Into The Big Smoke

The Big Smoke is one of several nicknames given to Toronto, capital of the province of Ontario. When I was leaving southern Ontario from my trip, I had time before my train was due to leave, and so went for a walk, both on the surface and using the extensive PATH network that links downtown buildings beneath the ground. My path first led me to Brookfield Place, which I've never been in before.

I passed by the Ed Mirvish Theatre on Yonge Street. It dates back to 1920. At the time of my visit, a production of Anastasia was playing. While I admittedly liked that animated movie, would it be so hard for theatre producers to come up with original works as opposed to adapting movies or putting together a story based on a rock album?

No, that's just too much work.

Just up the street is Yonge-Dundas Square. It is in my opinion the most hideous piece of real estate in the country: garish billboards everywhere, visual clutter. I didn't notice until I was putting this post together that the old Sam the Record Man sign, which once stood nearby here, now stands on a building rooftop here.

These two shots are inside the nearby Eaton Centre mall.

The geese sculpture set is at one end. Flight Stop is an installation by Michael Snow.

Here we have the city's war memorial, standing outside Old City Hall.

Old City Hall is now used as a courthouse. It stands near the present City Hall, and is here in the background at Nathan Phillips Square. The reflecting pool presently hosts skating.

Here we have a view of the present city hall. I vastly prefer the architecture of the old one.

Moving along, I passed by Osgoode Hall nearby. Its origins date back to 1829, and today it houses courtrooms and the offices of the Law Society of Ontario.

I took another shot of it on my way back from the furthest point I'd gone to.

University Avenue is one of the big north-south roads of the city, and it's close by. Here in the centre of the avenue is a monument for the South African War, with the grand Canada Life building to the left. This monument was designed by Walter Allward and dedicated in 1910. A decade later he would set to work on his masterpiece, the Vimy Ridge memorial in France.

Older And Newer

Picking up where I left off, the Four Seasons Centre For The Performing Arts is home to the Canadian Opera Company and the National Ballet of Canada. I passed by it walking back towards the City Hall area. Posters for upcoming productions were on a wall.

I came back to Nathan Phillips Square, the space out on the south part of the Toronto City Hall complex. From here I photographed Old City Hall from a different angle, with the reflecting pool at left. The square is named for a former mayor of the city (and may such an honour never be bestowed upon the late crack smoking boozehound former mayor of the city, Rob Ford, who at last report was burning in hell, complaining about the lack of crack, prostitutes, and booze).

Then I moved a few metres further and photographed New City Hall with the Toronto sign. No doubt this same view is photographed millions of times in a given year. 

There's a stage set up in the square. A couple of performers were on it while I was here. There were a good more people in the square than this shot might let on.

I still vastly prefer Old City Hall. The architecture is more appealing. There's more of a sense of history to this building, of grandeur. A ghost story or two lying within certainly adds to all that.

A war memorial stands out on the south side of the building commemorating those who have fallen in war and in military service.

Some of the details in the architecture are astonishing. Have a look at those faces up near the top of this shot.

Back in the Eaton Centre, this shirt in a shop caught my eye.

And in a nearby subway station, bas relief carvings were on the walls. Tomorrow we have a look inside the Church Of The Holy Trinity.

Three Landmarks

Continuing on with my wanderings around Toronto. This is Old City Hall, a Romanesque civic building that housed city council from 1899-1966, and which today serves as a courthouse. It stands near the New City Hall, which is far less picturesque. 

A short walk away lies Osgoode Hall, which has its roots dating back to 1828 as a law school, and also serves in other legal capacities, hosting courts at a higher level and a law library. It has been expanded on over time. 

To the west lies University Avenue, a wide street that hosts a number of monuments on the traffic islands that make up the middle of the street. Here, with the iconic Canada Life Building at left, is the South African War Memorial, designed by Walter Allward, who years later would create the Vimy Memorial in France.

A historic plaque is near the base commemorating Allward. Apparently it contains a mistake, as Emanuel Hahn  actually studied under him as opposed to the other way around.

Geese Within The Mall

In the Eaton Centre downtown in Toronto, a flock of Canada Geese have been suspended for many years above the various levels of the mall.

These are fibreglass sculptures by the artist Michael Snow, collectively called Flight Stop. 

The geese are life sized.

Another view of Old City Hall in Toronto, taken from the side of the new City Hall (a.k.a. the place where a certain notorious crack smoking drunkard mayor shows up from time to time and acts like a child throwing a tantrum).  Old City Hall is built in the Romanesque Revival style, and dates back to the end of the 19th Century. Its continued use today as a courthouse is a good thing; I like the look of the building, whereas the present modernist City Hall is a product of its time (the Sixties were not a good time for architecture, let's just put it that way).

The carvings around this door caught my eye downtown in Toronto as well. This is the entrance into a branch of the Canadian Imperial Bank Of Commerce. We tend to call it the CIBC, just as we've taken to shortening all bank names in the last twenty years.

Architecture In Toronto

I still happened to have some shots from my trip down to southern Ontario in December and January; I thought I'd spend the remainder of the month getting those out of the way before moving onto other things. Yes, it's odd seeing snow for many of you this time of year, but I'm stretching it out as long as I can, hoping we see snow again in September. August if we're lucky. July if we're really lucky.

These two shots are in the same courtyard near the Royal Ontario Museum; they are buildings on the campus of the University of Toronto.

This is the skating rink at Nathan Phillips Square, in front of City Hall. Skaters were on it in late December when I took this shot. The dramatic looking building beyond it is the Old City Hall, now used for court purposes. Rumour has it, it's haunted.