One of Toronto's oldest surviving laneways — a narrow cobblestone cut between Corktown rowhouses that dates to the 1850s. Climbing roses, old gas lamp remnants, and the sound of the city completely shut out. A time-travel moment.
Neighbourhood: Corktown · Address: Gilead Place, Toronto, ON (off King St E) · Hours: Open 24 hours · Price Range: Free · Editorial status: Not yet verified
Step into a preserved pocket of 1850s Toronto, where original cobblestones, climbing roses, and lingering gas lamp fixtures offer a break from modern city noise. It’s a rare street for anyone into urban photography or architectural oddities.
Most Toronto laneways are paved and forgettable, but this one still has its original stonework and physical traces of pre-Confederation streetscapes. The complete silence from traffic makes it feel miles from King Street, despite being right in the city core.
Evergreen Brick Works Quarry is one of those places that makes people stop mid-sentence and go, wait, this is in Toronto? You’re standing in the Rosedale Valley, a few minutes from traffic and condo towers, and suddenly there’s this flooded former quarry with sheer brick-clay walls dropping into still green water. On a calm morning, the reflection is so clean it almost looks fake. It’s not a huge, dramatic wilderness in the way people imagine when they think of nature escapes, which is exactly why it’s so striking. The city feels weirdly close and completely absent at the same time. The quarry sits behind Evergreen Brick Works, and if you go early, before the crowds and school groups show up, it feels quiet in a way that’s rare in Toronto. You’ll hear ducks fussing around near the reeds, maybe catch a great blue heron standing so still it looks planted there, and if you’re lucky, spot a fox slipping along the edge of the trail. Birders love it for obvious reasons, but even if you don’t know one duck from another, it’s still a beautiful place to slow down and look around properly. Bring binoculars if you have them, or better yet a long lens if you’re into photography. The birds usually aren’t close enough for your phone to do them justice. What makes the quarry so photogenic is the contrast. The water has that deep, slightly opaque green wetland colour, and the quarry walls rise up in layers that catch the light differently through the day. In autumn, it gets especially good. The trees around the rim go yellow, orange, and rusty red, and those colours bounce off the water and the clay face in a way that feels almost overdesigned. Early morning is still the best time if you want soft light, fewer people in your frame, and better odds of seeing wildlife actually doing something besides hiding. It’s also a place where people actually linger. Some walk the boardwalks and trails with coffee, some stop for photos for ten minutes and leave, and some keep going north into the Don Valley trails and turn it into a proper nature walk. That’s the move if you’ve got time. The trail connection is easy, and once you head farther in, the city drops away even more. Wear decent shoes if it’s been raining, because parts can get muddy, and don’t expect total solitude on weekends. This is a free spot, open daily from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM, and plenty of people know it. Still, even when it’s busy, the quarry has a kind of hush to it. People lower their voices without meaning to. It doesn’t feel polished or staged; it feels reclaimed, a little odd, and genuinely beautiful. If you want one of the city’s best nature photo spots without leaving Toronto, this is it. The address is 550 Bayview Ave, and yes, it’s absolutely worth getting there early.
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