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Year: Opened in 1882 and closed in 1982. That's right, one hundred years of brick making.
Location: Toronto, Ontario.
Status: Abandoned, and used occasionally as a drunkards haven. You might even find someone walking their dog there. The site has been declared a heritage grounds and thusly should be around for some time to come.
Accessibility: The land of the old brickworks is wide open for all to see and walk around on -- the place was deemed a "natural environment and cultural heritage park." As for the buildings themselves, well, they are surrounded by a fence. If you're lucky you might find the tiny break in the fence that makes your day just peachy keen. All that isn't to say that the fence will be a great obstacle to overcome, but we all know how nice it is to not have to jump a fence or roll under it.
Hazards: One of the most dangerous aspects of the Brick Works would probably be the asbestos and silica, or so the city would like us to think. If you're careful about those things you should be alright if you also watch for falling bricks or decaying catwalks. Some of the floors in these buildings make my hair stand on end as well. It's really something you have to see to get what I am talking about. The wood creaking should be nothing when you see that there is cement underneath you, but it's the crumbling cement and broken reinforcement bars that scares me.
Like any site if you are careful and acknowledge the dangers of UE you should be fine, but if you're not don't come crying to me; I warned you.
Interesting features: The plant has been out of service for over two decades now yet still has many different types of machinery in it -- that I am not about to try and name -- as well as the interesting and often disturbing remnants of passers-by. In my mind the best feature of this plant is the ruins that you will no doubt see if you make it too the roof.
It's hard to put into words the type of ambience that the grounds and buildings hold. Well, that and if it were to be put into words I would hope that someone far more eloquent than I would do it.
On that note, the buildings are alluring beyond your average industrial building. You will like it, I am sure.
Recommendation: If you choose to check this place out please be respectful. I have seen far too many kids drunk around this place. Smashing bottles and littering are a few of the lest destrucive things that they do. :/
Assuming that you're a responsible UE'er, or just responsible, be careful of the aforementioned dangers and keep your eyes out for any animals or people there. The last time I went a man was sitting by a fire on top of a hill and didn't even turn around as we walked up to him. Well it scared me. -_-
It is worth the trip out, I would go in the day as the place isn't a whole lot to see from the outside at night. What more can I say than it's nifty and worth a look?
April 26th, 2003
Behold the Brick Works photos.
On a cold raining night after the local 2600 meet many of us decide to make our way to a nearby brick factory. I had first head about this place from someone who posted a message in our guestbook asking if any of us had information on. It turned out that some of Flame0ut's old friends had filmed a movie for a high school project there. Later on Avatar-X would visit the plant and finally lead the way when WiZDoM, Flame0ut, myself (and a few others) went. Av.X told us that there wasn't much to the building but we had might as well go see it for lack of anything better to do at the time. Once we arrived we more or less walked right in and got our stuff together and went on. The place wasn't giant by any means but it had a lot of nifty machinery and the like inside.
Eventually we found ourselves on the other side of the building and in-front
of a door that seem to lead out to grounds surrounding the building we were
in as well as a few others in the distance. A few of us wandered out and
found that there was another building and it was actually quite interesting.
We all ran around that building for sometime and of course roofed it. The
floods were wood and concrete sloppily patched together and disgustingly
fear instilling to walk on. There aren't stairs, per se, to the roof -- it's
really more of a ramp running from the second story, if you'd like to call
it that, to the top of the building with a little machine room on-top with a
door to the main roof.The second building we went into was filled with soil, wood, nails and brick remnants, which made walking for the non-boot clad difficult to say the least. We soon found that the building was very much worth it, what with the aforementioned roof et al. Once everyone was finished looking around there we decided to make our way out as the weather was getting rather nasty and many of us had a long drive home. On our way out we looked into a few other buildings a long the way and found that the two buildings we were in were probably in the best state of repair. Fallen bricks scattered across the floors of buildings were everywhere. The place has beautiful ruins within itself. I'm not sure what it is about the place that makes it so enchanting. Perhaps it is the nature of the bricks being drawn back into the Earth. The cycle bringing to complete it's self as the buildings fall victim to the natural forces that will in the end take down every building like it. The place that worked so hard and so diligently for over one hundred years to build up cites it on of the first to go, to show us what has only just begun. But I digress.
The building is something to see. I might even write about the second visit shortly. ^-^ Please do check out the brick works image gallery.
-Asher Archive
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