Ontario Abandoned Places will be rebranded as Ominous Abandoned Places

Symes Transfer Station

Repurposed Industrial in Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Apr 10 2010

 |  461
 |  0
Recent status Repurposed
Location # 1366

I am revoking all information pertaining to how to get into the building, I went this weekend and were shot at by individuals with pellet and paintball guns also came across a group of teenagers partying on top of one of the buildings who were extremely loud and intoxicated, throwing beer bottles to the ground below, good way of ruining this place for the rest of us!!

From MississaugaExplorer, Fall 2014: In an industrial neighborhood so watch out for people working nearby and people who own the plot. Cool giant empty rooms inside with a basement level with multiple staircases leading down. Some equipment like a giant scale, fire hoses and hooks on the walls. Tool box. Boiler rooms and old machinery and furnaces. Graffiti peeling off the walls give it weird colour mixes inside. There is a pretty easy way in if you dont mind crawling.

From NGT: The Symes Road Incinerator (later the Symes Road Transfer Station) is a classic of Torontonian art deco architecture. Built in the 1933/1934 as a trash incinerator for the west side of Toronto, it was converted in 1977 to a transfer station for landfills outside the city. It remains one of the prime examples of Art Deco architecture in the city, and a reminder of the industrial heritage of the (now mostly redeveloped) Junction/Stockyards area. At some point in the 1980s or 90s, the twin smokestacks that were originally part of the site were demolished, but the remaining structures remain more-or-less the same way as when they were built (minus a thick layer of pollution obscuring the original white stone). Today, both the Incinerator itself and the garage behind it (built at the same time) sit dilapidated, having been sold by the city sometime after 2011 to a private developer. They're heavily boarded on the ground floor (and climbing is emphatically NOT recommended, unless you feel like breaking your neck on the other side), and there's graffiti everywhere. Access to both buildings is hit-and-miss, so visit often to see where the local vandals have broken through the boards (which is how I was able to get into the garage - the Incinerator itself was sealed up tight). There's all sorts of interesting graffiti, both inside and out, as well as evidence of a fire, but the building is otherwise empty.

The biggest hazard with this place is simply the cameras - the ones attached to the side of the next building over are actively monitored, and I thought I spotted some in the bushes as well. The parking lot is also used as a turnaround for trucks servicing the nearby meat packing plants, so be careful not to get spotted. When I visited, part of the fence had been knocked down by a truck (but that may have been fixed by now).

This building has now been repurposed into The Symes Event Venue. (kat666g, 2018)

Comments

Please log in to leave a comment

 • 

11 years ago

Spoke to the "caretaker" of the building and he actually gave me the number of the owner to ask permission to enter and take a few pictures. He encouraged me to call and said he'd likely let me in. Sadly he didn't answer, but I left a message. Apparently a music video was shot there as well last Saturday. This will require some follow up....

 • 

11 years ago

Neat old building, I thought this place was gone long ago, along with the stock yards, (boy that place looks different). Their used to be a tannery across the street as well

 • 

11 years ago

This location is so colourful!

 • 

12 years ago

Any chance someone would be willing to privately message me and let me know how to get inside? I have been there before to take pictures, and could not find a point of entry.

 • 

12 years ago

"It's only teenage wasteland".