The Infiltration zine, founded by the late Ninjalicious, a.k.a. Jeff Chapman, was a pioneering journal of the urban-exploration movement. Since Chapman’s death from cancer in 2005, the website www.infiltration.org has been maintained by his widow, EYE WEEKLY’s Liz Clayton, herself an accomplished urban explorer. Clayton gives us a few of her favourite secret Toronto places:

CITY HALL ABANDONED OBSERVATION DECK
The CN Tower may afford you one hell of a view, but some of Toronto’s best — and least known — city views have been shuttered to the general public for some time. City Hall’s east tower (pictured above) boasts incredible, open-air panoramas of the city from the gently arced 27th storey of Viljo Revell’s masterpiece (now only usable by the common folk during Doors Open Toronto). Somehow having a view this special sitting abandoned atop the seat of our local government is terribly sad, as if Toronto is ashamed of itself, or prefers to have wild rooftop parties without us.

COMMERCE COURT NORTH ABANDONED OBSERVATION DECK
A few blocks east of City Hall’s secret observatory, atop what was formerly the tallest building in Canada, art deco stunner Commerce Court North is an even bigger aerial charmer. The 32nd-floor overlook wraps the whole perimeter of the delectable building. The viewing area is cramped, but with good company: massive human faces ascend from four pillars on each side of the building, carved proudly to represent such 1930s banking ideals as courage, observation, foresight and enterprise. From this intimate relic, it’s easy to trace the amazing growth of the downtown business core: Commerce Court North itself is eerily reflected in adjacent sister CIBC towers, while the ’60s Mies van der Rohe TD Centre towers rise up looming in the east.

THE SLIGO
Underwater is a good place to keep a secret, and just south of Parkdale — by which I mean, in Lake Ontario — are two of Toronto’s most fascinating sunken places. The Sligo, which rests not far from the foot of Roncesvalles, went down in a 1918 storm while on a mission to deliver rock for the old King’s Highway, which would later become the QEW. Divers can see original instruments on the Sligo, which has been well-preserved by the waters’ zebra mussel population and contained by some of the ship’s original cargo — very large rocks.

THE JULIA B. MERRILL
Just a football field away from the Sligo lies the Julia B. Merrill, a bluff-bowed ship built to manage the Welland Canal, one of hundreds of ships constructed as part of a federal ship-building program in the late-19th century. The Merrill has less original detail to see — what with her sinking being the result of an intentional ship burning, rather than a perfect storm. The CNE used to just burn down ships for entertainment every year off the shores of Sunnyside Park. What fun! Relive the destructive memories by visiting, or imagining, the Merrill, languishing in charred wet timbers on the lake floor, after having provided so much joy to so many one August 70 years ago.