Islington Village Murals in Etobicoke, Toronto: A Walking Guide

Start at the corner of Dundas and Islington. The Welcome Mural at 4800 Dundas Street West is by John Kuna and dates from 2011. It is painted on the bridge at Islington and Dundas W. and welcomes people to the Village of Islington. Nearby, Everyone. Everywhere. is by Arts Etobicoke and Creative Village and dates from 2013. It was produced in partnership with Creative Village Studio, Amnesty International Toronto, Red Dress Productions and StreetARToronto.

At 4868 Dundas Street West, John Kuna painted this one in 2014. The BIA says the Islington Golf Club course was designed by Stanley Thompson, who went on to design 140 golf courses world-wide, and eighteen holes were ready for play by August 1924. Our smile of the walk: a small boy has found distraction in a stray frog while a group of golfers waits to play.

At 4879 Dundas Street West, John Kuna painted this in 2010. It is a light-hearted portrayal of a committee that advised the minister’s wife on decor and made periodic inspections to make sure the residence was kept acceptably clean. The wall appears cut away to give a three dimensional view inside the building.

At 4889 Dundas Street West, this 2010 mural is credited to Arts Etobicoke, Susan Rowe Harrison, William Lazos and Etobicoke youth. Arts Etobicoke produced it as part of its participation in Amnesty International’s Project: Urban Canvas, a mural series celebrating the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It brings poetry to the village with a specially commissioned poem by Dionne Brand.

At 4909 Dundas Street West, John Kuna painted this in 2013. It celebrates the ethnic and cultural character of Islington as it has changed over the last century, through faces and traditional design patterns of fabrics from all four continents.

At 4968 Dundas Street West, John Kuna painted this in 2008. It is based on a photo from the Islington Archives at Montgomery’s Inn. In the 1940s the dairy was a popular hang-out for area youth, and Gordon’s horse-drawn milk wagons were a familiar sight on Islington streets.

Two murals stand opposite each other. The Way We Were, Islington ~1900 is at 4972 Dundas Street West and dates from 2005, and Islington The Way We Were, Part II ~1912 is at 4984 and dates from 2006, both by John Kuna. They flank the plaza like bookends, creating a historical diorama. Look at the first one from the sidewalk: the sidewalk in front of the shops becomes the footpath in the mural.

At 4988 Dundas Street West, this 2007 mural is by John Kuna. Each winter in the 1940s and 50s the fire brigade diverted water from Mimico Creek to flood Central Park, creating a huge skating rink just south of Dundas W. Volunteers once played dance music and served hot chocolate and treats from a window like the one in the mural.

At 4994 Dundas Street West, John Kuna painted this in 2008. In 1944 Harold Shipp convinced a Lancaster bomber pilot to fly over the school’s football field and drop hundreds of leaflets, a few of which could be traded for tickets to the school dance. A rogue wind scattered them across the market gardens near Montgomery’s Inn, and excited football fans stormed the field and trampled the carefully tended cabbages. We love this one.

At 5048 Dundas Street West, this 2011 mural is by John Kuna. A satellite branch of the Royal Conservatory of Music was located in the building from the 1950s through the 1980s, and the mural includes a copy of a manuscript by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in the bottom left corner.

Three murals form a wildlife-themed set. Butterflies Are Free at 5090 Dundas Street West is from 2018 and makes a tapestry of patterns from eleven different butterfly species. Fishing in Mimico Creek at 5096 is from 2012 and includes largemouth bass, rainbow trout, pumpkinseed sunfish, common shiner, white sucker and blacknose dace. The BIA invites you to look for the common snapping turtle, the leopard frog tadpole, the diving beetle, the crayfish and the dragonfly nymph. Flight of the Passenger Pigeon at 5101 is from 2018, and the BIA says the pigeon after which Mimico was named was the passenger pigeon. All three are by John Kuna. The name story continues in our Mimico guide.

At 5110 Dundas Street West, this 2007 mural is by John Kuna. The Guelph Radial Line linked Islington to communities from Lambton Mills to Guelph between 1917 and 1931, and Islington was a destination for family outings and weekend picnics. The mural is painted in a style reminiscent of old postcards.

At 5126 Dundas Street West, John Kuna painted this in 2009. It depicts what was once a functioning sawmill on Mimico Creek, whose mill pond became a favourite swimming hole for generations of young Islington residents. The painting takes a fanciful look at the swimwear of earlier times.