Museum Subway Station Toronto

Jul 20, 2016

The photographs are nothing special but the Museum subway station on the Yonge-University TTC line at Bloor and University in Toronto is spectacular.

This subway station always looks great but on a recent civic holiday it was almost deserted and looked even better than usual.

Photograph of the unique columns and pillars featured in the design of Museum Station in Toronto.

Museum Station opened in 1963 at Queen's Park at Charles Street West, and across the street from Royal Ontario Museum (where it gets the name).

Photograph of the unique sarcophagus-like columns at Museum Station in Toronto.

It originally used the same color scheme as was standard on the Bloor-Danforth line – plain cream-coloured tiles, rectangular in shape, predominanted with a strip of blue tiles near the ceiling. The station name was sandblasted to the wall and painted this same color of blue using the unique TTC font.

Photo of the sarcophagus and Easter Island-like columns at Museum station in Toronto.

Major renovations to the station's platform area were completed in April 2008. The changes were designed to evoke exhibits at the nearby ROM (Royal Ontario Museum)

Photograph of Museum Station in Toronto showing the interesting pillars and columns.

The many supporting columns in the station were remade to resemble exhibits that might be found across the street at the Royal Ontario Museum – the ancient Egyptian deity Osiris, Toltec warriors, columns like those found in the Parthenon, China's Forbidden City columns, and First Nations homes.

Photograph of Museum Station in Toronto, a subway station unlike any other in the city.jpg

The changes included completely removing the original tile scheme from the subway platform. The walls were then covered with mauve aluminum plate panels, with inset Lexan to display the large "MUSEUM" station names. The Lexan panels feature a historical hieroglyphic inscription from the ROM.

Museum Station on the Yonge-University subway line in Toronto.