants to be negative all the time?

Bare-bones unmanned station exit

Midland is unique because of its alien dystopian setting. The neighbouring Atlantic Packaging plant thrums with power, spewing odiferous steam and reminding coddled travellers that industrial Toronto still exists. Were I to film a low-budget ripoff of Blade Runner, where the replicants used public transit instead of flying cars, Midland station is where I’d place the opening scene.

The sights! The sounds! The smells.

A zesty confusion of lights and lines

Straddling Midland Avenue like a rough beast slouching towards [ahem] Birchmount, the station opened March 22, 1985 as part of the Scarborough RT line. Midland defiantly eschews any pretense at comeliness, and I commend it for doing so. Highly recommended for fans of urban desolation.

Update: an incongruously pleasing vinyl art mural was installed on the station platform in 2018 for the Nuit Blanche festival, and retained following the event. 

A blue RT enters the station with Natural Love as a backdrop.

Natural Love by Planta Muisca shows off a hyper-kinetic array of day-glo Indigenous cultural imagery from South and Central America.

Exploring the language of love.

Muisca’s blotch of cuddly purple madness blows up my thesis of Midland as a melancholic marker of remote alienation—but at least we now have something to daydream about, waiting for the train to come and take us away; something to soothe the rumbling, squalling passage of the Scarborough RT into the velvet night of transit history.  

Photo Gallery

Tour the station, and view captioned historical images from its past (hint: turn on the captions):

Transfer:

Midland station transfer

More about Midland

TTC Station info | Map | Wikipedia: Midland

My next stop: Ellesmere
Previous station: Don Mills

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Don Mills

Imagine the excitement 10,000 years from now, when urban archaeologists excavate the ruins of that ancient metropolis, Tronna, and uncover the gaping caverns of Don Mills.

‘Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!’

Could I throw a nerf football the length of this vast hall?

“We believe it was a religious monument to their Emperor-King, Don Mills, as evidenced by the curious markings on the walls and floors. At first, we suspected it might be an entranceway to a primitive underground mass transit system, but that erroneous theory has been discredited, as the antediluvian structure seems far too elaborate, and moreover, based on our understanding of where people lived and worked at the time, its ‘stub’ location makes no sense in terms of situating a ‘subway’ terminal node. We’re now exploring what appears to be a tunnel leading west, perhaps to additional shrines.”

Perplexing emptiness. The coloured terrazzo is nice though.

I’m being absurd, of course. But the scale of Don Mills makes you wonder, could we not have built the Sheppard stations a degree less overbearing, and in exchange completed the line east to Scarborough Centre? Or at least extended the line to, say, Victoria Park Avenue?

Lofty bus platform at Don Mills

My visit to the end of the Sheppard ‘stub-way’ cemented my jaundiced view that the line has been a regrettable waste of capital. And I’m writing this as a direct beneficiary of the heavily-subsidized route (I ride it on a regular basis).

You might argue that given the political context of restraint and funding cuts in which they were designed, the Sheppard station implementations have proven more than adequate, as validations of ‘value-engineering’. They nevertheless strike me as mostly empty, arid boondoggles. And personally, if I’m going to have a boondoggle, it might as well be something nice like Sheppard West (formerly Downsview).

I guess my real issue lies with the line’s poor contribution to the overall transit network; we would have generated much better value building elsewhere first.

Stephen Cruise’s before/after 1997/2002 adorns the station walls and floors

Two artistic works by Stephen Cruise serve to enhance the Don Mills facility.

With its tiled depictions of fossils, buried objects and geological strata, before/after relates Don Mills to the environment it displaced. Stations are entirely artificial, invasive constructions, and we hardly ever contemplate what came before. Do I generally enjoy pixellated artwork? No. But I appreciate the allusive references and the invitation to deeper contextual reflection.

Some of the bronze floor inlays have broken off over the last decade, which is disappointing—station artwork needs to be durable! But the wall tiling is admirably sensual, on close inspection. You’ll want to touch them.

Turtles! Leaves! Shells!

Outside the station, the playful silhouette of Northern Dancer adorns the concealment wall for the station’s electrical substation.

An incongruous but amusing tribute to the famous racehorse 

Don Mills is the eastern terminus of the Sheppard line. Designed by Stevens Group Architects, it opened November 24, 2002 and mostly services the adjoining Fairview Mall and bus riders from Scarborough Centre. How long will it be before the line is extended past Don Mills? Or will it connect to a Sheppard LRT?

Final note: A modest plaque to the memory of worker John Marinzel may be found at the subway platform level. Its discreet placement humanizes this otherwise ‘boundless and bare’, colossal wreck of a station.

Photo Gallery

Tour the station:

Transfer:

Don Mills station transfer

More about Don Mills

TTC Station info | Map | Wikipedia: Don Mills

My next stop: Midland
Previous station: St. Andrew

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