All my explorations of Toronto during the past one or two years I have learned that as well as countless top-class sights and attractions, Toronto has many less popular nooks and crannies that are full of history, engaging stories and stories. One of the best folk to learn from about the twists and turns of Toronto's history is Bruce Bell, a well-known writer, playwright, actor, standup comedian who is also a keen historian and has turned into one of Toronto's most well-recognized history experts.
The story of how I met Bruce is also quite intriguing: my bro, who happens to live in Austria, was reading a German travel mag that was featuring a tale about Bruce, so he called me up and announced that there is this guy that is doing all of these neat walking tours thru Toronto and that is how I connected with Bruce - thru an EU detour. Over the past couple of years I have taken two of his tours, covering the tourist area and featuring a culinary exploration of Toronto's famous St. Lawrence market. I have always enjoyed the experience and wished to do another tour with Bruce for some time.
Well, I figured it was surely time for more entertaining and informative explorations of Toronto; this time it was going to be Chinatown-Kensington, one of Toronto's most colourful and fascinating neighbourhoods. So I called up Bruce and said let's do another tour. To share the experience I brought out 6 of my buddies and we met yesterday at 6:30 pm at one of Toronto's modern architecture icons: the OCAD Building at 100 McCaul Street, just south of the University of Toronto campus.
The OCAD Building, I call it the "gift box on stilts", is part of the 2004 redevelopment of the Campus of the Ontario University of Art & Design. The Pointed Centre for Design has a singular "table top" structure which has quickly become one of Toronto's most familiar landmarks.
We met in the Butterfield Park area, surrounded by the stilts holding up the table top of this unusual 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, a member of one of early Toronto's most notable families who owned about 2000 acres of land in the area. The classical mansion reflects the English architectural traditions of the 18th century. Today, the Grange belongs to the Art Gallery of Ontario and is in the act of being remodeled and integrated into the AGO's Frank Gehry-led redesign.
The story of how I met Bruce is also quite intriguing: my bro, who happens to live in Austria, was reading a German travel mag that was featuring a tale about Bruce, so he called me up and announced that there is this guy that is doing all of these neat walking tours thru Toronto and that is how I connected with Bruce - thru an EU detour. Over the past couple of years I have taken two of his tours, covering the tourist area and featuring a culinary exploration of Toronto's famous St. Lawrence market. I have always enjoyed the experience and wished to do another tour with Bruce for some time.
Well, I figured it was surely time for more entertaining and informative explorations of Toronto; this time it was going to be Chinatown-Kensington, one of Toronto's most colourful and fascinating neighbourhoods. So I called up Bruce and said let's do another tour. To share the experience I brought out 6 of my buddies and we met yesterday at 6:30 pm at one of Toronto's modern architecture icons: the OCAD Building at 100 McCaul Street, just south of the University of Toronto campus.
The OCAD Building, I call it the "gift box on stilts", is part of the 2004 redevelopment of the Campus of the Ontario University of Art & Design. The Pointed Centre for Design has a singular "table top" structure which has quickly become one of Toronto's most familiar landmarks.
We met in the Butterfield Park area, surrounded by the stilts holding up the table top of this unusual 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, a member of one of early Toronto's most notable families who owned about 2000 acres of land in the area. The classical mansion reflects the English architectural traditions of the 18th century. Today, the Grange belongs to the Art Gallery of Ontario and is in the act of being remodeled and integrated into the AGO's Frank Gehry-led redesign.
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