Heritage in the Core

London's Planning and Environment Committee has received  a demolition request for 199 Queens Ave., an attractive Italianate with a large ugly addition. The owner, Farhi Holdings, apparently has plans for the site. Note the building is a Priority 2 structure on London's Inventory of Heritage Resources and is located within the proposed Downtown Heritage Conservation District. Built about 1880, the structure is within walking distance of the Grand Theatre and other downtown attractions. It would make a nice setting for a classy restaurant or boutique hotel. 

Anyone concerned about this should attend the public participation meeting on the second floor of City Hall, at 7:30 pm on Monday, September 24, 2012. While Planning Committee may decide to permit demolition, partial demolition, or refuse demolition altogether, a good showing from the heritage community might tip the scale in our favour.

Update, September 25, 2012: Planning Committee has delayed a decision on this building's future for 45 days while Mr. Farihi and city staff look for a way to incorporate the old building into the proposed new highrise. Kudos to committee members for attempting to save parts of the building rather than automatically granting a demolition permit. However, if incorporating the old structure into the new one means another absurdity such as the hanging of the Talbot Block on the outside of the JLC, it might be better to demolish it. Our cultural legacy should not appear incongruous and silly.

Update, October 15, 2012: Permission has been granted to demolish the building.

Update, September 16, 2018: The site of the Hiscox house was one of the stops on the Paved Paradise walking tour, hosted by ACO London and LondonFuse at Doors Open. At right, actors Jenn Marino and Jeremy Hewitson portray Grace "Fan-Fan" Blackburn and George Hiscox. The tour Highlighted how many London landmarks have been turned into parking lots over the years. 

Update, June 2021: Farhi Holdings has applied to renew the surface parking lot for another three years. So much for building anything on the site.

Location Location Location

Summer is a great time to enjoy a leisurely stroll through downtown London. Mind you, not everyone would think of heading for Clarence Street south of Bathurst to do their sightseeing. Only a certifiably crazy heritage architecture buff skips the shade of Victoria Park on a hot summer afternoon to stumble over the railroad tracks and visit this neighbourhood once dominated by the Michigan Central Railroad Station. This hasn't always been one of London's more prepossessing locales, to put it politely, and Bathurst Street today isn't very inviting.

But if these houses are any indication, things may be looking up. The plaque on the cute little cottage at left tells us this was the home of John Crooks, blacksmith, in 1856. The Italianate at right dates to about 1885.

Keep going south and you'll see this adorable Second Empire style house built c. late 1880s. All are neat, tidy, apparently well looked after, and even somewhat landscaped. Other interesting buildings, including some row houses, stretch south to Horton Street. The entire block appears to be a great example of neighbourhood revitalization. I'll be trotting down this way again. 

 

Dwelling on the Positive

Since most heritage commentary dwells on the negative - that is, yet another neglected building in danger of demolition - it's refreshing to occasionally point out a heritage preservation success story. One of these is the so-called Kenross House at the northeast corner of Waterloo and Piccadilly. The Queen Anne style mansion was built about 1908 for Charles J. Somerville, mayor of London in 1918-19. Architectural highlights include half-timbering, a round tower, wide verandah, and the Dutch gable pictured at left. Owners Timothy and Natalie Tattersall won an ACO-HLF Heritage Award in 2009 for restoring this building. An especially nice touch is the small garden on the corner with a plaque dedicated to Jean Ann Hills, a former owner who passed away in 2007.

Martyr Shrines

There are a few tributes in London to the Tolpuddle Martyrs. The plaque at left is in Labour Memorial Park, a small riverside green space at York and Thames streets. It accompanies a large work of art entitled "Good Hands" by David Bobier and Leslie Putnam.

The so-called Tolpuddle Martyrs were six farm labourers who lived in Tolpuddle, Dorsetshire (as Dorset was often called at the time) in the 1830s. When the seven shillings a week they earned was not enough money to support themselves and their families, they went on strike. All were arrested, found guilty, and transported to Australia in March 1834. Public indignation was so great over this that they were pardoned two years later and returned to England in 1837. The event is still regarded as a turning point in labour laws in the UK.

Upon their return, five of the six men, along with their families, emigrated to Upper Canada and settled near London. George Loveless, wife Elizabeth and family pioneered on what is now Fanshawe Park Road. Siloam Cemetery on Fanshawe Park Road East contains headstones for George Loveless and fellow-martyr Thomas Standfield. In commemoration, there's a memorial plaque outside the Siloam Cemetery gate.

Another monument to these men is the Tolpuddle Housing Co-Op on Adelaide Street. And the London and District Labour Council annually presents its Tolpuddle Memorial Award to an activist who has contributed extensively to labour and social causes in the community. One suspects George and his friends would approve.

London's Last Brick Pavement

This little-used patch of Adelaide Street near the CNR tracks contains London's last stretch of brick paving. The second last section, on Talbot Street south of York, was ripped up late in the summer of 1979.  Just a quaint reminder of the London of yesteryear.

Those Were The Days...

A postcard from circa 1971 or later
shows Reg Cooper Square (or Centennial Square) next to City Hall. Looking a bit like a Venetian piazza, the square has a fountain, trees in the planters, and a weed-free look. Gosh, there are people sitting in the square, not just passing through. The postcard was published by Victor Aziz Photography, a long-time London business.

Survey Says...

What's this cute little rock? Someone's gravestone? Cairn? Milestone? Halloween decoration? Actually it's none of the above. It's an Ordnance Survey stone erected to mark the northeast corner of the military lands where British troops were stationed up until 1868. The Ordnance lands were passed over to the City of London in 1873 to become Victoria Park, the Fair Grounds, and rows upon rows of housing that today makes up part of London's residential core. The stone stands in a little patch of shrubbery on the southwest corner of Waterloo Street and Kenneth Avenue, just on the edge of Piccadilly Park. An explanatory plaque nearby was erected by the City and London & Middlesex Historical Society  Just one of those small but delightful historical items one comes across when prowling about the city on foot.