Work took me to the centre of the universe earlier this week and I spent my few free hours hoofing it to Fort York. Along the way I ran into these guys and now I'm considering a new scale... . To my amusement, these guys even have mold lines!
Fort York was burned in 1812 (or 1813 maybe?) so these are rebuilt buildings, although many are original periods ones and some were in use into the 1930s as housing. Below you can see one of the guns pointing at the freeway built on the infill which has pushed the lakeshore back out about 500m.
I only had an hour to wander before it closed but that was a good amount of time. I saw the officer quarters (brick building on left below) but the best part was the white block house in the distance (to the right of the CN Tower). Great displays of uniforms, fire arms, cannon, maps and interactive bits. I resisted the temptations of the gift shop. I recall taking a sword on an airplane carry on in the 1980s (gotta love the north!)--I expect those days are long gone!
The rest was a fine enough walk (my first Canadian battlefield, unless you count Frenchman's Butte) and there was interesting stone work and cannon. Being in the middle of a city is a bit jarring, though.
7 comments:
Nice. We took the cub there for a picnic last summer. You should have said you were coming to town, there's a good block of historical gamers in the area.
I love the fact that nobody could be bothered to file off the flash on those soldiers.
Nice pictures, thanks for sharing. I'm tempted to make a model of a block house for when I eventually get round to painting a few 1812 figures. This is useful reference material, thanks.
Regards,
Matt
Joseph: That was my thought exactly! Probably intentional, though.
Fireymonkeyboy: Yeah, I thought about that (thanks!) but it was an in and out trip to do my presentation. Kind of like the original occupation of Fort York, but with fewer explosions.
I will have to make the effort next time I am dragged into Toronto. Have you made it out to Fort Henry?
No, I haven't--is it good? Looked like a lot of stuff down on the peninsula this year to coincide with the 200th but I will miss most of that.
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