Abandonment Issues: Wellington Destructor

This is a true story, sad as it is. Such is life.

Our protagonist is a homeless man, a hoarder, that has amassed a mind boggling collection of garbage in the form of all the unwanted stuff and things you can imagine, and littered the old abandoned Wellington Destructor with it. The same building that used to house and burn Toronto's garbage is once again filled with trash.

The Wellington Destructor was constructed in 1925 in Toronto's Liberty Village and immediately began burning the cities residentially collected garbage. It was one of several local incinerators responsible for decades of immense and repulsive levels of air pollution.

Now closed for several decades, the once empty Destructor is home to our protagonist and his ironic garbage collection. Even in the chaos though, everything is seemingly in it's rightful place.

The odour is more pungent and disgusting than anything I have ever encountered at any abandoned building. And trust me that is saying something. You wouldn't believe it, unlike anything I'd ever experienced. Pigeon shit covers everything in certain areas and the smell of decomposition is truly overpowering, causing a burning sensation in my nose and eyes.

The stench stayed with us all day, never letting up.

Sadly, numerous stray cats and kittens are living amidst the nastiness.

Needless to say, we didn't stay inside for long and I didn't stop to take many photographs. I was so taken aback by the odour that I just couldn't shoot. I froze up and wanted to just see it all and get the fuck out.

Organized chaos is the best way to describe it. But the photos tell the story much better than I can.























Fresh air never tasted so good.



This is definitely one of the saddest stories I've ever told. My heart goes out to our protagonist, as well as the kitties, and I'm sure yours does as well.

But I can't just leave you on a sad note again, so come on a road trip to Montreal, Quebec, with us and explore another abandoned incinerator, Incinérateur Dickson.

click here to check out all of jerm & ninja IX's ABANDONMENT ISSUES

Abandonment Issues: Polish House on the Hill

The Polish House on the Hill was one of our first finds upon moving back to Ontario from Vancouver, BC in the late summer of 2010. At that time, we approached only to discover that the old house on the hill was quite securely sealed up. Peering through the windows though, we realized this was more than just your average abandoned house. It looked as though someone just walked away and left most of their families belongings behind. Or maybe something more ominous, we wondered aloud. The vibe was sketchy and gave us both an uneasy feeling, so we scurried off like field mice, Ninj and I.

On many subsequent visits over the past 4 years we were dealt the same hand of bad vibes and sealed tight, so we folded and trudged away in defeat time after time.

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing repeatedly and expecting a different result. Yeah, well, much like it did at the Rockwood Insane Asylum, our insanity eventually paid off at the Polish House on the Hill and my brother and I found it accessible on a nondescript day in a time that seemed forgotten.

Much like the fascinatingly jam packed Time Capsule House featured in the previous post, which was trapped in the 1970s, the Polish House on the Hill is a time capsule in itself, trapped in the 1980s.

As a child raised in the 80s, exploring this house was like travelling back in time. Many of the items uncovered were like replicas from my own childhood.

My brother and I picked up and dusted off He-Man figures that we used to play with as kids, cracking jokes about our own memories of Skunkor and Moss Man.

As I lifted up a copy of The Wonder Book of How and Why: Guns from a tabletop, my brother excitedly proclaimed over my shoulder "Dad used to have that!"

"The tape collection looks just like yours did back then." I joked back at him and we read off almost every musical act trapped at the height of their careers in an old plastic cassette case on the living room floor.

We reminisced as much as we explored. The house itself was nothing special, it was the contents that made this a unique opportunity to look back in time.

Once again, due to the amount of valuables remaining inside, I will not divulge any information about the location specifics or family history.

Come on in and visit a long gone yeterday.























































































Thanks for time travelling with us to the Polish House on the Hill. Now if you'll excuse me, I must finish packing for our 2nd annual rooftop campout at the long abandoned Burwash Industrial Prison Farm, deep in the woods up north.

click here to check out all of jerm & ninja IX's ABANDONMENT ISSUES