All my explorations of Toronto during the past few years I have been taught that in addition to many world-class sights and attractions, Toronto has many less well-known nooks and crannies that are full of history, interesting stories and yarns. One of the very finest people to profit from about the twists and turns of Toronto's history is Bruce Bell, a well-known author, playwright, actor, standup comedian who is also an obsessed historian and has evolved into one of Toronto's most well-recognized history professionals.
The story about how I met Bruce is also quite intriguing: my bro, who happens to live in Austria, was reading a German travel magazine that was featuring a tale about Bruce, so he called me up and recounted that there's this guy that is doing all these neat walking tours through Toronto and that is how I connected with Bruce - through a Western european detour. Over the last 2 years I have taken 2 of his tours, covering the central area and featuring a culinary exploration of Toronto's famous St. Lawrence market. I have always liked the experience and wished to do another tour with Bruce for a bit.
Well, I figured it was definitely time for more entertaining and informative explorations of Toronto; this time it was meant to be Chinatown-Kensington, one of Toronto's most vibrant and entrancing neighbourhoods. So I called up Bruce and announced let's do another tour. To share the experience I brought out six of my buddies and we met yesterday at 6:30 pm at one of Toronto's modern design icons: the OCAD Building at 100 McCaul Street, just south of the School of Toronto campus.
The OCAD Building, I call it the "gift box on stilts", is an element of the 2004 redevelopment of the Campus of the Ontario College of Art & Design. The Sharpened Centre for Design has a singular "table top" structure which has speedily become one of Toronto's most familiar landmarks.
We met in the Butterfield Park area, encircled by the stilts holding up the table top of this astonishing building. From there we headed west into a green space that features Toronto's oldest house: "The Grange" was built in 1817 for D'Arcy Boulton Jr, an affiliate of one of early Toronto's most outstanding families who owned about 2000 acres of land in the area. The classical mansion reflects the British architectural traditions of the 18th century. Today, the Grange belongs to the Art Studio of Ontario and is in the act of being renovated and integrated into the AGO's Frank Gehry-led redesign.
The story about how I met Bruce is also quite intriguing: my bro, who happens to live in Austria, was reading a German travel magazine that was featuring a tale about Bruce, so he called me up and recounted that there's this guy that is doing all these neat walking tours through Toronto and that is how I connected with Bruce - through a Western european detour. Over the last 2 years I have taken 2 of his tours, covering the central area and featuring a culinary exploration of Toronto's famous St. Lawrence market. I have always liked the experience and wished to do another tour with Bruce for a bit.
Well, I figured it was definitely time for more entertaining and informative explorations of Toronto; this time it was meant to be Chinatown-Kensington, one of Toronto's most vibrant and entrancing neighbourhoods. So I called up Bruce and announced let's do another tour. To share the experience I brought out six of my buddies and we met yesterday at 6:30 pm at one of Toronto's modern design icons: the OCAD Building at 100 McCaul Street, just south of the School of Toronto campus.
The OCAD Building, I call it the "gift box on stilts", is an element of the 2004 redevelopment of the Campus of the Ontario College of Art & Design. The Sharpened Centre for Design has a singular "table top" structure which has speedily become one of Toronto's most familiar landmarks.
We met in the Butterfield Park area, encircled by the stilts holding up the table top of this astonishing building. From there we headed west into a green space that features Toronto's oldest house: "The Grange" was built in 1817 for D'Arcy Boulton Jr, an affiliate of one of early Toronto's most outstanding families who owned about 2000 acres of land in the area. The classical mansion reflects the British architectural traditions of the 18th century. Today, the Grange belongs to the Art Studio of Ontario and is in the act of being renovated and integrated into the AGO's Frank Gehry-led redesign.
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