April 9, 2011. Westwood Theatre, at Six Points in Etobicoke. This west end Toronto landmark, closed since 1998, has been gutted and used for storage, a movie set, and a home for raccoons. It now just sits waiting for its eventual demolition and land redevelopment.
This is the view into one of the empty theatre spaces from up in the projector room.
April 9, 2011. Inside a projection room of the former Westwood Theatre at Six Points in Etobicoke. This place has been pretty much stripped bare, but it still provides an interesting high-up view into the theatres, which you don't normally get.
There's a cool bit of Canadiana here: A piece of an old Victoriaville Custom Vic 1000 hockey stick is bolted to the wall, which I only noticed after taking a closer look at the photo a day after shooting it. Victoriaville hockey sticks are no longer made. Due to their strength and rigidity, I've seen busted hockey sticks find second lives in bike trailers, fence posts, benches, and more.
April 9, 2011. A set of fire extinguishers inside of the abandoned Westwood Theatre at Six Points, Etobicoke.
April 9, 2011. California has the "Hollywood" sign, Etobicoke has the "Westwood" sign. Though not nearly as monumental, this former theatre's rooftop sign is a bit of a landmark in Toronto's west end. As condos sprout all around the Six Points interchange (where Kipling Ave, Bloor, and Dundas Streets all meet and tangle into a pile of asphalt), the Westwood Theatre sits vacant and stripped of most of its interior, waiting for the land to be redeveloped. The Ontario government was planning on building a new provincial courthouse here, but this plan was scrapped in the most recent budget.
On Saturday, I went with some fellow photographers for a peek inside...