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Discover Toronto: John Richmond's illustrated notebook
HAND ILLUSTRATED AND MAINLY HAND LETTERED STORIES AND IMAGES OF TORONTO. In 1976 Doubleday Publishing's new American editor sent 6 experimental hand lettered pages of Discover Toronto to her former editorial cohorts in New York. Her enthusiasm swamped executive scepticism in Toronto. Reviews were unanimously positive. The Toronto Star gave it a full page of praise for its originality, wit and illustrations. Ten thousand copies sold in hard cover. This Lulu publication is a 30th anniversary edition during the author's 80th year.
122 pages, Hardcover
Published January 1, 1976
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January 4, 2019
I've had this book of sketches on my shelf for years and have just finally read the fun text that goes along with it. John Richmond was a Canadian (Torontonian) artist (he died in 2013) and in this book he captures some of the city's most iconic heritage buildings along with less popular streetscapes. He grew up in the Danforth area and spent his youth walking all the streets of the downtown to distribute flyers for his father's appliance store. Published in 1976, it is a good marker for what the city was like during that time period. Included in the text are some of Richmond's own recollections of when he was a student and then instructor at Ontario Collage of Art (precursor to OCAD).
Some tidbits I learned from reading this book: the centre of the Old Town was King and Frederick (this is where Laurent Quetton lived); Sir William Campbell kept a pet alligator in the 1820s; Sir John Beverley Robinson was only 22 when he became acting Attourney General of Upper Canada; oak pannelling from London's Old Baily was installed in an anteroom of Osgood Hall in 1974; Frank Lloyd Wright called the Richardsonian Romanesque style of architecture applied to Queen's Park as "Early Penitentiary".
Consider all the demolition that was occurring in Toronto, he wonders at how Mirvish Village has retained its character (this is 1976), and now we know that it hasn't; a recent loss to development and gentrification once David Mirvish decided to sell Honest Ed's Warehouse. John Richmond also suggests that when the bankers decide to leave the Bank of Montreal on the corner of Yonge and Front, the hall with beautiful domed ceiling would make a heady space for an office or a barber shop - he did not imagine the Hockey Hall of Fame!
Some tidbits I learned from reading this book: the centre of the Old Town was King and Frederick (this is where Laurent Quetton lived); Sir William Campbell kept a pet alligator in the 1820s; Sir John Beverley Robinson was only 22 when he became acting Attourney General of Upper Canada; oak pannelling from London's Old Baily was installed in an anteroom of Osgood Hall in 1974; Frank Lloyd Wright called the Richardsonian Romanesque style of architecture applied to Queen's Park as "Early Penitentiary".
Consider all the demolition that was occurring in Toronto, he wonders at how Mirvish Village has retained its character (this is 1976), and now we know that it hasn't; a recent loss to development and gentrification once David Mirvish decided to sell Honest Ed's Warehouse. John Richmond also suggests that when the bankers decide to leave the Bank of Montreal on the corner of Yonge and Front, the hall with beautiful domed ceiling would make a heady space for an office or a barber shop - he did not imagine the Hockey Hall of Fame!
Displaying 1 - 1 of 1 review