Apparently the Canadian Post Office decided this design was a good way to deter graffiti artists – it seems to work.

I have come to Canada to visit Newfoundland, but I started with 2 nights with distant relatives in Toronto, so that is what this post covers. It was my second visit to Toronto, but the first was for less than 24 hours, so this was my first opportunity to get a reasonable look at it.

Toronto was founded by the British in 1793 as York after they ‘bought’ the land from the Mississaugas under the so called ‘Toronto Purchase’. They soon built and garrisoned Fort York at the entrance to Toronto Harbour. Colonists began to arrive shortly thereafter. Until then the French had fur trading posts in the area, and, of course the ancestors of the Huron-Wendat had lived in the area for over 2,000 years.

It became the City of Toronto in 1834. There were major fires in 1849 and 1904, so nothing much is left of any great age, as it would have been mainly built of wood.

I was staying in the suburb of North York and we walked and took the subway to the centre (Downtown).

This is all that is left of the former North York Town Hall –  totally overpowered by the apartment blocks that now dominate the area.

As is this church on Bloor Street in the centre of town.

This was once on a street of similar houses of the wealthy, but is now ‘preserved’.

Manufacturer’s Life Insurance Head Office

Some of the 20th century buildings still exist. This belongs to a very very wealthy insurance company, and is surrounded by immaculate gardens.

There are several shopping malls in the centre of town, mostly up-market. This is part of the most attractive one as it has a domed glass roof. The sculpture is of Canada geese.

There were very few customers in any of the malls, and the malls without the very top international brands had some empty shops. The centre of Toronto looks to be overprovided with shopping malls post Covid, as so many former full time office workers are working from home most of the time now.

This is the unchanged magnificent former Railway Hotel.

Can’t remember what the building behind is, but this is pretty much all that is left of the 1960s development of the city.

Turning right from the previous photograph you can see the former City Court House. No-one seems to have any idea what to do with it now. No-one wants to use old buildings as offices any more, and it is apparently not suitable to be turned into either a hotel or housing.

Toronto is set out on a grid pattern of streets, and the Downtown is no exception. It does make navigation easy. Winters are very cold, so they have developed an entire underground set of walkways for the Downtown. These were meant to mirror the streets above, but the system is far more complex than that. Often it changes level by a floor or even half a floor. New buildings are required to connect directly with it, but the rules are ill defined, so they connect pretty much as they like!

This is the whole system. Streets are in white, underground walkways in blue. It also connects to the subway and mainline railway. It covers a huge area. There is no need to emerge into fresh air at all. Montreal has a similar but much smaller underground network.

This is an enlargement of the central Financial area.

After that we went up the CNN Tower, the most identifiable landmark in Toronto. It is so tall (620 metres / 2,034 feet) that there was nowhere to take a photo of it from. The best view would be from a boat on Lake Ontario. It was opened in 1975, and is a communications tower. I am told that the very top has a light which changes colour to provide a weather forecast. Green means good weather and white indicates snow is about to arrive. There are other colours as well.

Had to wait over 5 minutes to take this photo, due to the number of Japanese tourists standing in front of it taking each others’ photos.

Even out of season there was a queue for tickets and an even longer queue for the lift.

The lifts are necessarily small, and move extremely fast. They have large windows and the Tower is not completely surrounded by concrete, so you can see the view as you go up and down. The top section rotates very slowly and includes dining facilities. The following photos were all taken from that level.

The islands just offshore are mostly artificial having been created from the earth dug out for the foundations of the many skyscrapers. They are now trying to turn them into wildlife reserves. Some people still live out there, but they have 99 year leases which will not be renewed.

The skyscrapers below often have over 70 floors, so they are very tall, but look like toys.

The railway still runs close to the coast.

The large artificial island is an airport for small turbo prop planes. There is a tunnel to it for access, and a small ferry. When I return from Newfoundland, I am flying with the airline that uses this airfield. They take you by coach to a set point on the mainland. Should be fun!

The green space is a park surrounding the remains of Fort York.

Once away from the Downtown, Toronto stretches a long way across flat land. The population of the city is about 3 million, but the urban area is larger as it includes other substantial towns.

The traffic in Toronto is dire. Every intersection on the main roads is controlled by traffic lights, so, except for places where they have elevated highways, it is constantly stop-start. Any really useful elevated highways are toll roads.

The subway is quite good, and they are building some light railway lines (trams that run underground part of their routes). These run mostly from poorer areas to colleges and schools. They are way behind schedule. One line was about to open when they discovered that one section was misaligned by 3mm – which would have damaged the rolling stock. They still seem to be arguing about who is responsible for fixing it!

The CNNTower is undoubtedly a tourist trap. The lift down ends inside the souvenir shop. The goods for sale are quite good quality, no cheap rubbish. However the view is worth the quite hefty admission fee.

I am writing this in St John’s, Newfoundland. My first day we had wonderful weather, but I was too busy finding my way around and stocking the fridge and cupboards to take any photos. It started to rain last night, and is expected to continue tomorrow. Approaching 2 in of rain is expected over about 36 hours.

The forecast improves after that, so hopefully I will get some photos for my next post. The houses in St John’s are very colourful.