From One Outdoor Cafe to Another

W.G.Ross, Alf Sherritt, and A.T.Lane at the starting point,

the Shaika Café, shortly after 10 am.  The long unused Empress Theatre is behind them.  Two goals of the trip:

1. Pilgrimage to founding site of MBC

2. Explore St. Catherine Street.  There have been many changes made over the last couple of years, including during the last few months since the CORVID-19 pandemic.

Before starting out, Alf Sherritt shows off his 50 year old Torpado bicycle, bought new at Baggio’s.

Heading east along St. Catherine, in Westmount, is pretty quiet.

Pedestrians on the south side get more room. 

Not only pedestrians?

Past Atwater, half of St. Catherine street is reserved for pedestrians.  And we are getting close.

Formerly 33 Chomedey St, this is the place where MBC was founded.  We pay our respects.  Surprisingly, there is no plaque on the building to mark this important location!  Not yet, anyway…

Nearby mural.

Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse

And then we dismount at the construction area (to the right side of the green fence).  Many shops had plywood erected around them to protect them from possible damages during Black Lives Matter demonstrations currently being held.  But the demo the day before was peaceful.

The REM station construction proceeds.  Mount Royal is watching.

The center of St. Catherine street is finished near the cathedral and The Bay.

Birks was closed.  There were also signs in the windows addressed to possible looters, that valuables had been removed from the store and there were cameras watching.

Philips Square, showing former site of much-missed public toilets (well, Alf remembers and misses them)

Near Best Buy.  Construction on left of fence, markings on sidewalk show proper waiting positions and walking direction.

Best Buy queue.

At Quartier des Spectacles, construction was done last year. 

But east of St. Laurent is another story.

And east of Berri (Gay Village) is great for walkers.

Up until a year ago, this was called Amherst St.

Pedestrian-only St. Catherine’s ends near the Jacques Cartier bridge.  The pedestrian (and cycle?)  area is widened on the left.

And this ends too, but traffic is very light.

And this is about as far as we went on St. Catherine street.

The return route took us by the Olympic stadium (on the left), with lots of room for cyclists and pedestrians on this stretch of Sherbrooke St.

Alfred Wesley Sherritt