Southwest View from Cricket Square, London, Canada West (Ontario)

Description

Media Type

Image

Item Type

Photographs

Description

A view taken from the grassy Cricket Square looking southwest over the pine stump fence towards the center of London, Canada West. The rear view of St. Paul's Cathedral is seen to the right and to its left, the backs of the buildings along Richmond Street.

Notes

This reproduced enlarged photograph was taken from the book "City of London, Ontario, Canada: The Pioneer Period and the London of Today," which was published in 1900. The pine stumps for the fence were probably collected from the pine forests which existed before the city was cleared for settlement. According to the "History of the County of Middlesex", published in 1889: "Even the courthouse square, which the vandal officers of 1827-8 had cleared of the old, old trees, so that they could chain their prisoners to the stumps had to be replanted, and a little while ago many of the great pines which stood in Salter's grove had to give way to the Exposition buildings or to the race track. Never will pine grow here again like those monarchs of the grove. From Carling's Creek to Wellington, a dense pine forest existed..." The pine fence would have served as an effective deterrent to wandering livestock, a common sight in the early days of London.
The 1856/1857 "Railton's Directory for the City of London, C.W." listed the London Cricket Club with its executive members and "Days for play, Monday and Thursday afternoon, at the Military Reserve ground." By 1874 part of the military grounds were set aside and named "Victoria Park" by the Governor General. The map shows the location of the former "Cricket Square" in the southwest corner of the present Victoria Park.

Inscriptions

Below photograph: South-west view from Cricket Square, 1860, showing pine stump fence.

Date of Publication

1860

Dimensions