Walking the City: The many faces of Alderwood
On Saturday we walked Alderwood, one of the walks we're doing this fall as part of the Writer in Residency, designed to get people thinking, talking, and hopefully, writing about their city. I had only a rough route in mind and hoped people would contribute their thoughts along the way. They did. Here at our first stop people remembered a bar and convienence store in a currently vacant building, things that otherwise tend to go unrecorded. In just about 1.5 hours, we saw some varied landscapes. All photos by Phyllis Jacklin
Deeper into the neighbourhood we passed by Alderwood's variety of housing types, most built in the couple decades after the war, including many wartime houses like this one above.
Part of what makes Alderwood interesting is how much industry is there. Here tractor trailers unload just across from houses. It's a mix that cities used to have all over, but now we separate these things with greater distances. Here people working in a factory can actually walk to work.
There are also some modern gems in the neighbourhood, and many houses that have multiple apartments inside.
Good neighbourhoods have good pedestrian passageways and are permeable, making what might be longer distances in a car much shorter on foot.
Lots of modern design elements in Alderwood, including this church.
Like so many stripmalls around Toronto's inner suburbs, this one at the top of Brown's Line is filled with independent stores of all sort.
Neat. An old farm house made from river stone, likely from nearby Etobicoke Creek.
We all went down into the creek, a great linear park, partially forested, with fine views of Mississauga just across the water. Walking the few blocks to the park probably traced the steps of that farm family.
After a day of rain, the creek was still draining the watershed and was running quite fast.
Before heading back up out of the floodplain we walked underneath the QEW overpass to see the original 1932 concrete arches of the original bridge. When designed, the QEW was much more of a parkway than the expressway it is today.
One thought on “Walking the City: The many faces of Alderwood”
Thank you. I grew up in Alderwood and loved the “crick” down the street. Wonderful memories of spring peepers, crayfish and the calming flow of water over rocks while under a magnificent tree canopy…following it all the way under the railway tracks to Marie Curtis Park. As for the former QEW – there used to be horse farms we could visit.