Winter Garden Theatre: Doors Open Toronto

The Winter Garden Theatre, part of the Elgin and Winter Garden Theatre combo, is so enchanting! My visit inside is the last of the places I visited around the city for Doors Open Toronto, and one I added to my list upon the recommendation of Tanya when we were checking out the faces on the awning the day before, and having also stumbled over this blog post the night before.

I joined the long line for one of the scheduled tours, and we were soon filed into the theater, and up the stairs. Up to the seventh floor, we walked through gorgeous hallways and stairways, so grand and ornate, before being shown to seats in the Winter Garden Theatre.

Taking in the amazing sights around us, being the picturesque setting on the fire curtain on the stage, the forest-like hangings of the roof of the circle section, and then ornate boxes. The trees all around, with crawling vines all over the walls and actual roof, with a lit moon above. A wonderland, indeed! It is so pretty!

Once seated, one of the volunteers of the theater told us of the history and function of the theater. One of only 3 double theater complexes in the world, this is the only one where both stages are functioning at this time. But that was not always the case, with this one closed for many, many years, and the painstaking restoration from it's reopen was recounted, which was as amazing as the features of the insides itself.

The forest on the roof is part real, and certainly started out as all actual foliage from nature. Many of the lanterns have needed to be replaced, as they seemed to have been taken as souvenirs or for patios parties over the years of long ago staff and owners!

The Elgin Theatre would have been part of the tour, however it was being readied for it's next show on this day. Is the venue where Cats showed for almost 2 years. The Theatre complex will be 90 years old next year, and is a treat to visit, and would be a delight to see a show in - although one wonders whether the enchanting interiors would distract from the show!

Native Child and Family Services: Doors Open Toronto

Another one of the buildings I staked out to see during the Doors Open Toronto weekend was that of the Native Child and Family Services of Toronto. This building from the outside, in a office block on College Street, is pretty nondescript from the street level. But it was the unique features that ensured that I made the trip up this far north of the city grid.

A self-guided tour once inside the front doors, the space was immediately open plan and light. The leaflet available informed me that this four-storey building was the result of a need to bring together the various aspects of this service from their originally scattered locations. This service was founded to assist Native families access services from a single point of entry, within a service managed by the community.

One of the most outstanding features of the building is the Longhouse, or the People's House, situated in the middle of the main floor. Reportedly modelled on a teaching lodge at Curve Lake, this one is made of ceder and used as a central meeting room.

The lighting inside the Longhouse is made to simulate fireside atmosphere, and the space allows for a table or just chairs, arranged in a circle, which is a traditional aspect of ceremony.

The dome of the Longhouse is a real feature, but then the light and cascading greenery at the sides of the stairways are also a real theme within the building. All along the frosted glass walls of the offices and meeting rooms upstairs are animal images, and downstairs there is a wall of traditional greetings in a number of Native languages, from territories around Toronto and and greater Ontario.

The rooftop of the building is a green roof, with a garden planted with traditional medicines. These have been planted in a traditional manner up here on this green oasis surrounded by tall city buildings.

In addition to the patches of garden and paths is the Healing Lodge, which brings ceremony to the city dwellers accessing the service.

This is truly a beautiful and carefully planned, space for this service, bringing urban design, environmental considerations, along with traditional and important cultural features of Aboriginal Canada together to create an amazing place to work and seek assistance.

Patient-built CAMH Walls: Doors Open Toronto

On Sunday morning for the second day of the Doors Open Toronto weekend, I headed west on Queen Street West from home, and got to the CAMH site, soon to be their main center in the city.

Here I joined the walking tour, leaving on the hour all weekend, to see and hear the stories of the patient-built historic wall. The portions of the wall still in place today no longer keep people inside the centre, as was the aim for the asylum back in the 1860s and 1880s when they were constructed, and indeed until deinstitutionalisation of psychiatric care.

Our guide, Jeffery, a softly spoken gent, was engaging and informative, and took us along the wall to each plaque to explain elements of that portion of the wall, and also added patient stories linked to each side of the wall.

