City Daily Photo Theme Day: Streetscape

The first day of each month is a theme day for members of City Daily Photo, and for February, that theme is Streetscape. Check out how others are interpreting this theme right here.

I chose Bank Street for my take on this theme. The street is one of the major streets in the city, starting at Wellington Street across from Parliament Hill. The street departs city limits and becomes the former Ontario Highway 31, which proceeds all the way down to Morrisburg on the St. Lawrence River. I chose to go from one end to a fixed point for this theme, as I'm not going all the way down to the St. Lawrence. All of these shots were taken at various points in January.

Here at the intersection of Wellington and Bank, a look to the right gives us the West Block of Parliament Hill, where the House of Commons is presently meeting.

A look to the left gives us the Confederation Block, one of the two Parliamentary blocks west of the West Block.

Turning around gives a view of Bank Street itself. The building at left is the Wellington Building, also a government building.

A look to the right shows the Bank of Canada headquarters at right, with the Bank of Canada Museum at its base on the plaza, beneath the triangular structures. I've taken you into that museum before.

A few blocks south on Bank, this utility box is covered with historical images of a photo studio that was based on Bank Street in the late 19th century.

A ghost sign for that studio is still on the building today, with a contemporary mural below it.

Across from the ghost sign is another mural.

Another few blocks south at Bank and Somerset, we have an eyesore. Somerset House was once a pub. Years ago the present owner, a developer, was having work done. There was a partial collapse within thanks to a construction vehicle colliding with a beam, and for all the years since there has been nothing of note done with the building. And the owner? Silence, half assed excuses, and shrugs out of that bloody waste of oxygen idiot. I still think that the city should just expropriate the site on principle alone, and that every citizen of this city should have the right to punch that developer in the face.

For the purposes of this theme day, I chose to end at the Bank Street Bridge, where the street crosses over the Rideau Canal and where the Glebe gives way to Old Ottawa South. Here we have a look heading up the bridge.

A short walk up, I turned and photographed looking back into the Glebe.

Here we have a view taken earlier in the month from the top of the Bank Street Bridge, looking east over the skating surface of the Rideau Canal. This was before skating was opened up on the Canal.

And this is more recent. The west side of the bridge is bathed in afternoon light.