Union Station Toronto #photography

I stepped out of the hotel and this long low building was in front of me, the Union Station.

Nothing remarkable about the building, just big and hairy and dingy.

Its the terminus for the Canadian Pacific Railway, made way back in 1927. It could do with a bit of a brush up frankly.

They are repairing a bit of the station.

Massive is what I would use to describe the station. Big thick muscular pillars on the front. And for some reason, they have been left unfinished like. I checked the wiki site and there was no explanation given. It is not finished and it shows.

With these bikes for hire in front of the station. Nice touch.

There is this wonderful statue in front of the station. And like a muppet, I did not take a photo of the plaque which you can see at the bottom of the pillar. But google came to the rescue, its called as the Monument to Multiculturalism, crafted by Francesco Pirelli. Apparently there are four other identical statues by Pirelli, in Sydney, Australia, Sarajevo, Bosnia, Changchun, China and Buffalo City, South Africa. Quite interesting, what? Its a man surrounded with a globe and flying doves.

And you have a seagull on top of the man.

And as usual, you have the bloody sea gull crapping on the face on multiculturalism. Welcome.

The sea gull was giving me a decidedly suspicious look or he was peering at the dove. One of those.

Nice structure none the less.



The passageway between the pillars and the main station. Curiously it looks unfinished.

Now walking into the station. It has some serious ironmongery in the railings up here.

Quite an imposing building from inside.

The main hall. Huge arched roof with a giant chandelier in the middle.

A variety of flags on the left hand side. I presume these are the flags of the provinces and of the train company?

All around the building, there are names of the cities where presumably the train connections are. Its fascinating to note that most of these names have connections to the UK. Sudbury is next to our borough. Windsor is where the queen has her flat.

And they have London as well.

A very modern looking clock in the middle. They could have put in some hour marks, eh? bit difficult to make out the time otherwise, but ah! well.



Giant windows.

One of the exits.

The arches over the windows and exits are beautiful, no doubt.

The tourist shop. And the Nuts and things shop.

Went down a bit to the platforms but nothing much to see there.

Walking back./



A plaque on the wall talking about the station.

Another view of the great hall.

 

Yours truly taking a pic of the notice board while heading out of the station. I am sorry but I am not impressed. Here’s a photo essay of the Grand Central Station in NY. Now that’s an impressive building indeed. They should really polish up this place, its such a great place but the externals are crap and the inside is all dingy.