Bruce Bell

The Christmas season in 19th century Victorian Toronto centred in and around St. Lawrence Market which back then was housed in a glorious structure on the northwest corner of Front and Jarvis.That market (the third of five to stand there ...

Bruce Bell– A few years back my good friend and neighbour the late actress Billie Mae Richard and I were strolling around the neighbourhood when we found ourselves walking through a nondescript parking lot on the southeast corner of Victoria ...

When the Toronto-Dominion Centre opened exactly 50 years ago, our city was a much different place than it is now. Even though it’s the last word in modernity, the TD Centre was built in a time when men wore hats ...

The Omni King Edward Hotel (on King St. just east of Yonge) opened on May 11, 1903 at six a.m. and welcomed its first paying guest, John A. Davidson of Chicago–who had supplied the marble for the hotel–who was shown ...

Bishop’s Block is on the northeast corner of Simcoe and Adelaide, a block west of University Ave. When first built in 1829 it was considered the finest apartment building of its day with stores on the ground floor and private ...

In 1849, wealthy landowner John Ritchey built the Royal Lyceum Theatre on King St. W. It was Toronto’s first purpose-built theatre. The Lyceum (which eventually burned down in 1875) was the largest and the first fully-equipped theater in Toronto. It had ...

The House of Providence once stood in the middle of a huge park, just south of the still-standing St. Paul’s Basilica (on Power St. east of Parliament) with which it was affiliated. It had wings three storeys tall and was ...

As a historian, I really enjoyed watching Victorian Slum House on PBS. It shows (in quiet, realistic and graphic terms) how life was in the slums of London in the 19th century. We here in Toronto also had some horrid slums ...

In 1834—and with a population of 9,000—the Town of York became the City of Toronto. Within ten years the population would more than double to over 24,000. Due to this expansion a decision was made to construct a newer and ...

The Royal Bank Plaza on the northeast corner of Front and Bay streets was completed in 1979. The twin towers have more than 14,000 windows set into brushed aluminum frames. The golden-hued glass was manufactured by Canadian Pittsburgh Industries which used 2,500 ounces (71,000 grams) ...