Brick baby! That's what I'm gonna throw upside yo' head

[flar]

Landsdale
Hamilton, Ontario

Landsdale is an old working class neighbourhood in Hamilton's inner city. The neighbourhood features a great variety of late
Victorian townhouses and semi-detached packed tightly together. Landsdale is largely intact and has a relatively impressive
(for being mostly single homes) population density of 18,211 per square mile(7,030 per sq km) over approximately sixty blocks.

Satellite view:














King Street East







Tiny cottages



There are also some larger houses








but most are regular houses







_


King Street again





A few apartments here and there, but this is a neighbourhood of houses for the most part







The density comes from the houses, they're really packed in













A narrow little street



Some odd looking flat roofed houses



There are some rowhouses in Landsdale, but they don't predominate







This is a neat looking little row





Barton Street runs through the north end of Landsdale











Some little houses









Not all the streetscapes are uniform







There is a Carribean population in this neighbourhood



Intricate masonry and other details abound in this neighbourhood


_










Plenty of churches, typical for old working class neighbourhoods



General Hospital



New heart and stroke research centre under construction



Some areas have a hodgepodge of early housing





A few more larger houses







More rowhousing











Big semi-detached

[Kingofthehill]

You already know...

[Jibba]

Fantastic. Hamilton's housing never fails to delight. Gotta love brick.

[dugdogmaster]

Awesome . Reminds me of.....oh, what's that city in southwest PA?

[Top Of The Park]

seeing all the old brick.....makes me wonder how old the heaters are inside

[KevinFromTexas]

The red brick - is it quarried locally? Hamilton seems to have so much of it.

[robk1982]

Hamilton (and flar's photography skills) never ceases to amaze me.

[xzmattzx]

Great pictures!

[TinChelseaNYC]

I agree with your estimation of this row:



Nice set.

[giallo]

I love me some brick. Especially Hamilton brick captured by flar.

[Thundertubs]

I like it.

[highwater]

Another eye-opening tour! Wonderful to see how well kept so many of the houses are.

The row with the mansard roofs reminds me of Cabbagetown.

[omro]

How awesome! From the phototours that convinced my mother and I that Hamilton had lots to offer, both my brother's house and my mother's potential future house made it into a Flar phototour!!

Great tour. I have to say, having spent time in that neighbourhood, I really like it!

[flar]

^^
It is getting harder to find grit in this neighbourhood lately, there have been a lot of restorations and cleaning up in the last couple years. I've changed my estimation of Landsdale, I think the housing stock is strong enough that eventually it will come back, and eventually the retail on King and Barton along these stretches might come back too, but that could be many years off.


Here is an example of the kind of restorations going on in Landsdale.

Here is a shot taken in 2006


Same building last week:

Originally Posted by KevinFromTexas

The red brick - is it quarried locally? Hamilton seems to have so much of it.

I don't know for certain, but the red-orange colour of the brick here must come from something in the soil. I know that many of the cities and towns west of Hamilton have a very distinctive light yellow brick--likely a different type of soil. I imagine that (at least 100 years ago) brick was made locally, since it would have been difficult and expensive to transport it long distances.

[Sekkle]

great thread, flar. Excellent work as always.

[denveraztec]

I bet brick was the saving factor if fires broke out with these homes. So close together and anything but brick would have seen the whole block consumed. Great pics as always!

[kcexpress69]

I see a lot of St Louis in this thread, even though St. Louis has more flat roofed buildings!! Love this thread!! I like Hamilton more and more!!

[JivecitySTL]

That city is built like a brick shithouse!

[photoLith]

I hope those blocks are protected somehow. Are they? It looks absolutely fascinating to live there.

[emge]

Originally Posted by flar

Landsdale

I often take walks through this neighbourhood - it's one of my favourites for the mix of potential, affordability, and renovations being done. (Those odd-looking flat-roofed semis on Smith Ave have many with recent windows, doors, etc from the outside: that street's also "cut off" from Barton on the one side and has some smaller bungalow-type homes the next street over on Leeming, as well as a few on Wright (that runs parallel to Barton between Leeming and Smith).. I think seeing those two streets in a few years will be quite different judging by the renos I'm seeing on Leeming as well.

About the picture above -- Does anyone know what this building is/was to the left of here? (edit: it's the one you can only see a tiny corner of in this picture, but it's really quite large.)

I have a thought that I saw it up for sale a couple years ago as a former garage, but that could have been another listing

It looks awful from the outside, but there's a couple new windows and a new door -- some parts look like it can't be lived in, but the new parts don't look cheap or like stopgap measures. The mix of neglect and repair is strange.

It certainly has potential though. I love thinking about how places like that can be converted into great living or live/work spaces.