Wandering Through Downtown

The Armoury in Guelph is a Gothic Revival structure built in the first decade of the 20th Century. Across Canada at the time, armouries were being built for militia drill halls in towns and cities. This one is still very much used today, and I took this shot at dawn.

Like most cities and towns across the country, Guelph also has a war memorial downtown, honouring the dead of two World Wars, the Korean War, and military service.

I have seen monuments in small villages; if a local died during military service, even a hamlet would erect a cenotaph. The plaques marking the names of deceased soldiers from the area show that many here in Guelph served and died in the World Wars. As memory serves, in Korea, a single local resident was among the Canadian dead of that conflict.

Changing pace, but still downtown. This is a retail complex now called Old Quebec Street. It was once referred to as the Eaton Centre Guelph, invoking the architectural style of the mall in downtown Toronto. Stores inside began to fail over time as new retail was built elsewhere in town, and it might have been tempting to tear the whole thing down. Instead the owners restyled the entire thing.

Now there is retail on the ground floor, offices on the second floor. The retail shops have more of an eclectic feel than before, and the interior has been redesigned to give the shopper more of a street feeling, which, in fact, it once was, before the previous mall was built. The place is also linked to an arena, and it seems to have worked well in giving this part of the downtown a boost.

Take a wild guess where I have no problem stepping into.

I'm finishing off today with a view of downtown Guelph from some high ground. Tomorrow I'll take you inside where this shot was taken from.