Dundas Street West runs past unrenovated brick storefronts to the rail crossing that gives the neighbourhood its name.
What The Junction looks like
cross near the middle of the Junction, where two and three storey brick storefronts line Dundas, most dating from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries with round arched upper windows over the shopfronts. At Keele Street, the is a three storey red brick building with a scrolled roofline reading Campbell Block 1888.
Dundas Street West dips into an underpass at the main intersection, where the West Toronto Diamond carries the Metrolinx Weston corridor through a trench on four tracks beneath the CPKC line. A lattice steel water tower rises behind the roofline at the corner of . Stock Yards Village, a shopping centre anchored by SportChek and Winners, occupies part of the old stockyards site at Weston Road and St. Clair Avenue West.
, a red brick synagogue with a round stained glass window and a Star of David at the roofline, stands a few blocks south of Dundas. anchors the Little Malta stretch of Dundas Street West. The is a red brick Carnegie building with paired columns over its entrance, and a former Presbyterian church nearby, with a copper spire, is now condominiums called .
A laneway behind Dundas Street runs between a cinderblock building faced with ivy and a wall painted in wide colour bands, a basketball hoop mounted over a garage door. At Annette Street and Keele Street, cars queue at a crosswalk under traffic lights, a red brick building on one corner.
Shot in The Junction
Police Academy filmed its recruits' urban riot training scene at Dundas Street West and High Park Avenue in 1984, standing in for an unnamed American city street.
Police Academy, 1984
The corner of Dundas and High Park
Played an unnamed American city street
The recruits' urban riot training exercise is triggered when Fackler carelessly tosses an apple from a squad car at the corner of Dundas Street West and High Park Avenue. The bar seen in the scene is gone. Its site is a Domino's Pizza today.
What The Junction can double for
West Bottoms in Kansas City, Missouri
West Bottoms carries the same brick warehouse and rail siding combination as the Junction, since it grew up around Kansas City's own stockyards. Multi storey brick blocks line streets that still cross active rail spurs at grade. West Bottoms' warehouses run taller and wider than the Junction's two and three storey storefronts, so a wide establishing shot gives away the scale difference. Try searching brick warehouse rail siding now.
James Street North in Hamilton, Ontario
James Street North carries the same two and three storey brick commercial blocks as Dundas Street West, from the same building period. A rail line crosses nearby at grade, the same combination that gives the Junction its name. Hamilton's storefronts run a little taller in places and the street is wider, so closer framing keeps the two matched. Try searching brick commercial block rail now.
Stockyards National Historic District in Fort Worth, Texas
Fort Worth's Stockyards district keeps its own brick commercial blocks beside a working rail line, the same rail and storefront combination as the Junction. The buildings there run wider and the signage leans more openly western. Tighter street level framing avoids the wider lots and western style signage that would give Fort Worth away in a wide shot. Try searching stockyards brick storefront block now.
