Address 92 Front Street East Country Canada Completed 1968 | Town or city Toronto Current tenants vendors | |
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Demolished demolition was slated for late 2015 | ||
Toronto st lawrence market north
St. Lawrence Market North is a public market building in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It hosts a variety of markets, including a farmer's market, an antique market and Christmas trees daily from mid-Nov. to Dec. 24. The site has been the site of a farmer's market since 1803. Several buildings have been built on the site, the most recent in 1968. It is in the process of being replaced with a new structure. The St. Lawrence Market combines the North building, the St. Lawrence Hall and the St. Lawrence Market South building.
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History
The building has been demolished and re-built many times, and the address has been host to many architectural competitions.
A market has operated at King St. and Jarvis St. since the area was designated the "Market Block" by Governor Hunter in 1803. The first permanent farmers' market building was built on the south side of King Street at Jarvis Street shortly after. It was enclosed in 1820 and replaced by a brick structure in 1831. This new building extended from King to Front and housed an assembly hall on the upper level. City Council met in this assembly hall from 1834 to 1845. It was damaged in the 1849 great fire along with much of the adjacent area (but not the City Hall.)
A new building was built in 1851 abutting the new St. Lawrence Hall on King Street but with its main entrance facing Front Street. This building lasted until 1904 when it was demolished by order of the Market Commission and replaced by a building designed to match the recently completed South building. A canopy ran over Front Street connecting the north and south markets until it was removed in 1954.
The latest incarnation of the north market was built in 1968. The Farmers' Market, the largest in Toronto, is held on Saturdays starting at 5 am; the Sunday Antique Market, open every Sunday from 5 am to 5 pm; and the Christmas trees and holiday greens offered daily from mid-November to December 24.
New building
In the early 2000s, the City of Toronto did a review of the Market's operations and determined that the North building would have to be replaced. The City held an architectural competition for a new building to be used for the same purposes as the old one. On June 7, 2010, then-Mayor David Miller announced the winners of the design competition for a building to replace the existing North Market. The winning design was by Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners in a joint venture with Adamson Associates Architects. Richard Rogers of the Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners architectural firm is also responsible for Paris' Centre Georges Pompidou (also known as the Pompidou Centre). The new building will be four stories tall and will feature an arcade and will be a complex of three buildings. The new building includes office space which will be used for municipal courts and a 250-space parking garage underground.
The 1968 building was slated to be demolished late 2010, but City Council balked at the escalating cost of the project. This led to changes to the design to reduce the cost. In 2013, City Council approved an overall project budget of CA$91.5 million. After the temporary site was built in 2015, the North building was closed. The City commissioned archaeological studies on the north site, to determine if there was anything archaeologically significant on the site, which was first developed in 1804. Artifacts were found by excavating part of the foundation in 2015. According to the City, this means that in-depth study will be done on the site, following the demolition of the 1968 building. Demolition of the 1968 building started in 2016.
Artifacts that the team led by Peter Popkin, senior archaeologist with Golder Associates, are finding include knives, ceramics and butchers’ hooks.
The current project schedule envisions a completion in 2018.
Temporary site
During the construction of the new building, the Saturday and Sunday North Market vendors are selling from a location one block south on the Esplanade. The vendors vacated the North building in June 2015 to allow for demolition and re-development of a new market structure. The temporary market is located in a single storey pre-fabricated fabric structure on the parking lot south of the South Market Building at 125 The Esplanade opened on July 11, 2015. The temporary site will be used for 2-3 years pending the completion of the permanent structure on Front Street.
Market Lane Park
Market Lane Park is located on the west side of the North Market Building and St. Lawrence Hall. With the closure of Market Street between King and Front Streets, under City of Toronto By-laws 291-67 and 40-70, the area was converted to pedestrian use only. Additional landscaping features like fountains, trees, flower beds and sculptures have been added. Market Square condominium buildings were constructed along the westerly boundary in the early 1980s.