Where is this?
UPDATE: Chris gets this right: It's Papineau Ave., looking north at the Des Carrières overpass. A (really smelly) staircase connects the two streets for pedestrians who don't want to walk all the way to Rosemont and back. But only for one side of Papineau. The other side is boarded off because the stairs are in an advanced state of decay.
A stairway underneath the Iberville underpass?
Also known as the Tunnel of Death when it intersects with St. Joseph Blvd...
Papineau, going under the train tracks from the Plateau to Petit-Patrie.
I second this guess.
Papineau street, facing north between St-Gregoire and Rosemont
Papineau at Des Carrieres
Wooooo!!!
Oh, I missed this one. What a ghastly underpass. I used to take it a lot when I lived on Chabot between Laurier and Masson, often heading up to "Italo" superette or Iasenza. The staircase was much smellier and more menacing when it was all enclosed.
That's funny. I always thought that "Tunnel of Death" was my personal nickname for the St. Joseph/d'Iberville tube. Always noted the occasionally renewed bunches of flowers at that one pillar, presumably to memorialise some dead cyclist or another.
Jack, you're right:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tunnel_de_la_mort
Wow, that's the first time anyone ever said that about one of my internet comments!
For a long time, the stairs were'nt exposed to the outside. The wall of the underpass was also the wall of staircase. But the City held some hearings about Women and the City and various safety issues were raised and as a result, some of these not-visible staircases became more visible and thus user-friendly.
St-Joseph between the Plateau and Rosemont has been called le tunnel de la mort for decades. I think it has actually been upgraded somehow.
I confess that the one in the photo is among the places I illegally ride on the sidewalk, as there are almost never pedestrians and the street is scary.
A long, long time ago, when I was five years old in 1950, I took my coaster to this tunnel on Papineau and had one helluva ride down this hill to Masson, and near where I lived on Cartier Street.
Later, these ugly cement and totally enclosed (now windowed) darkened walkups were used by local gangs as hangouts. It was scary then, and it is scary now.