This photo gives the essence of the Downtown area of St John’s, which is the original settlement dominated by the port. That is a French ship (note the helicopter), but many different ships were moored there during my stay.

Old St John’s was built mainly of wood, and has suffered many fires over the years. Water Street, the main shopping street is now mostly 1960s and 1970s buildings of little character, and on the harbour side there are tall modern buildings, some hotels, some Government offices, a Convention Centre, an ice hockey stadium and assorted financial offices as well as City Hall.

The City of St John’s has a population of about 115,000, with the surrounding metropolitan areas doubling that figure.

The Downtown is not very attractive and is an odd mix ranging from some quite upmarket shops via local craft shops to empty shops and homeless people. It is an excellent place to buy gear for outdoor adventures for all seasons, but has little for everyday living. The main shopping areas are several miles away in modern malls on flatter land in areas that are very like the USA.

The land rises steeply from the harbour in little streets of colourful houses. They are known as ‘Saltbox’ or ‘Jelly bean’ houses, the latter name from their colours.

This is part of Cabot Street, which runs parallel to the harbour quite a way up the hill.

The streets running uphill are very steep indeed. This one is probably at least 1 in 4 for at least part of its length. Downtown is definitely not an accessible part of the city.

Many of their pavements are ‘ribbed concrete’ like this, essential for grip in icy weather.

There are 4 or 5 parallel streets up the hill before the slope eases.

I was staying in the yellow house on Flower Hill (not a flower in sight nowadays, though the houses do have small back gardens). The copper building is Government offices. It was quite convenient as the buses were only a 5 minute walk away, but it was a 20 minutes walk uphill to the nearest supermarket. Apart from supermarkets and the occasional bakery, nearby there were only cafes servicing the offices, a ‘corner shop’ and a Dollarama, which sells household products, party stuff and a little food.

This was the view across the street from upstairs. Everywhere in Newfoundland is festooned with wires. It saves digging up the road, but it is very difficult to take any photo without including telegraph poles and wires.

I stayed near the closed and more industrial end of the harbour. Towards the entrance the houses are larger and the streets even wider.

Whenever I walked or caught a bus uphill to the modern part of St John’s, I always seemed to pass the Old Dublin Bakery. There is no other shop anywhere near it, just houses.

Where the hill starts to ease is Merrymeeting Road and the Central Fire Station. This is one of the most important buildings as fires are frequent, even in the more modern parts of the city, as most new housing is still built of wood.

Whilst driving back from Fogo, the local radio was reporting 2 fires in St John’s, one only about 300 yards from where I was staying.

Next day I went to look, and this ple of burnt wood was all that was left of the house where the fire started.

Round the corner the much larger house next door was already boarded up. It will be costly to repair or may need demolishing. Buildings insurance must be very expensive. These houses are not very far from the Fire Station, but fires sweep through wooden buildings very fast.

There are some stone buildings, mainly churches. I never managed to find out what this one was.

The Catholic Cathedral. Many Irish Catholics came to the area in the 19th century, so much so that the local accent and dialect has strong Irish tones.

The Anglican Cathedral is smaller.

This is a former Methodist Church now converted to housing.

Scattered around are several very small parks, generally memorials. This one is to Canadian peacekeepers in NATO and UN forces.

And this was just a mini park.

There is a larger park on the harbour and a War Memorial nearby, but they were being renovated, so I couldn’t get a photo.

This is Bannerman Park near the open end of the harbour. It extends a long way back with sports facilities.

Beside it is Colonial House, the original seat of Government for Newfoundland and Labrador. When Canada was ‘created’ in 1867 it did not include Newfoundland or Labrador. They were still British colonies, and had already been granted a Legislative Assembly in 1833, which used this building from 1850 until 1959. Initially it met in a pub,, but the landlady threw them out when they refused to pay for the room they used. So they went to an orphanage and finally the Court House. The population of Newfoundland was small and there were, I think, only 15 members in the House of Representatives. There was still a British Governor, who spent a lot of the budget (and more) on a grandiose Governor’s mansion that no longer exists. Building was difficult as they insisted on this site even though it was a bog, and drainage cost a lot.

