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  • A map coloured with red, blue, and black lines, printed on linen. The map outlines the different sections of what would become Toronto: King the North with Whitechurch in the North-East, Vaughan beneath King, with Markham in the East, York in the South with Etobicoke in the West, Scarborough in the East, and Toronto along the front of Lake Ontario which is at the bottom of the image and coloured in a light blue.
  • Black and white photograph of a stall in St. Lawrence Market. The stall is full of different forms of meat, carcasses hang from hooks that line the top of the stall.

Original plan of the Toronto Purchase (1787-1805), outlined in red ink, 1911. Image: Toronto Public Library

St. Lawrence Market. North Market (1850-1904), Front Street East, north side, between Market & Jarvis Streets, prior to 1898. Toronto Public Library.

William Davies Stall, St. Lawrence Market, 1911

  • The Toronto Purchase

    In 1787, British settlers prepared a written agreement, called the Toronto Purchase, in order to claim the land used by the Mississaugas. The British and Mississaugas had different understandings of land ownership: the Mississaugas believed they were allowing the British access to their land, while still retaining their traditional rights.


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  • The First Market

    The British saw the land as firmly under their control, and began to build a city for themselves, pushing the Mississaugas out. In 1803, the portion of land on which the St. Lawrence Hall now sits was designated as a public market space. The first market building, marked by the yellow brick on the exterior, included the City Council chambers.


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  • Hogtown

    In the 1850s, William Davies arrived in Canada and set up a stall where he sold a cut of pork that would become a signature food at the market: peameal bacon. He expanded his business to become one of the largest of its type in the British Empire, contributing to Toronto’s nickname of “Hogtown.”


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Historic St. Lawrence Hall
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