On
our last day in Toronto we decided to do a spot more sightseeing.
When we first went to the CN Tower we spotted the Toronto City Pass.
This gets you in to six or seven of the main attractions in town. We
bought ours at the tower and got a free upgrade to include the film
and simulator ride. Going to just one more of the attractions meant
that the ticket more than paid for itself. We still had bits left to
go and see and decided today to head for Casa Loma.
Casa Loma is a 98 room “castle”, the largest private house in
Canada, which was the life long dream home of Sir Henry Mill Pellatt.
Never finished in his lifetime, it is a medieval castle on a hill
overlooking Toronto. Work started on the castle in 1911 and three
hundred men worked on it. Reputedly it cost Sir Henry $3.5 million
at the time to build and furnish. He and his wife lived there for
ten years before the bank that financed him went bust, taking him
with it.
Initially a shrewd stock market investor, he was responsible for
bringing electricity to Toronto. His later forays into property were
funded by bank loans but coincided with war time when people
invested into war bonds rather than property. His debts could not be
repaid by the auction of his belongings, which raised only 10 per
cent of what he owed, and he was forced to hand over Casa Loma to
the Toronto authorities in lieu of his debts. Today, several of the
auctioned items have been donated and returned to Casa Loma.
The building is a bit of a fantasy in a similar way to Hearst Castle
in California. As with Randolph Hearst, Pellatt was powerful and had
great financial resources at his disposal. They both built grand
houses that really make a statement about them and their ambitions.
Unlike Hearst though, which was designed to accommodate many guests,
Casa Loma was only designed to have suites for Sir Henry, his wife,
one guest and a suite for royal visitors, who never came to stay.
Pellat was a military man and that also influenced the designs in
his house. The Great Hall was wood panelled with large open
fireplaces. Off here is a large library, again wood panelled and
with a dark wooden floor. Next is the dining room, which I think is
small for the one hundred guests they would have for dinner, mainly
regimental it seems. A corner nook provides a more intimate, and a
more airy, dining space for six to eight people. Off the dining room
is a large, marble lined conservatory with raised beds. Sir Henry
was a keen gardener and orchid keeper and the conservatory was an
important room in the house.
His study was a small room but the cornerstone to his business
interests. On either side of the fireplace, wood panels hid secret
entrances. One led down to his extensive and well stocked wine
cellar. The other led upstairs to his suite. A smoking room (did you
know smoking jackets were worn to keep the smell of the smoke from
gentlemen’s dinner jackets?), a billiard room and a large drawing
room completed the rooms on the first floor.
Upstairs, Sir Henry’s suite was pretty functional. His bathroom was
full of mod cons with running water, a shower, bath and bidet. It
must have been a cold room though as it was all in marble. In
contrast Lady Pellat’s suite was light, airy and very feminine. In
poor health she spent much of her time there and Casa Loma was the
first house in Canada to have an elevator (Otis 1) to enable her to
get about. She was instrumental in founding the Girl Guide movement
in Canada and often provided parties for the guides at Casa Loma.
The Royal Suite was also decorated in a more feminine style.
Knighted for the work he did introducing electricity to Toronto, Sir
Henry obviously expected to receive Royal visitors and must have
been disappointed that this was not to be.
The rooms on the third floor have now mainly been turned into a
museum about the Queen’s Own Rifles, Sir Henry’s regiment. You can
also get access here to the two towers of the house from where there
are stunning views out and across Toronto (if you can block out the
train line and telephone cables). A servants room has also been
restored, very simple in comparison to the rest of the house.
In the basement, Sir Henry had planned a shooting range, three
bowling lanes and also a swimming pool but none were completed. Of
the pool, all that is there is the concrete shell but it would have
been on a par with those at Hearst. From the cellar a tunnel leads
eight hundred metres under ground to the stables, car pool and
potting shed. Only the latter is still in use. Excess and style
continued in the stables which are decoratively tiled and rather
swish.
The house is a gem and was leading edge for its time. It came fully
wired for electricity and had nooks for telephones everywhere. In
total they had 59 phones and their own switchboard. Chances are you
have already seen parts of the house. It has been used for many
films including the X Men and Chicago and, much to my dismay films
by Jean Claude van Damme!
Strange shoes
Having seen the inside we went for a quick look around the gardens.
