The Globe and Mail

In a huge station deep underneath the junction of Bloor and Yonge streets in midtown Toronto, the city's original and busiest subway lines connect. At ground level, two of the great roads that John Graves Simcoe laid out in the wilderness 210 years ago meet and cross. There, as well, the built-up blocks of Victorian Toronto end and the once-suburban neighbourhoods of Rosedale (posh then and now) and Yorkville (blue-collar in the old days) begin. Given its history and prominence in the urban plan, you'd think the intersection of Bloor and Yonge might have gotten considerable respect over the years. It's actually gotten very little, and today, despite waves of development, this hectic crossroads is charmless and ugly, hemmed in by recent bad towers and old dilapidation.