From the St. Lawrence Market building we walked north through a courtyard to another former City Hall of Toronto by the name of St. Lawrence Hall. It was the former city hall of the City of York, that was officially renamed the city of Toronto (an Indian word for "meeting place") in 1856. St. Lawrence Hall is a beautiful classical building, and Bruce took us inside to show us the ballroom, the most well-preserved original ballroom in Canada. The chandelier is original, was originally lit with coal gas and today is illuminated with natural gas.

This was the heart of Toronto's elite WASP (white / Anglo-Saxon / Protestant) society during the 1800s and Bruce shed more light on the many behavioural norms of the time. Women were not considered persons and could not walk on the street by themselves or accompanied by any man other than their husband. Men had to defend their wives' honour in duels and sometimes ended up having to shoot their best friend as a result of a harmless (by today's standards) misunderstanding. The city and country were run by English noblemen, and Catholic immigrants from Ireland, arriving in masses after the potato famine of 1849, were despised by the local ruling class.

As a result, the Catholics were segregated, but they did receive a spot inside St. Lawrence Hall, a big room called St. Patrick's Hall, where they were allowed to congregate since they were barred from entering the ballroom which was reserved for the WASP elite. Irish Catholics had to enter St. Patrick's Hall through a back staircase since they weren't allowed to mix with the English aristocracy. The portion on the northeast side of St. Lawrence Hall housing St. Patrick's Hall incidentally collapsed in 1967 and was completely rebuilt.

After St. Lawrence Hall we walked through a beautiful Victorian Garden outside of St. James Cathedral, Toronto's largest house of worship, and the 5th church in the present location. Bruce took us inside and shared more historical information with us, about the original British settlers of Toronto and ruling elite of the times, which included the famous Bishop Strachan, the creator of St. James Cathedral. Bruce showed us the various stained glass windows that adorn the church, all of which were crafted at different times. Especially stunning are the Tiffany stained glass windows on the east side which have a particularly intense coloration.

St. James Cathedral marked the end of our culinary and historic tour of the St. Lawrence Market area. We had received a great introduction to Toronto's history and enjoyed the diverse culinary delicacies of Toronto's greatest market. Bruce's entertaining and informative lessons on a time in Toronto's history when women and men were segregated, when society was strictly regimented by expectations of etiquette and social status, and when Irish and English weren't allowed to mix made me realize how incredibly far Toronto has come in the last 150 years.

Bruce Bell offers other interesting tours about Toronto's Distillery District, its Art Deco skyscrapers and a tour called "Comfort and Steam" that takes you through the Fairmount Royal York Hotel, Union Station, the Skydome and the Air Canada Centre, among other places. Considering everything that I learned in the St. Lawrence Market tour, I hope to have a chance to catch another one of Bruce's tours and broaden my local knowledge of this city in the near future.

About The Author

Susanne Pacher is the publisher of a website called Travel and Transitions (http://www.travelandtransitions.com). Travel and Transitions deals with unconventional travel and is chock full of advice, tips, real life travel experiences, interviews with travellers and travel experts, insights and reflections, cross-cultural issues, contests and many other features. You will also find stories about life and the transitions that we face as we go through our own personal life-long journeys.

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The story with photos is published at Travel and Transitions ? Insights and Reflections (http://www.travelandtransitions.com/stories_photos/hello_st_lawrence.htm).