One of the curses of the modern age is that a fair proportion has
now been turned over into car and coach parks but a lot still
remain. As with the house, the gardens had fallen into a state of
disrepair but four acres have been renovated by The Garden Club of
Toronto. Where they could they have incorporated elements of the
castle’s original gardens into the new designs.
Immediately in behind the house, and flanking the Great Hall, a
terrace leads down into a formal garden with a fountain and
perfectly manicured lawns. Around the property there are woodlands,
a water garden and cedar grove as well as the space used by the
stables for greenhouses and the potting sheds. All in all the
gardens must have been a significant part of the overall estate.
After the Casa Loma we stopped off to visit the Bata Shoe Museum.
The museum, set up in 1995 by the Bata Shoe Museum Foundation,
showcases shoes and footwear spanning 4,500 years. Its origins stem
from the private collection of Sonja Bata who started collecting
footwear in the 1940’s.
They
have a permanent exhibition that traces footwear over the years and
through different cultures. These range from simple woven sandals
through to highly exotic and decorative shoes used for ritual
purposes. Some are strange, such as the high platformed shoes worn
in bath-houses in the middle east. The heating comes from under the
floor so high heels and platforms were needed to ensure the feet did
not get too hot. In pretty much all cultures highly decorated
footwear is used as a symbol of wealth and prosperity.
A
small exhibit displays some celebrity footwear. The Church’s shoes
worn by Pierce Brosnan are alongside those of Hollywood greats (so
great I cannot remember their names!) Madonna, Britney Spears and
(surprisingly!) Phil Collins. One of Shaquille O’Neal’s Nike
trainers was also on display. At over seven foot tall he wears size
twenty trainers when he is wowing the world with his basketball
skills.
The
rest of the museum was taken up with temporary exhibitions
displaying some incredible footwear in more recent times. My
favourite was a very simple high heeled black satin shoe that was
edged with “diamonds”. They had the latest trendy names (Jimmy Choo,
Monolo Blahnik) alongside Vivienne Westwood, Vivier (a famous French
chap), Dior, Dolce and Gabbana and Ferragamo. Some of my other
favourites were made by Rayne, a company I had not heard of before
and that is no more. They were by appointment to various generations
of the Royal Family.
From
here we went in search of the Lonely Planet guide books that we need
for the rest of our trip and then headed to the Rogers Centre for
our evenings entertainment – a football match between the Toronto
Argonauts and the Hamilton Tiger Cats. Neither of us know anything
about the rules but as it turned out that did not really matter. The
game is made up of four quarters each lasting fifteen minutes. In
total it took three and a half hours to complete. We were stunned.
As usual, not much
happening!
The
football itself almost seemed to be a side issue and it felt as if
not many people were really watching the proceedings. Instead of
going to a game I left feeling as if I had spent just under four
hours in an entertainment centre with constant noise, music, games
and tactics to keep the crowd happy. The guys sitting next to me
spent most of their time eying up the cheerleaders. One guy proposed
to his girlfriend there and had it emblazoned on the big screen and
then her response. I kept willing her to say “no”. If he is that
tacky that he proposes on a big screen at a football game he
deserves a no!!
They
ran competitions, stopped play for adverts, threw freebie t-shirts
into the crowd and generally did everything they could do to
distract people from watching the game. The clincher came at half
time with the Wendy’s (burger chain) kick for a million. Someone had
been picked from an on line lottery. He had to kick a ball from ten,
twenty, thirty and then fifty yards. If he scored he won prizes, the
fifty yard kick being worth a million dollars. This game took place
at half time and they stopped it before the last kick for a break.
By this time Stef and I were in despair – they had actually
interrupted a break to have a break!!??!!
This
was really the theme for the game as well. We were totally confused
about what was happening. Just as they all started to do something
they stopped and one load of players ran off the pitch and another
load ran on. The game play was held up several times either for
commercial breaks or because there was an award to be made or the
cheerleaders were doing their stuff. It is the most comical and
commercial sport I have ever watched and quite a few times play was
taking place without us even noticing it had started. The audience
seemed to enjoy themselves though but in the fourth quarter when
home victory was certain (it had been pretty much all the way along)
people started leaving in droves. By the time the match ended the
stadium was half empty. Very bizarre!
