Toronto is Canada's largest city — and its abandoned places are as diverse as its history. A decommissioned coal-fired power station on the Lake Ontario waterfront large enough to contain 12 Parthenons. A ghost subway station sealed beneath Bay Street since 1966. A former psychiatric hospital campus where 4,000 patients once lived. Here are 5 of the best abandoned places in Toronto, selected from our Abandoned Places Map Canada — 2,500+ GPS locations across Canada.
Why Toronto Is a Hidden Gem for Urban Exploration
Toronto's urbex landscape is defined by the tension between one of the fastest-growing real estate markets in North America and the extraordinary industrial and institutional heritage left by a century of Canadian urban expansion. Sites that would be demolished in months in any American city sometimes survive for decades in Toronto's development pipeline — creating a unique concentration of industrial ruins, institutional campuses and infrastructure ghosts within a major metropolis.
1. Hearn Generating Station – Toronto, Ontario — 1951 Coal-Fired Power Plant, Large Enough to Fit 12 Parthenons Inside, Decommissioned 1983, Lake Ontario Waterfront (Known Location)
The R.L. Hearn Generating Station on Toronto's Lake Ontario waterfront is one of the most architecturally extraordinary industrial buildings in Canada — a 1951 coal-fired power plant whose turbine hall is large enough to contain 12 Parthenons side by side. Decommissioned in 1983, it has been used for film productions and art events but remains in substantial abandonment. The 213-metre chimney stack dominates the eastern waterfront skyline; the turbine hall, the control room and the coal handling infrastructure are intact inside the massive brick shell. The most dramatically scaled and most photographed abandoned place in Toronto.
🔗 Learn more: Wikipedia – Hearn Generating Station
2. Lower Bay Station – Toronto, Ontario — Ghost Subway Station Sealed Since 1966, Original Platform and Signage Intact, Opened for Doors Open Toronto (Known Location)
Lower Bay Station on the Toronto subway system was part of the city's ambitious 1966 cross-platform interchange experiment — trains from two different lines were meant to share the same station, with passengers crossing the platform between them. The experiment failed operationally within six months and the station was sealed in 1966, leaving the platform, signage and original subway infrastructure perfectly intact 30 metres beneath Bay Street. TTC has used it as a training facility and film location; it has been opened to the public at Doors Open Toronto in 2007, 2013, 2018 and 2024. The most historically unusual and most hauntingly intact abandoned place in Toronto.
🔗 Also read: Top 5 Best Abandoned Places in Canada →
3. Lakeshore Psychiatric Hospital – Etobicoke, Ontario — 1890 Kirkbride Campus That Held 4,000 Patients, Original Ward Buildings Still Standing on Lake Ontario Shore (Known Location)
The Lakeshore Psychiatric Hospital in Etobicoke was built on Kirkbride principles in 1890 — the central administration building with bat-wing ward extensions, a working farm and the therapeutic waterfront setting on Lake Ontario that Victorian-era psychiatry believed would cure mental illness. At its 1950s peak the campus held 4,000 patients. Closed in 1979 and now partially occupied by Humber College, significant original ward buildings remain in various states of preservation on the lakefront campus. One of the most architecturally extraordinary and most historically significant abandoned places in the Toronto area. Exact location available on our Abandoned Places Map Canada.
4. Abandoned Toronto Industrial Warehouse District – 1890s-1920s Brick Warehouse Complex, Cast-Iron Columns and Original Loading Docks Still Intact, Junction Area (Exclusively on Our Map)
Toronto's Junction and West End warehouse district grew with the city's late 19th-century industrial expansion — multi-storey brick warehouse buildings with cast-iron structural columns, freight elevator shafts and railway loading dock infrastructure serving the manufacturing economy that made Toronto the industrial capital of Canada. Several blocks retain unrenovated warehouse sections alongside the gentrification happening elsewhere in the district. One of the best abandoned places in Toronto for late Victorian and Edwardian industrial warehouse photography. Exact location available on our Abandoned Places Map Canada.
5. Abandoned Toronto Scarborough Industrial Complex – 1950s-1970s Manufacturing Plant, Assembly Hall and Office Block Still Standing, East Toronto (Exclusively on Our Map)
Scarborough's post-WWII industrial expansion created a belt of 1950s-1970s manufacturing plants — automotive parts, electronics and consumer goods production that employed tens of thousands of Toronto workers before deindustrialization hollowed it out. A surviving 1950s-1970s Scarborough manufacturing complex retains the original assembly hall with its sawtooth roofline, the administration block and the loading bay infrastructure of mid-century Canadian industrial production at scale. One of the best abandoned places in Toronto for post-war industrial architecture photography in the suburban east end. Exact location available on our Abandoned Places Map Canada.
Safety Tips
- Asbestos: universal in pre-1980 Toronto industrial and institutional buildings — always wear an FFP2 mask in any enclosed space
- Development pressure: Toronto's real estate market moves fast — always verify a site's current status before visiting; sites can change from abandoned to active construction site within weeks
- Never explore alone — always bring at least one other person
The urbex code applies everywhere: "Take nothing but photographs, leave nothing but footprints."
❓ FAQ
What is the most famous abandoned place in Toronto?
The Hearn Generating Station on the Lake Ontario waterfront — a 1951 coal-fired power plant whose turbine hall is large enough to contain 12 Parthenons side by side. Decommissioned in 1983, the 213-metre chimney stack still dominates the eastern waterfront skyline.
What is Lower Bay Station?
A ghost subway station beneath Bay Street, sealed since a failed cross-platform interchange experiment was abandoned after six months in 1966. The original platform, signage and subway infrastructure remain perfectly intact. Opened to the public at Doors Open Toronto events in 2007, 2013, 2018 and 2024.
What was Lakeshore Psychiatric Hospital?
A Victorian Kirkbride psychiatric campus built in 1890 in Etobicoke on Lake Ontario, holding 4,000 patients at its 1950s peak. Closed in 1979; now partially occupied by Humber College with significant original ward buildings still standing on the lakefront campus.
🎯 Summary
Toronto's abandoned places range from a waterfront power station large enough to fit 12 Greek temples inside, to a ghost subway station sealed beneath Bay Street since 1966 and a Victorian psychiatric campus on Lake Ontario where 4,000 patients once lived. Each of these 5 urbex sites in Toronto captures a different chapter of Canada's largest city — and the extraordinary things it built and forgot.
Abandoned Places Map Canada
- ✓ 2,500+ GPS locations across Canada
- ✓ Exclusive locations not found anywhere else
- ✓ Instant access after purchase
- ✓ Free updates forever
19,99€
Explore All Locations →
