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TAKE A GUESS: name this intersection, March 8th

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Since our current issue is all about intersections we thought it’d be fun to play a game.

We want you to identify this intersection. Leave your guess in the comments section: we’ll hold on to your opinions until 3pm when we’ll unveil the answer. If you want to see a larger version of the photo check it out on Spacing Photos.

UPDATE AT 3pm: The intersection is revealed!  Looking east on Bloor at Sherbourne. That’s the road leading to the Viaduct.

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67 comments

  1. This one I had to think about for a minute. Looking east on Bloor St at Sherbourne.

  3. I’m pretty sure this is bloor street looking east at sherbourne. The building on the north side is the TD Bank.

  4. that’s got to be the intersection of King West/Queen West/the Queensway – I love all the streetcar wires.

  6. Queen and Roncesvalles, looking west?

  8. Queen and Roncesvalles, looking west?
    I wouldn’t be surprised tho if it that was a bridge over the don

  10. Roncesvalles and Queen, looking south.

  11. Bloor St East, just west of Sherbourne St. looking east.

  13. Queen St West and Roncessvale? That’s my guess based on all those street car wires.

  15. Too easy! Bloor near sherbourne. The road curvature and the Dominion Bank (later TD) are dead giveaways.
    Banks really do/did get all the big intersections, eh?

  16. Queen at Roncey and King facing west?? Look at all those tree tops!

  21. I want to say somewhere along Roncesvalles… but I don’t know exactly.

  24. Intersection of Queen, King, Roncesvalles

  30. I think this is looking south on Roncesvalles past Queen

  31. Bloor at Sherbourne, looking east

  32. Broadview & Danforth?

    (or have you put it west of Yonge again)

  34. Looking north along Sherbourne St, from just south of Bloor!

    You’ve certainly got a thing for shots of banks, Matt. 😉

  35. Broadview & Danforth looking west?

  36. Bloor looking east at Sherbourne?

    Just a wild guess.

  37. broadview and gerrard, possibly before the jail and the hospital?

  39. My guess is Queen and Roncesvalles/King St facing west. The way the road veers off to the right right after the intersection is very familiar. Plus all the lines suggest that it may be near that streetcar terminal.

  40. That has to be Broadview and Danforth, BPP (Before Pizza Pizza).

  41. It looks like the road is passing over a valley, so I’ll say Bloor & Parliament, looking east towards the Don Valley. Shortly post-Bloor viaduct. I know there used to be streetcars on both streets.

  42. Actually, that was a dumb guess, now that I look more closely at the photo. There are telephone poles all along the road. I rescind my last guess. Hmmm…????

  44. Queen and Roncies, looking west, before the Gardiner and railroad flattened an area that looked, then, the way the East-end beaches look today.

  45. Hmm, probably looking westbound on Queen at the King/Roncesvalles/Queensway intersection.

  46. Hey, why has nobody responded to this post? Are they all at BLOOR AND SHERBOURNE or something?

  53. Queen looking west at the King/Roncesvalles/Queensway intersection?

  55. Bloor and Sherbourne – looking east. The building at left is currently a Toronto Dominion bank.

  56. Roncessvalles Ave. looking South towards the Queen/King/Roncessvalles streetcar junction?

  57. Roncesvalles, King/Queen/Queensway?

  58. Bloor East near Sherbrooke…looking east towards don valley?

  59. I believe it is the famous intersection of King, Queen, Lakeshore and Roncesvalles. It take gusto to build an intersection where three parallel streets intersect.

  60. In the sepia days when black and white and spacing magazine was not invented,

    Henry Ford decided to drive in the bike lane all the way from Motown to Old Toronto to attend the unveiling of the official Fort York redesign contest. Mr Ford was okay with whatever the design committee selected, just as long as it was black.

    Mr Ford’s model T (T for ‘T’oronto if you didn’t already know) celebrated arriving in T.O. by running out of regular gas as he reached the intersection of Roncesvalles-King-Queen-Queensway where this photo was taken.

    Mr Ford celebrated the rest of his international womens’ day back in 1907 thinking that all this ‘public space’ known as the intersection should be filled by cars and not buses.

    On his way outta Town, Mr Ford passed by the Roncesvalles-King-Queen-Queensway intersection and had a shawarma.

  61. That’s TOTALLY Bloor and Sherbourne!! No question! I go to that TD Bank building often so I KNOW!

  62. Yep. The TD Bank branch gives a bit of a hint.

    I think it’s along Bloor at Sherbourne towards the Don Valley.

  63. Now that all is revealed, I’m glad I resisted the temptation to say Queen & Roncesvalles, although I take comfort in seeing I’m not the only one who would have.

  64. For those who guessed King/Queen/Ronces looking west, there are several dead giveaways that it is not. That was my first impression too, but then I realized that:

    1. The bank is on the wrong side of the street. The one on Queen is on the northeast corner and it’s not quite so grand.

    2. The delightful little shop on the right hand side of the frame was never at Queen and Ronces.

    3. There is no track leading to Sunnyside Amusement park (something that was destroyed to make way for the Gardiner) and,

    4. There is no Roncesvalles Carhouse (something that predated the automobile in the shot).

    The streetcar tracks in the cross-street led to Rachael Loop which was on Sherbourne, west side, north of Bloor. A planned extension into Rosedale was never built.

    The Sherbourne car stopped running when the Yonge Subway opened in 1954.

  65. Further to my previous comment, many will remember the little shop on the southwest corner of the intersection used to be the home of Edwards Books.

  66. March 8 pic: Queen and Roncies of course, but…
    Did you hear the one about the mounted police officer who’s horse droped dead on Roncesvalles? He draged the horse’s body down to King St. so that he wouldn’t have to figur out how to spell “Roncesvalles” on the report.

  67. I guessed Queen & Roncy, knowing full well it could’ve been somewhere else – there have been so many grand old bank buildings torn down in Toronto (as well as streetcar tracks torn up) that I was going by the layout of the streets rather than specific buildings, etc.