Osgoode Hall is a large building on Queen St West in downtown Toronto. It’s next to City Hall and we’ve walked past it many times. It’s behind a long black iron fence with a garden between it and the building. When Donna was here, we had a snowball fight in the grounds, which you can get into through ‘kissing gates’. Other than walking through the gardens, I didn’t think the building itself was accessible. It looked too imposing and formidable for the general public (and with good reason. It’s a law court and home to the Law Society of Upper Canada).
Recently, however, I saw a photo on Instagram that someone had taken inside the library. Turns out the building is open to the public. Eighteen months we’ve been here and I’d never thought to investigate. And so, with only five months left to go, getting into Osgoode Hall was now a top priority.
It didn’t take long to find the information I needed, and the added bonus was that they offer lunch inside the Convocation Hall. Glen was sold. So today, after I’d got through some work, we went downtown for lunch at Osgoode Hall.
We went through security and then made our way through the warren-like insides of Osgoode Hall to get to the restaurant inside the Convocation Hall. The restaurant was nearly full to capacity so I was glad I’d made a reservation. I had the set menu, which came with lobster bisque, mussels with curry pilaf, and a maple syrup creme brûlée (which I swapped with the blood orange sorbet Glen ordered). He had the bisque too, as well as a tasty piece of haddock.
We had a great lunch and it felt like the first time all week we’d actually had a good chat with each other. We’ve either been out or busy or tired so seated in the hall we actually had some good conversation which extended beyond ‘how was your day at work?’ and ‘what’s for dinner?’.
The Convocation Hall reminded me of the Guild Hall in London, except with a lower roof and more books around the walls. There were ten stain glass windows, installed in the 1980s, that depict images that have significance to Canadian law and law in general. For example, the ‘first’ window was about ancient law and depicted Sumeria, Ancient Rome and Biblical Law, and Charlemagne Law.
After lunch, we went into the Great Library. I’d downloaded us the audio tour from the website so we had six minute snippets of a couple of the public areas of Osgoode Hall, of which the library was one. The main part of the library is white plaster with lots of ornamentation on the roof. The columns are wooden and hollow and are there purely for aesthetics. Through one of the doors is a smaller library called the American Room, which had a beautiful cast iron spiral staircase and books ringing the room on two levels. We spent a while in here taking photos.
After the library we looked at the atrium for a bit, listened to the guide, and then headed out. We could have gone into a court room if one was in session, but they recommend doing that only if you plan to stay for a while, otherwise you’ll be a distraction going in and out.
We took some more photos outside, then headed off to do a bit of shopping before coming home. So now Osgoode Hall is done, the next thing we have to do is go to Queen’s Park (Toronto Legislature).
Travels with Dan 
What do you say, eh?