These boundary walls to the old asylum were hand built by the in-patients, which would have been back-breaking and physically arduous. Structurally sound, given it's longevity and visual pattern of brick placement, one wonders what the working parties would have been like. Completely unpaid and unrewarded, this labour has indeed been acknowledged as saving the city thousands of dollars, and was used as the only type of treatment back in the early days of care.



Bricked-in doors and windows show the changes of the wall and the function around it over the years. Tales of successful escape were shared on the tour, in addition to many of the patient inscriptions remaining in view today.

You can see a date on the first wall photo above, and this here shows one brick with the words 'Born To Be Murdered' scratched in - a lasting legacy of the hardship and hopelessness of being confined to a facility like this, and indeed the plight of the treatment options for psychological illness in years gone by, in addition to the experience of being used for hard labour throughout your days.

The wall and the plaques are open to everyday traffic from the park on the side of the current CAMH facilities, through to the back of the buildings, and thus one that could be visited all year round.

Canada Life Views: Doors Open Toronto

The Canada Life building is imposing on University Avenue, and Doors Open Toronto on the weekend meant you could conquer such heights for an amazing view of the city.

Going inside from street level, we were treated to the ornate and grand interior, before joining the line to go up into the elevator for a ride to the 17th floor. This building was once the tallest building in Toronto, now this observation floor, only open for Doors Open Toronto every year, still affords a pretty amazing vantage point of the city below and around.

The volunteer manning the elevator is chirpy and informative, even though he has been working in that little confined space all day. He delivers us to a surprisingly small room, complete with shiny marble floors, and windows facing East, West and South.

Despite the fast moving line downstairs, the room has just enough people to allow you to move from window to window freely and easily. Doors Open Toronto, and their volunteers, have done a really great job making each site totally accessible for the masses.

South-facing gives you the CN Tower, a glimpse of the lake and the Toronto Islands, in addition to downtown streets.

East gives you a bird's eye view of the Old and new City Halls, and the space in front of the new City Hall. The West windows show you my new neighbourhood, Queen Street West, and the urban sprawl beyond.

While we were taking in the room and the views from each side, we were also handed a little reference card giving a guide to the weather beacon on the top of the building. This spire atop signals the weather for the day, or the following day when shown at night, by coloured lights running up and down the indicator. According to my new, and very handy guide, green lights indicate clear weather, red means cloudy, and flashing red forecasts rain. Flashing white tells of snow, and the direction of the lights indicate the coming temperature changes ahead. Steady lights suggest steady temperatures for the coming hours.

How great is that!!?? I walk past this building on my way home from work, and imagine this knowledge will be very handy for planning my next day!

Faces On Places: Doors Open Toronto

Yesterday I started my Doors Open exploration of Toronto with the walking tour gathering at the City Hall lobby, in search of gargoyles and griffins around the CBD.

Terry Murray was our guide, and she was so interesting and keen to share her hobby of checking out these little faces and details in the city buildings. She was also able to share a lot of building history, and quirky stories about many of the buildings she pointed out, which gave me more character back story to Toronto.

Starting by getting to Old City Hall, Terry pointed out many of the details on this Roman designed impressive building. The gargoyles at the top tower are no longer gargoyles in their functional sense, nor are they the originals, being replaced as the first ones crumbled due to the water draining, and become drop hazards to people below. She also explained the architects revenge in his naming rights of the structure, of which my new friend on the tour Tanya had also just explained as we approached.

Getting to the city CBD streets itself, Terry pointed out griffins and the Furious Broker on the panels of the massive, tall buildings all around us.

This building to the left has 4 faces at the top level. There used to be an observation level here, and after inquiring after why these faces had ear piecings, Terry had been informed that these holes were actually where the hand rails used to be!

Our group managed to weave through the masses on Yonge Street to see more quirky details on the many buildings - but missed the panels down in the Queen Street subway entrance due to track works this weekend - one to keep an eye out for!

Finishing at the awning of The Elgin and Wintergarden Theatres to see these little guys, the group had shrunk a little from the large mass at the start, but everyone was so thankfully to Terry for this unique look at the city. She sold many copies of her book, right there. I totally recommend her tour, but I would imagine that you can reconstruct and find many more faces in the city buildings via her book. Or through her very sound advice at the end of the tour - look up!