Caption: TTC A-11 class PCC 4640 (a secondhand ex-Cleveland car) heads westbound on Bloor Street at the very top of Spadina Avenue, as pedestrians go about enjoying their Saturday. The green ad on 4640 advertises the new West Toronto Towers (at 103 West Lodge Avenue). Passengers on the left wait for a northbound Spadina bus to head up Spadina Road, as this section of Spadina was only in use by the Harbord streetcar between Dundas and Harbord. In the background, a row of storefronts house the Bank of Nova Scotia, Varsity Restaurant, Super 'NN' Market, Tamblyn drugs, and Diplomat dry cleaning.
There are no rails here today as the streetcars on this part of Bloor were nixed a year after this photo when the new Bloor Danforth subway line opened between Keele and Woodbine in February 1966, and the present Spadina streetcar line ducks into a tunnel underneath this intersection to service the underground Spadina subway station streetcar loop. But the storefronts in the background still exist today, retaining much of their original appearance (albeit with different tenants with the exception of Scotiabank - still in the same building over 50 years later).
Original photographer John F. Bromley (or possibly Robert McMann), Kodachrome from the Dan Dell'Unto collection.
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Wow… lots going on in this scene – I like it! Classic!
Today, that Export ad would not be allowed.
Look at the whitewalls on the cars. Amazing.