The Assembly was not without problems of corruption and disputes. There were several riots, the last on 5 April 1932.

By this time they were self governing, but not doing so at all well. The final riot was because of maladministration. Among other things the head of government was siphoning off the Welfare Fund for his own use, at the height of the Depression, so no welfare was available to the destitute unemployed. There was a large demonstration, encouraged by the local employers, which marched through the town to the Colonial House and broke in. Every window was broken and all the contents trashed. Eventually the local clergy intervened and rescued the Inspector General, the Prime Minister and members of the cabinet.

After that the British stepped back in and ended self rule. The house has been restored, partly to its original state and partly to the Edwardian period.

 

It was bi-cameral and this was the House of Representatives, restored to its original schema.

This was the Senate Chamber.

This is it’s restored ceiling. When it was being built they discovered that a Polish man who had been convicted of fraud was an expert plasterer / decorator, so they reduced his sentence on his agreeing to create this ceiling. They were very pleased with the result, but only reduced his sentence by 2 years, and they had saved a lot of money!

This is one of the British Governors. When they were granted self government, the last Governor was so unpopular that he and his family were chased down to their ship, whilst being pelted with rotten vegetables.

The buildings in the distance are The Memorial University of St John’s, built between Elizabeth Avenue, and Prince Philip Drive, way up the hill where there is flattish land. It had snowed overnight the day I took this photo, but was thawing rapidly. I went there most days to do research in the Maritime Archives, relating to one of my great uncles, and this was my favourite walking route. It took about 25 minutes uphill, but considerably less on the way back.

The University consists of 1960s and later buildings in a spread out campus.

 

The Maritime Archives are housed in the bottom floor of the Mathematics Building.

 

It is small and functional and most days I went I was the only visitor. I was looking at crew lists from 1863 to 1924 and they also have more recent ones. They are from British Registered ships and were originally in The National Archives at Kew, but they decided they took too much space and were, apparently, going to destroy them, so Memorial University offered to house them. 10% are still at Kew, mainly those for voyages ending in years ending in 5 (e.g. 1895). Those pre about 1863 are also still kept at Kew. On the desk are the crew lists for the voyages of one ship for one year. Very dusty and not very easy to read as every crew member wrote his own name, and some were not really literate. However I found lots of interesting information.

About a 15 minute walk along the dual carriageway of Prince Philip Drive is the current seat of Government of the Province of Newfoundland and Labrador.

After WW2 there was a Commission to consider the Government of the area. In 1950 in a referendum they voted to become a Province of Canada. Given their previous experience, neither self government nor independence were really viable, and at the time finance was also an issue.

Tours are sometimes available of the building, but not while I was there.

It has wonderful views and can be seen from a long way away as it is so large.

In the grounds are several memorials and three statues.

Out front is John Cabot, the founder of the European settlement, though there were plenty of indigenous people already in the area. The main ‘tribe’ was effectively exterminated, mainly by disease.

Opposite on the other side of Prince Philip Drive is Gaspar Corte-Real. He was a Portuguese navigator who reached Newfoundland first in the 15th Century. But the Portuguese just came yearly to fish and never settled. Around it are tents of homeless people, demonstrating for housing. There is another at Colonial House.

In reality I don’t think anyone knows what either John Cabot or Gaspar Corte-Real looked like!

This is the statue I came to see, of the most famous person connected with Labrador. Not a Labradorian, but born in Parkgate, Wirral, namely Sir Wilfred Grenfell. He was a medical missionary and later headmaster of Mostyn House School (now, of course closed).

I can remember being taught about both him and John Cabot at school.

This is the Geo Park of Memorial University, built into the side of Signal Hill.

Literally built into the hill!

It has displays on several topics, with a lot that is audio visual.

The Solar System, the geology of Newfoundland and Labrador, the offshore oil and gas fields, exploited since the late 1990s, corals, octopuses and other sea life all feature.

There was not much to photograph, but I spent over three hours there, mainly watching short films and reading all the detailed explanations on the displays.

It was well worth the small entrance fee.

My next post will be about the Avalon peninsula.