Corktown

Yesterday, we had a wonderful afternoon exploring Toronto's Corktown which is between King and Queen Streets and Parliament and Sackville. We were led by a guide from Heritage Toronto http://www.heritagetoronto.org/. Corktown is an area where a great number of Irish came from County Cork, corks where made and a Mr. W. G. Cork operated a grocery store which hired Theodore Pringle Loblaw who in 1919 started a cash and carry grocery which was a change from the payment by account system that most stores used up to this time. This area was neglected as people moved further away from their places of employment with the advent of cars and transit systems. It is now being revived as people realize the benefits of being closer to the core of the city.

The Corktown area hosts a number of remarkable buildings like Little Trinity Church, the Enoch Turner School House (pictured above), the Distillery district which housed the Gooderham and Worts distillery and now is home to condominiums, upscale stores and restaurants and a theatre company- Soul Pepper.

We are now planning to return to see some of these buildings during next May's Door Open.

Our next Heritage Toronto tour will be the Weston Area of Toronto. This area hosts a number of remarkable older buildings which we are looking forward to seeing.