Streets April 2013

Took a trip through the Griff the other week to check out some old haunts. With all the construction going on in the area I was curious to see what kind of activity there has been on the walls below Notre-Dame. And as it appears there is not much happening east of Guy, but I was able to flick a few shots here and there. At least five new condo complexes are going up in the area, the towering silhouettes of construction cranes have become familiar additions to the sky line looking out towards Five Roses. And as these new developments continue to go up, so to will the efforts of the building management, and in turn the borough offices, to remove any undesirable or non marketable individual or group from the area that may impede on the living conditions of the newly established occupant population. And so it goes.

Some of these efforts can already be seen with the fencing up of areas underneath the highway on/off rampsand the installation of new video surveillance cameras in ans around the construction sites. Wellington Tunnel is directly across the street from one of the development projects. Besides the continued pad locking of the gates to tunnels and the wielding of additional plates and bars to the gate area to impede the entrance into the tunnels, nothing has been done to keep anyone from the area. It is also out of sight, next to and below Notre-Dame street. There seemed to be a bit of smoldering smoke coming from out of the main tunnel so I did not go in. It was also pad locked. There was some guy squatting in one of the adjacent tunnels. I asked him what was going in the tunnel, if there was a fire burning in there. He didn't seem concerned, and said that he knew nothing of it. I told him to watch himself and be careful and went on my way.

 

The old switch house is still closed up too. I think there is someone squatting in that area too. I saw several others squatting under the area right across the street from the spot that was fenced up leaving me to question what criteria is used to determine what area is controlled over another. Anyway, not much there anymore except a dusty parking lot and a lot of fence. I used to live in the Griff a little before all of this development started, and although I can appreciate the need to develop older areas of the city, I guess I just miss my old Griffintown.Not many flicks of the area so I through in a few from elsewhere I grabbed recently. More to come.

Stay posted.

VC Tunnel Revisted

The Wellington Street Tunnel was constructed in the early 1930s as an alternative to the CN Wellington Swing Bridge just a little ways down. Meant primarily as a connector between both sides of the canal, the tunnel fulfilled the important function of getting goods, merchandise, and supplies to the city from the port, it also helped to interconnect Montreal and its surrounding and developing residential (like Verdun) and industrial areas (like Cote-St. Paul). Here are a couple of shots I grabbed from some heritage site online.

As you can see this was quite the undertaking back then. The tunnel had a pedestrian walkway on one side and was the main thoroughfare of street cars and other vehicles at the time. Abandoned in 1994 for security and safety reasons, the tunnel system remains locked up and now covered in graffiti, a silent reminder of a time passed.

 

I've only been frequenting this area for a little while now, but it's definitely one of the more interesting for me as I have only had the opportunity to enter into the tunnel a few times, and when I have I have not gone in that far because of a lack of equipment or by the time I get there my camera is dead from a day long flick mission. I tried making a couple of specific mission plans for this spot but it seems it's always locked up or re-barred whenever I do. Although, a couple of times over the last few months I've gotten in thanks to some folks who either a) left the main gate open, or b) somehow parted the bars on the side so I could slip in. But didn't have a good flash light on me and my camera flash can only take me so far. I even went in with an external flash, but again, that can only take you so far.

In my research of this area I've come across some interesting stuff. Back in October 2009 there was some sort of art show that took place complete with rows of candles for internal lighting and small groups of guitar and bongo playing hipsters. Urban Exploration Montreal went in a couple of times over the past decade but they never really went the extra distance to show off some good shots of the interior and graff that's in there. Other interested parties have also used the tunnels for photo shoots such as suicide girls (a very interesting shoot indeed) and other artists and photographers.

These are my shots over the last few months all bundles into one update. There isn't a whole hell of a lot of pics like most of my other posts, namely cause this spot hasn't changed a whole lately. So the shots above are just quick updates from outside the tunnel. I guess this post is more of the shots I got from inside the tunnel.

In any case, I plan to go back at some point to map this spot out entirely so keep posted for those shots hopefully in the near future.More from October through December coming soon.