A Trip to the St. Lawrence Market & Toronto Islands

Despite serving us the wettest summer on record, the weather gods have been surprisingly cooperative during my European friends’ vacation. On August 12, 2008 brilliant sunshine awoke us and it was time for another local adventure. We took the subway downtown to Union Station where I gave my visitors a glimpse of Toronto’s most historic railway station. From here we walked east along the historic townhouses of Front Street that today house a variety of cafes and retail stores. Naturally, the triangular Flatiron Building, or more properly called the Gooderham Building, was a major attraction along the way. It was built in 1892, ten years before the famous Flatiron Building in New York City.

Our first destination was the St. Lawrence Market, Toronto’s largest market. We met renowned Toronto historian, writer and performer Bruce Bell who is an absolute expert on Toronto’s history as well as the official historian of the St. Lawrence Market and various other landmarks in the city. Bruce explained that from 1845 to 1899 today’s market was originally the first permanent city hall of Toronto and the location of Police Station #1. Even today part of the original building is preserved under the steel canopy of the market hall which was constructed in 1901.

We started with a look at the former council chambers which today hold the Market Gallery. Then we explored the merchants on the main and lower floor of the market and got some tasty tidbits, including Canadian back bacon, different types of mustards, various delicious varieties of honey and some sample brownies. In the basement we checked out the areas that remain of the former jail. We also saw the infamous women’s prison dating back to the mid 1800s.

After a short stroll through the North Market we headed into St. Lawrence Hall, a historic meeting hall dating back to 1850 whose history illustrates the severe tensions between the British Anglican elite and the Irish Catholic immigrants during Toronto’s early days. For a number of years it was the home of the National Ballet of Canada and continues to be used as a venue for weddings, conferences and special events.

Our next stop on the itinerary was St. James Cathedral, built in 1844 according to a Gothic Revival design and featuring Canada’s second tallest church spire. This impressive cathedral is a National Historic Site and seat of the Anglican bishop of the Diocese of Toronto. Bruce provided us with great insight into Toronto’s history, a Toronto long before multiculturalism.

Bruce took us back via the Sculpture Garden to Front Street where he said goodbye. We continued our downtown explorations through BCE Place, one of Toronto’s most distinctive buildings. We stopped for lunch at the Renaissance Hotel which is part of the Rogers Centre where we enjoyed a lunch of mixed tapas, overlooking the preparations of the field inside Toronto’s multipurpose stadium. After lunch we headed over to the Steam Whistle Brewery, located in the John Street Roundhouse, a railway facility built in 1929. I always applaud architectural preservation, and this unique building certainly deserves to be preserved.

With our mood enhanced by a couple of free samples of beer, we strolled south to Harbourfront and made our way to the Ferry Terminal at the foot of Bay Street. I took my European visitors over to the Toronto Islands to show them the bucolic environment of this little archipelago that offers such a perfect vista of Toronto’s skyline. Having landed at Centre Island, we enjoyed a nice stroll to the pier on the south side and walked east to Wards Island. I also showed my friends some of the permanent island homes on Algonquin Island where we chatted with a local resident.

Towards the end of the afternoon we headed home in the subway, after another exciting day of Toronto explorations. Distributed by Tubemogul.