Toronto Walk: Union Station to City Hall

An image of a Walking Map of Toronto; From Union Station to City Hall

This Tour Comes From...

The National Geographic Traveler: Canada

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The streets in Toronto’s heart are lined with buildings that provide ample evidence of Canada’s architectural heritage. Between Union Station and the Eaton Centre are treasured landmarks, innovative skyscrapers, and fine examples of modern architecture. CONTINUED

- Union Station
- St. Lawrence Market
- St. Lawrence Hall
- Old City Hall

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Union Station

Toronto’s Union Station is a major hub for travellers and commuters.

Photograph © Robert Holmes/Corbis

Linked by underground passageway, boththe Royal York Hotel and UnionStation recall the great days of traintravel and tourism. The station—the third Union Station to stand on thissite—was begun in 1913 and took 17 years to complete. Behind its longfacade with its central colonnade is an imposing ticket hall 88 feet [26.8 meters] highand lit from each end by tall arched windows.
Built in 1929, the dignified art deco giant ofa hotel makes a fine partner for the station, and is one of several buildings inCanada that for a while could boast of being the largest in the British Empire. The Canadian Pacific later added the steep roof to harmonize with its other château-style hotels. From the level beneath the hotel’s sumptuous lobby, the city’s downtown walkway (called PATH) leads through the Royal Bank Plaza, then, on the far side of Bay Street, up into BCE Place. This development of 1993 with its stunningly elegant galleria one of the oldest surviving stone buildings in Toronto, the Commercial Bank of the Midland District, which had to be dismantled and moved south 20 yards [18.3 meters] to fit into the new scheme.
At the corner of Front and Yonge Streets, another old bank building, the ornate Bank of Montreal, houses the Hockey Hall of Fame(+1 416 360 7765). Walk east along Front Street past the St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts. The south side of the street has a number of 19th-century warehouses and former chandlers’ stores, reminders of the one-time proximity of the lakeside. There’s now an intriguing mix of shops and cafés. The rear of the Flatiron or Gooderham Building has a wonderful mural, with its turret making an appealing composition when seen against the background of the office towers to the west.

St. Lawrence Market
Follow Front Street East for another 400 yards [365.8 meters] to the corner of Jarvis Street and find St. Lawrence Market (92 Front St. E., +1 416 392 7219, closed Sun.-Mon.). This cornucopia of tempting comestibles is at its liveliest on Saturdays, when people come from all over town to pick and choose from the marvelous fresh produce in the North Building’s farmers market. The South Building incorporates parts of the 1845 City Hall, and the old council chamber is now the Market Gallery with exhibits on historical themes.

St. Lawrence Hall
Just a few paces north of the St. Lawrence Market is the corner of Jarvis Street and King Street East, featuring the richly decorated St. Lawrence Hall. Splendidly restored for the 1967 Centennial, the hall was the city’s mid-19th century social and cultural center. The little oasis of St. James’ Park, behind it, is an excellent place to pause and take stock. To the west, the spire of St. James’ Cathedral (65 Church St., +1 416 364 7865) rises more than 300 feet [91.4 meters] and for many years was Toronto’s principal landmark.
Continue west along King Street West, where the early evolution of the skyscraper can be traced. The 18-story Canadian Pacific Building, 400 yards [365.8 meters] along at the corner of Yonge Street, was one of the tallest buildings outside New York when completed in 1915. It was outdone in 1931 by the Bank of Commerce at No. 25 King Street West, a stylish tiered tower of 34 stories with a wealth of Canadian symbolism in its fascinating decoration. This really was the tallest building in the British Empire, not only at the time of its completion but for 35 years thereafter.Continue along King Street West for another hundred yards [91.4 meters]; on the south side, beyond the intersection with Bay Street, is the group of classic modernist towers in black metal and bronze glass that make up the Toronto Dominion Centre. The first two towers to be built, between 1963 and 1969, were the work of Mies van der Rohe, famous for his minimalist approach to architecture. The shopping concourse beneath the plaza marks the beginning of the PATH system.

Old City Hall

Pedestrians make their way across City Hall Square.

Photograph © Nik Wheeler/Corbis

Continue a half mile [0.8 kilometer] north along Bay Street to Old City Hall. With its beckoning tower, this center of municipal government was ceremonially opened in 1899, after taking ten years to build and going more than ten times over the original budget. It’s a splendid example of the late 19th-century Richardson Romanesque style, built in textured two-toned sandstone. The extravagantly ornate interior now serves as law courts.
Public protests saved Old City Hall from demolition as partof the site clearance for the construction of the Eaton Centre, its immediate neighbor to the east. The multilevel Eaton Centre (Yonge St., +1 416 598 8700) itself, spreading 900 feet [244.3 meters] along Yonge Street, is worth more than a casual glance. Beneath its glazed roof is one of the finest—and most popular—shopping centers in the world, with more than 300 stores as well as a famous flight of sculpted Canada geese.
At the Eaton Centre follow Queen Street West 200 yards [182.9 meters] west to Nathan Phillips Square, the plaza fronting City Hall, to end the walk.