A few weeks ago, Spacing asked its readers to help identify the specific smells of the city for an article we’re publishing in the Spring 2008 issue. Today, we need your input on the SOUNDS of the city. Please let us know specific sounds you hear in specific locations of the city. There are common ones like subway chimes and the chirping at intersections to help the visually impaired cross the street — but what about the sounds at Kipling and Eglinton? Or Finch and Pharmacy?
Please leave your thoughts in the comment section of this post.
photo by Bouke Salverda
23 comments
I know the TTC will always be a popular choice for sounds of Toronto.. I’ll get a couple of them out of the way:
– the sound a subway makes in the tunnel, as heard from the platform of the station it’s approaching. That whisper, the rush of air, combined with the squeeks of the wheels on the rails – then the bang-whoosh as the train enters the station and rushes past your position as it slows down.
– the sound of the subways crossing the Prince Edward Viaduct, as heard from the Don Valley below. Clack-clack…clack clack…
– which brings me to the bump-bump…bump-bump sound cars make going over the segments of the Gardiner Expressway when it passes the CNE, heard from below.
– the sound of trees being snartched in the Parks & Rec shredder truck… this one goes back to my childhood – I remember whenever there was a sick or fallen tree that had to be dealt with, the green Parks & Rec truck would show up towing the shredder behind it, and the woooooowwwwwwwww-zarp!-woooooowwwwwww—zarp! sound of the tree chunks being mulched was a real treat.
The sound of the fountains turning on and off in Dundas Square.
Bicycle bells ringing a the start of (and various points along) Critical Mass rides.
Subway musicians.
People also tend to romanticize the sounds of the TTC. I love the sound of streetcars humming along, and even the quiet subway rumble I can hear in my basement on Symington Ave. But the sound of loud diesel buses, especially around bigger hubs like Islington Station, is not so nice.
The cooing and wing-flapping sounds of pigeons. When I lived in an apartment near Islington Station, I put up with this all the time. Nothing quite like being woken up by the sound of horny pigeons on your balcony.
Most recently: The sounds of traffic on a wet street. Always much louder than usual.
The unbelievable screech a subway train makes when braking on the opposite platform, when there is no middle platform or other acoustic barrier as on the B-D line 🙂
Streetcar gongs.
The bagpiper who plays near First Canadian Place sometimes.
Clocktower Bells!! I love riding by Old City Hall, and the one that rises up above the firehall at Bellevue and College. I like to see how far away i can get and still catch the sound on the wind despite competing traffic noise.
The various sounds of the Toronto Island Ferries – those loud horns that always make me jump, the churning engines, excited passengers, water hitting the hull on the bow, the squeak of the hull hitting the rubber on the dock, footsteps of passengers as they dis/embark…
Festival music on the wind. There’s nothing quite like hearing the sounds of a street festival before you can see it – anticipation grows with every step!
Hockey! Skates & sticks on ice, pucks on boards! And of course you can replace the ice with asphalt for the on-street version.
And finally, it may also be worth mentioning the absence of a certain sound… car traffic! A quiet street/neighbourhood with the sounds of traffic replaced with those made by people – music, play, conversations between neighbours, merchants, passersby…
My 2am alarm clock used to be the smashing sound of glass as the recycle trucks picked up spent bottles at restaurants along Harbord Street.
I’ve always loved hearing the music leaking out of the RCM building along Philosopher’s Walk.
“299 Bloor call control”
A Toronto sound I will probably never forget is the sound that would fill the North East corner of Yonge and Bloor for so many years. Ben Kerr and his guitar and karaoke machine. I use to buy my weekly dose of street meat and sit on the steps of the RBC branch and listen to him sing some old time tunes while I eat my dog.
Did he not he run for mayor a few times?
Not much noise out here in the burbs. Out in my old neck of the woods, Jane and finch-ish you here mostly cop, fire and ambulance sirens and of course the honking horns of eager beavers. No streetcar screeches or subway vents just good road rage. Believe it or not you do occasionally hear the random gun shot.
Having grown up in North York you grow accustomed to the different ethnic areas and their sounds. The sound of patois along eglinton west, Russian at Bathurst and Steeles or Tagalog at Bathurst and Wilson just to name a few. How about the Korean sound and Yonge and Finch. Language is a very distinctive sound, if you listen for it you will find it.
“Doggie Doggie” RIP
When I think of Parkdale sounds, I think of…
People asking for spare change on the street.
My neighbours fighting at 4am.
The sound of the crowd cheering from BMO Field during a TFC match.
Bicycle bells.
Sirens up and down my street.
I miss that Toronto Star newsguy at Yonge + Carlton, i.e. the guy who sounded like Eric Cartman’s withered great-grandaddy…
This strikes me as a subject better addressed online via the Wire which can actually PLAY SOUND.
Why are we talking about sound when people could actually record sounds on the cell phones, digital cameras, and voice recorders and submit them?
Spacing could create a map, and people could click on various points on the map to hear sounds from those locations.
Thanks for the suggestions, Melissa. This is a post about researching where the sounds are so we can create editorial content. Sometimes we’re vague about the purpose (“an article in the spring issue”) so that we do not entirely give away our planned ideas and to allow for some creative re-purposing of the material (such as a sound map).
