Bell in Brief: Demolition gutted glorious Toronto Street

Toronto Street (one block west of Church between King and Adelaide streets) reached its zenith as an architectural jewel the same time the British Empire did in 1897 during Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee celebrating 60 glorious years of her reign.

A scant 60 years later the street hit rock bottom when its crowning glory The General Post Office—without question the most elegant and perfectly proportioned building Toronto ever knew—was demolished. The rest, as stunning as anything London ever built, were unceremoniously destroyed as part of the “modernization” of Toronto known as Urban Renewal in the 1960’s.Toronto Street

There are only three buildings left standing on Toronto St. from that era: the Seventh Post Office at #10, the Consumers Gas Co. building at #19 and the Loan and Trust building at #25.