LowPolygon
Senior Member
Mustapha's picture in "Now and Then" of the wall at Belmont House got me thinking about the lost world of walls and fencing in the city. Whereas today we speak of the "public" realm, once there was also a "semi-public" realm: private space that was visible by the public. That elegant line of wrought-iron separated the two worlds and created a transition between them. Various reasons account for their disappearance around churches and public buildings, the most common one being the egalitarian desire to "open-up" these semi-public spaces to all. Something has been lost by their elimination.
i love these very elaborate hand carved wooden gates on north Yonge in Bedford Park. Knockaloe was the estate of James Metcalfe.
i imagine this kind of hand carved fence would have been quite unusual, and i imagine that the extremes of cold and hot weather in Toronto would have led to its fairly rapid degradation. in any case, it doesn't seem to have lasted past the mid-20's...
"At the time of the dinner — if it happened — Metcalfe was definitely on one of his highs, busy building an impressive new home on a farm property north of Lawrence. Located on the site of today’s Blessed Sacrament Separate School, the impressive two-and-a-half storey estate was surrounded by landscaped gardens and a menagerie of exotic Australian birds: peacocks, cockatoos and pheasants. Everything was fenced in, including his prized horses and Holstein cattle, with the Crown jewel being his garishly carved white gates on Yonge Street, imported from England."