Music at Harbourfront on a summer night.
The Active Surplus pitchman on Queen.
The bustle of St. Lawrence Market on a Saturday morning.
Music playing from the shops on Gerrard Street in Little India.
The procession of horns whenever a particular country wins a game during the World Cup.
The “grooved” sound of driving or riding over the lift bridges on Cherry Street.
The sound of the subway deep below coming up hidden ravine escape hatches — like in Cedervale Ravine, or Nordheimer.
Alright, gotcha.
So here are some of mine:
The sound of crickets in the grassy area behind the beach at Ward’s island that is quickly overcome by the sound of waves as you move closer to the water.
The sound of Queen’s Quay on a nice night: bad dance music traveling/thumping across the water as the party boats go by.
Metropolitan United Church’s church bells/carillon.
The sound of the “Smiths detection” bomb detectors that you have to go through before going up the CN Tower–they look and sound like something out of an old episode of Star Trek…
The sound of millions of marching feet in the PATH during the morning and late afternoon rush hours as the crush of people makes its way to and from the GO Train.
The cacophony of sounds of Queen/Jarvis:
-military marching bands (drums, bagpipes, marching feet…) going up and down Jarvis St. on random Sundays.
-the occasional military training outside the Moss Park Armoury (lots of shouting/barking mainly).
-the sound of street people fighting in the back alley at night
-the sound of dumpster divers rooting through the garbage and recycling at all times of day
-the non-stop sound of Discount car rental vans beeping ever time they are driven in reverse as people attempt to park them in the tiny lot.
-the sound of orange hospital helicopters flying to and from St. Mike’s
-the sound of sirens: police, fire, and ambulance
-from 6am-5pm: the many sounds of the construction of the Salvation Army Harbour Light Centre
-kids shrieking while they playing basketball in the alley
-the sound of garbage and recycling pick up.
Another TTC sound, but heard from the street – the rather disembodied sound of the subway wheels shrieking as they turn the corner below the corner of Yonge and Front just outside the Hockey Hall of Fame.
Having lived on Charles St. W for three years, the sound of little French children squealing and screaming at ungodly hours of the morning in the playfield was always a welcome sound after staying up til 4am…
I’ve noticed lately that taxis will honk at you as they pass by to get your attention or “pick you up”, which I find annoying and also kind of degrading. I’m not a hooker, for godsake!
I didn’t see it, but someone must have mentioned the door chimes on the subway…probably the most distinctive of Toronto sounds.
For the streetcars (my preferred method of TTC travel) I would go for the Horn/Bell combo used by the driver when a car tries to get around the streetcar during loading or unloading. The bell is unique, but it’s the horn/bell that gets people’s attention.
The bagpiper outside First Canadian place.
In m great neighbourhood of Parkdale, I would highlight:
– the crazy shouting guy in the raincoat and balaclava
– the Sunday sound of people rifling through the recycling bins for returns
– the jingle of the man in the wheelchair that uses sled dogs to pull him around
– the deafening roar of the air show
– the distant squeal of the streetcars making the curve on King St. approaching Queen/Roncesvalles
Chris> That little taxi honk is my biggest/smallest pet peeve. If I want you you’ll know!
I want that honk to be illegal. I think technically it is. You can’t just go around honking.
Those three little notes that precede subway station announcements. They sound like first three notes in Mungo Jerry’s “In the Summertime.”
The babbling religeous fanatic at Dundas and Yonge who sounds like he’s speaking in tongues.
The cheerful tune of the ice cream truck!
Baldwin St at dusk, on the first weekend of spring warm enough for patio dining, with the trees filtering out the sound of traffic from the bigger streets – just the sound of voices in friendly conversation mingling with the clinking of knives and forks: the street as living room.
The zipping and twittering of starlings, and the calls of nighthawks hunting insects (the ones that go “veerp” from way overhead).
Tinkly ice-cream truck music, played on an endless-loop cassette in the hot cab until it’s stretched and distorted, echoing ominously from all corners of the neighbourhood.
Oh, and that reminds me: the clanging of the knife-sharpener’s bell.
– The chirping lights at Queen and University.
– The rumble of the streetcar going by.
– The streetcar going ‘ding ding!’, followed by ‘beep beep’ trying to get someone’s attention
– The sound of the flow of cars as they drive by on the Gardiner Expressway
– The eclectic layers of music competing for attention in Kensington
– The multilingual shouts of merchants at fruit stands in Chinatown
– Guessing the language being spoken by the people sitting next to you on the subway
– The sound of ice skates and teenagers shouting at each other at the ice rink in Nathan Phillips Square
– Music from an (un)known continent flowing from an open car window
– The sound of fingers typing on their blackberrys on Bay street? =)
I’m sure I’m way too late, but…
Ben Kerr singing on his squak box at Bloor & Yonge.
The sound of swans flying and landing in the lagoons on the island.
The roar of the city as it awakens in the morning.
The horn of thr Trillium on its special outings.
The voice of Lorrena Mckenna busking at the St.Lawrence market many years ago.
The burning of the Christmas trees on the beach in late winter.
The sound of a roofer hammering in the early summer morning.