In its march of progress, Toronto and the GTA have consumed many small Ontario towns and knitted them together in one big sprawling quilt. There are still some pedestrian oriented small-town centres — oasis’s of tiny urbanism — found throughout that haven’t been bulldozed for a big box yet.
The photo above was taken yesterday during a exploratory romp on various King’s highways and lesser arterials, hithertofore known only as mysterious names read aloud by traffic reporters. This town centre must look cozy and quintessential at Christmastime.
I suspect longtime Toronto-ish residents will know it. Even after six years here, I’ve still got a lot of exploring to do before I have a fully fleshed out mental map of Toronto’s peripherals and near-hinterland, so I have no idea if this is hard or easy. Do you recognize this place? I smudged out the street name lest it give anybody a google-able advantage. We’ll withhold approval of comments until later this evening and let people guess, then approve them all at once and see how many folks know-their-GTA-slash-Toronto by sight alone.
EDIT> Main Street revealed! See comments.
24 comments
Not guessing. Main St in Newmarket…
Downtown Newmarket, one of those downtowns that seems almost hidden from the rest of the town/city(Georgetown’s is another example, or at least if you’re driving along Hwy 7 or Trafalgar). It always feels like I’ve accidentally stumbled upon it whenever I’m in Newmarket.
Brampton?
perhaps Newmarket?
Why, it’s Newmarket. Very distinctive main street, older than most (except perhaps parts of Milton).
By the way, the ‘Fourth Dimension Comics & Games’ with a 905 number was a bit of a giveway, too …
Looks like Bolton.
Downtown Newmarket? Jeez, my knowledge of the 905 is really bad.
The funniest downtown is Brampton, which even thought it looks about the same as downtown St. Mary’s is the central business district for a city bigger than, like, Geneva.
Newmarket!
It’s Main St S. in Newmarket.
However, I had to cheat to find that out – I don’t think I’ve ever been there – in the extreme left on the store sign, you can make out a partial name and part of the phone number – the 905-715 prefix could just be made out – many of those are in Newmarket area once I did a reverse lookup on yellowpages.ca – I could also just make out the word “Dimension” and “Comics & Games” – assumption led me to believe that the first word was Fourth/North (the “rth” being visible) – and voila! A little google search reveals Fourth Dimension Comics & Games, 207 Main Street S, Newmarket, ON – L3Y 1A6 – 905.715.7091.
Looks quite nice! Good post!
I cheated a little by zooming in on one of the store names “Fourth Dimension Comics and Games” and then doing a Google Maps search for it.
I’m pretty sure it’s Newmarket Ontario, though I’ve never been there.
It does remind me a little of Port Hope, Ontario though, which is almost getting swallowed by the GTA too, but has a great, preserved pedestrian friendly downtown core.
This looks like either the Village of Islington or Newmarktet
*Newmarket
But yes, without a car my knowledge of the GTA will never be anything besides the occasional visit to people’s relatives houses. This little Main Street is cute, though. The wrought iron lamps are (probably) the giveaway.
looks like newmarket…
been there a few times and it looks like it could be main street, but not sure…
cheers,
dave
Shawn:
I didn’t know where it was, but the business sign of Fourth Dimension Comics (left side, partial) is enough to drive a Canada 411 search.
Cheers and thanks for reminding us that the 905 isn’t all strip malls and condos.
Downtown Newmarket. Main Street Newmarket at the intersection with Botsford Street, looking south towards the Wesley Brooks Conservation Area which shows as the treed hill in the background.
Indeed, Main Street, Newmarket. I almost missed it, but circled around to see what “Main Stret” led to. The rest of Newmarket — at least the part I saw — did not look like this. The main street is not far from the Go Station, so one could reasonably live here, and have access to the city.
Nice work, everybody. Next time I’ll be sure too smudge out more details to make it harder for those of you who googled! Still, good sleuthing.
I grew up in Newmarket – and man, did I spend a TON of money in that comics shop… except that back in the day it was called “The Comic Wizard”… good times, good times…
that was fun.
After years of driving around Newmarket a few years ago I discovered this little strip of small townishness…I had never known it existed.
One little interesting tidbit about this very old town (almost as old as Toronto, where the Upper Canada rebellion originated!) is that all around this old downtown (as opposed to the REAL downtown, which, I keep telling my annoyed Newmarket-native partner, are the strip malls at Davis and Yonge) has all sorts of traces of a pre-car era. Especially the remnants of the old raidial railway that came all the way out from Toronto to here.
sigh. my one experience in newmarket was hardly as quaint as the one presented in this image (it involved missing the last bus back to toronto in the middle of a snowstorm – i was NOT a happy camper).
Main St in Newmarket – my hometown (!), which I promptly vacated for downtown.
A few years ago, they were talking about doing a Main Street revitalization movement to bring pedestrian traffic and public spaces back to the lone charming bit of town…but nothing much seems to have happened.
This my friend is main street in Newmarket.
FYI Newmarket is near the end of the 404 This part is west of the 404 on Davis Drive and just after the Railway track you turn south on Main Street
D
wow.i googled newmarket for some pics.i lived there as a child probably only 6 years total.Easily the best years of my life.the comic wizard aswell as the palace(crystal palace) arcade on davis and young.one of the area.s i wanted pictures of was davis and main ( i believe those are the intersections)a 1930,s esque foundry or dilapidated mass of gurders and concrete.i was warned constantly not to enter there and did anyway.if anyone has old photos of anything from newmarket from the 1980,s i would love to see them and remeniss.but more related to the first post wow i would have never guessed newmarket.very quaint.
fond fond.