A Video Homage to Toronto's Lost Buildings

A friend of mine who is currently residing in London, England made this video homage to Toronto's lost buildings. It's difficult to watch the video without wondering about the evolving face of Toronto, and how the decisions to demolish buildings can so change the landscape of a city.

One of the biggest changes to me is Trinity College in what is now Trinity-Bellwoods Park. You can still see the gates to the college at the south end of the park along Queen Street, but all traces of the building are gone.

It's interesting to note too some of the buildings we still have that were once threatened with demolition, or partial demolition, like Old City Hall. I think one proposal had the whole building gone with its replacement being an Eaton's Centre tower, while a revised proposal kept just the old clock tower. Thankfully neither of those were realized and the building was left standing.

But with the neglect, partial collapse, then fire and planned demolition of a heritage building on Yonge street recently, it's clear that we still have some ways to go in protecting our heritage buildings.

Vomitorium: Fact or Fiction

Today I was sitting my wing back armchair reading Lewis Mumford's The City in History and generally pretending to be scholarly when I came across a section in Mr. Mumford's book describing the Roman vomitorium: the a room where gluttonous Romans went to purge themselves so they could eat even more. Say what?

After hours of studious research at the local public library (OK, fine, a two second search on wikipedia), I uncovered the shocking truth: Lewis Mumford was wrong. And there are even whole papers written about it from the American Philological Association. Apparently, although Romans did occasional vomit after a meal (and really, who hasn't?), the vomitorium as Mumford describes them did not exist.

But that doesn't mean the word doesn't mean anything. Vomitoria are passages built into theatres that allow spectators to "spew" out after a performance. I've seen instances of these not necessarily at modern theatres, but at large sports stadiums. I just never knew they had such a crude and awesome name.

This whole exchange leaves me pondering how easy it is to disseminate and multiply incorrect historical information. And also how disappointing it can be sometimes to learn the truth.