Converted red brick factories sit beside glass condominium towers, with the old Toronto Carpet Factory's covered bridge still crossing the street.
What Liberty Village looks like
Liberty Village sits between King Street West and the rail corridor along the Gardiner Expressway, with Dufferin Street as its western edge. Red brick former factory blocks run along East and Mowat Avenue, glass condominium towers rising directly behind and beside them.
The old complex occupies a full block along Mowat Avenue and King Street West, arched windows reaching up to fourteen feet on its upper floors and a covered bridge still crossing the street between two of its wings. Built between 1899 and 1920, the mill now holds offices and, at the Liberty Market Building on East Liberty Street, shops and restaurants set around a glass atrium.
On Hanna Avenue, the former Irwin Toy factory was converted into the in 2008, seven storeys of exposed brick and steel beamed ceilings around 213 units. Left Field Brewery runs a taproom on the ground floor at the corner of Hanna and Liberty, and Snooker Street a block over keeps the same red brick loft fronts on both sides.
, a 9,600 seat venue built in 1974, sits on King Street West near Dufferin. The , a small brick building from 1877, stands alone and vacant on East Liberty Street, and a steel pedestrian bridge crosses the rail tracks to Niagara, its elevator prone to breaking down.
Shot in Liberty Village
David Cronenberg shot Seth Brundle's abandoned loft for The Fly at 135 Liberty Street in 1985, in a building renovated since. The Vow used the Roastery Coffee House on Pardee Avenue as the film's recurring Chicago cafe, Cafe Mnemonic, in 2010.
Police Academy, 1984
The corner at Hanna Avenue
Police Academy shot its warehouse rooftop scene at what is now the Toy Factory Lofts, on Hanna Avenue at Liberty Street. Lieutenant Harris is held captive there, and Mahoney later climbs up to rescue him. The building was a working toy factory until Lanterra Developments converted it into 213 loft units in 2008.
Narc, 2002
Played Liberty Street, Detroit, Michigan, pre-gentrification, early 2000s
Narc used the same corner nearly two decades later, filming on Liberty Street and around the Toy Factory Lofts to double the block for a pre-gentrification Detroit. The production spent 27 days shooting in Toronto, with one additional day of pickups in Detroit itself.
Liberty Street, 1995
Kit Hood and Linda Schuyler of the Degrassi team created the CBC drama Liberty Street about the tenants of a fictional Toronto apartment building. The show took its name from the street itself, and both of its two seasons were shot mostly in and around Liberty Village.
Yaletown's brick warehouse blocks sit beside glass residential towers built through the 1990s and 2000s, the same combination of converted mill buildings and new towers found here. Yaletown's loading docks and cast iron balconies read differently up close, so a wider street shot holds the match best. Try searching brick warehouse block now.
Fulton Market's meatpacking era brick warehouses carry the same round arched windows as the mills here, with new office towers built along the same blocks. Fulton Market keeps cobbled loading bays and rail spurs at street level that read differently underfoot, so keep the camera on the upper floors and facades. Try searching brick warehouses arched windows now.
Ancoats' Victorian cotton mills use the same red brick and arched window construction as the blocks here, from a similar industrial era. Ancoats keeps its chimneys and canal frontage in frame more than the mills here, so a tight facade shot holds the comparison best. Try searching red brick mill facade now.
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