View From a Forgotten Street
On an evening of urban exploration with Kate McDonnell (Urbanphoto contributor and la bloggeuse from Montreal City Weblog), we approached Notre-Dame by way of more southerly side streets, where Griffintown and the Cité Multimédia meet up under the elevated portion of the Bonaventure expressway, aka University.
Of interest is the CCUM building at the bottom of Nazareth Street; I expect many people taking the Via trains or the expressway wonder what it is, and I was surprised to discover that it’s a gas-fired district heating plant. It provides steamy goodness to Central Station and the CN building, Place Ville Marie, 1000 de la Gauchetière, the Queen Elizabeth hotel and the Sun Life Building among others.
Just about 180 degrees to the left of the shot above is an interesting collection of older greystones intermingled with what appear to be houses, as well as one of the oldest blacksmiths in the city (now closed and/or turned into a museum). Sadly most of these back laneways are becoming access ramps for surface parking lots, but there’s still a lot to see down there.
If you’re walking along Duke Street, pay attention to the lampposts; some artist in the 1990s banded several of them with metal straps imprinted with lines of poetry, that otherwise look like the normal straps that would hold municipal signage in place. There’s also, all around the Duke Street Investments building, several illuminated billboards with an ever-changing array of surreal photo art.
Tags: Exploring the City, Griffintown, Montreal, Street Art
Factotum says:
I blogged a photo of the old blacksmith shop here
http://moblog.co.uk/view.php?id=182637
What’s this about its being turned into a museum?
December 11th, 2006 at 11:09 am
Christopher DeWolf says:
Your post inspired me to wander around Griffintown this afternoon, but I missed both the blacksmith shop and the Duke Street art. I did, however, find some great views of the Farine Five Roses sign.
December 11th, 2006 at 11:32 pm
Donal Hanley says:
It’s on St-Paul by the corner of Duke, just to the east of the autoroute. That part east of the autoroute seems to be, faute de mieux, part of the Cite du Multimedia now, with Griffintown, proprement dit, being restricted to what was the part of Griffintown west of the autoroute.
December 12th, 2006 at 11:54 am
Factotum says:
Over the last several months, I’ve been blogging photos of the Farine Five Roses sign from the streets around my studio. I’ve tried to put the photos together in one place here:
http://moblog.co.uk/view.php?id=211818
http://moblog.co.uk/view.php?id=211944
http://moblog.co.uk/view.php?id=211945
December 12th, 2006 at 8:06 pm