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rfmcdonaldThe Toronto Star, CBC, and Urban Toronto all highlighted the very particular changes which hit Bathurst station at the beginning of the month. Stefan Novakovic's Urban Toronto essay does a great job of introducing these.
On Tuesday, I went visiting the station, disembarking on the eastbound platform, going up to the street level, exploring the street level, and then heading back down to the westbound platform, photographing as I went.
Past the red-sweatered Ken Bones, and however many groups of 'kids from Stranger Things,' the title of Toronto's most memorable Halloween sight might just belong to Bathurst Station's belated turn as Honest Ed's. Decked out over Halloween night and into the morning, the first day of November saw the walls of the station transformed into a loving and lighthearted homage to the iconic retailer.
Unveiled today, the tribute will last as long as the store itself, remaining in place until Honest Ed's serves its last customer on December 31st of this year. In 2017, the store will make way for Westbank's celebrated and lambasted redevelopment, while the station will eventually reveal a more modestly scaled permanent installation remembering the one-of-a-kind store.
Across the station, windows, walls, and wayfinding signs are kitted out in the store's endearingly outdated fonts. Paying tribute to the work of long-serving sign painters Doug Kerr and Wayne Reuben, the signs—which are vnyl scans of painted lettering—offer transit-themed themed adaptations of Ed Mirvish's wordplay. "OUR TRAINS ARE SMART: THEY'VE BEEN TO COLLEGE AND UNIVERSITY," a sign reads. "OUR PRICES AREN'T JUST GOOD, THEY'RE FARE."
On Tuesday, I went visiting the station, disembarking on the eastbound platform, going up to the street level, exploring the street level, and then heading back down to the westbound platform, photographing as I went.
