Opened in 1950, this cookie and crackers factory has been supplying 550 jobs to its community for the past 60 years before it's closing for condo development. The public outrage was immense, and many workers were deeply saddened. This factory wasn't a stain on west Toronto, rather it was just 'one of those things' that everyone came to love for it's sweet smell, iconic water tower and great wholesale prices.
After my third attempt at sneaking in this west end Toronto beauty, my friend and I managed to open a old, rusted door after an exhausting mission to locate it. However accidentally, I let it slip before I managed to prop it open with something and we were trapped inside the second floor of the factory, near the location where we had confronted security on attempt #2. Before grabbing any pictures, we made our way around the complex, looking for a window we passed by on the way up to use as an escape route. While searching for this window, we had to cross a hallway littered with thousands of little shards of dried paint, and every step brought a little *crackle* with it. After climbing back up the side of the building and this time propping the same door open, I took the time to properly document our adventure.
The sheer size of this place (as well as other factories) is always astonishing. The grand vacancy of it all is something to marvel at. The next thing you begin to notice is the smell, that pungent, musty and mouldy odour that urges you to invest in buying some sort of breathing apparatus. Finally, you begin to notice the people, the ghosts, working the conveyor belts, answering phones and changing in their locker rooms. All the pieces of evidence left behind help your brain recreate the life that once thrived there. The forgotten world is more than graffiti and worn down drywall, it's a window to the past.
These images pretty much cover the entire complex, minus the cafeteria and the office sections. We managed to explore the entire thing, save for the security booth itself. We had no troubles with "Frank" until the very end, when we heard a huge *slam* followed by him checking doors during a patrol. As for the condo development, obviously nothing has happened to it yet, I heard that protests caused the property to be marked as 'industrial use' instead of 'residential use' in order to address the unemployment outcry.
Hope you guys enjoy, got a few more of these stories lined up!
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