The Background Of Victorian Architecture In Toronto

Lots of people consider Victorian as a style, but this is not exactly right From 1835 and 1900 there were many types of home built and ‘Victorian’ architecture describes them all. Utilizing many different features it is hard to pinpoint a specific style, although each property will have a few details in common with each other. The buildings are built in brick, stone, and timber, using a sometimes-eclectic combination of Classical and Gothic motifs.

To see great examples of Victorian buildings in Ontario, then look no further than the homes; this is where the architecture is in abundance. All types of home, from the urban town house to the large country farm have been touched by this distinctive style and excellent craftsmanship. When builders looked at the design of houses, they looked to patterns, frills and swirls to create that Victorian style. This led to criticism by a couple of European factions who considered the styles to be overly cluttered and complex. The final result melded together well, regardless of the fact that there were completely differing architectural styles over the years.

History

The first builders of Toronto had varied tastes with great imaginations, unlike the builders today who tend to build the same type of property at every site, with little difference in design between two homes. To start with, property developers wanted land and that was found north of Queen and west of Parliament, where plots had been cleared in the 1830′s for farming. The homes of Toronto’s (or York as it was formally called) notable officials were built on these vacant ‘park lots’.

The initial pieces of Toronto Victorian architecture were farm houses and a number of cottages. Sherbourne Street saw the original building lots sold in 1845, a grid plan of streets was developed by John Howard who was the city surveyor at that time. The most practical housing type of the era was the row or attached home as the plots of land were primarily narrow, only 15 to 20 feet wide. At 241 Sherbourne street there is a superb representation of early Victorian design. Built in 1848 to be the home of brewer and philanthropist Enoch Turner, it is wide by comparison to other houses in the area, with a magnificent rustic front porch, elaborate trim and two-toned brick in decorative patterns. Another example of early Victorian design in the area is 424 Ontario Street, in which the decorative gingerbread trim on peaks and porches threatens to dominate the delicacy of the overall design.