[URBAN NOTE] Roncevalles Village, Again
Jul. 10th, 2006 11:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rfmcdonaldInstead of getting off at the Dufferin TTC station this evening after work, I opted instead to get off the subway two stops west at the Dundas West TTC station and to make my way to Roncesvalles Village for only the second time since my February visit. There was a brief period of disorientation after I disembarked from the Dundas streetcar and wound my way into a residential district, but kind pedestrians' directions soon steered me back.
The street didn't look that different, the differences between a February evening's cold darkness and this July evening's overcast warm brightness. It rained throughout my hour-long walk south on Roncesvalles and east along Queen, but the rain was light and warm enough to be enjoyable. On the west side of the street, storefronts on either side of the Revue Cinema (400 Roncesvalles Avenue) had advertisements for the ongoing campaign to save the from permanent closure. Just a block down, the excellent Alternate Grounds coffee shop (333 Roncesvalles Avenue) beckoned.
When I reached the Warmia Deli (301 Roncesvalles Avenue), named after the Polish province of that name, I knew that I was now in the territory of Polonia, the Polish diaspora. Roncesvalles Village has been a heavily Polish area since at least the 1940s, as evidenced by (among other things) the location of the national headquarters of the Canadian Polish Congress (288 Roncesvalles Avenue), the presence of St. Stanislaus - St. Casimir's Polish Parishes Credit Union Limited and the substantial complex around St. Casimir Roman Catholic Church, the various Polish book stores, delis, and video shops, and the substantial Polish-language collection held by the High Park branch of the Toronto public library system. Rick Bébout's writings on Toronto's Polish community provide what seems to be a good overview of the dynamics of Roncesvalles' Poles, if you're curious about this community's history.
Forty minutes after I began my walk, I reached the southern terminus of Roncesvalles a further twenty minutes' walk west of my residence. There, where the red-fringed street signs of Roncesvalles give way to the yellow-fringed signs of Parkdale, where King Street ends, and where
urban Queen Street West meets with the decidedly suburban/periurban Queensway, I bid adieu to the neighbourhood. I really should go back there, and in less than five months' time.
The street didn't look that different, the differences between a February evening's cold darkness and this July evening's overcast warm brightness. It rained throughout my hour-long walk south on Roncesvalles and east along Queen, but the rain was light and warm enough to be enjoyable. On the west side of the street, storefronts on either side of the Revue Cinema (400 Roncesvalles Avenue) had advertisements for the ongoing campaign to save the from permanent closure. Just a block down, the excellent Alternate Grounds coffee shop (333 Roncesvalles Avenue) beckoned.
When I reached the Warmia Deli (301 Roncesvalles Avenue), named after the Polish province of that name, I knew that I was now in the territory of Polonia, the Polish diaspora. Roncesvalles Village has been a heavily Polish area since at least the 1940s, as evidenced by (among other things) the location of the national headquarters of the Canadian Polish Congress (288 Roncesvalles Avenue), the presence of St. Stanislaus - St. Casimir's Polish Parishes Credit Union Limited and the substantial complex around St. Casimir Roman Catholic Church, the various Polish book stores, delis, and video shops, and the substantial Polish-language collection held by the High Park branch of the Toronto public library system. Rick Bébout's writings on Toronto's Polish community provide what seems to be a good overview of the dynamics of Roncesvalles' Poles, if you're curious about this community's history.
Forty minutes after I began my walk, I reached the southern terminus of Roncesvalles a further twenty minutes' walk west of my residence. There, where the red-fringed street signs of Roncesvalles give way to the yellow-fringed signs of Parkdale, where King Street ends, and where
urban Queen Street West meets with the decidedly suburban/periurban Queensway, I bid adieu to the neighbourhood. I really should go back there, and in less than five months' time.
