//
Photo: Benson Kua from Toronto, Canada, CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons
This grand Victorian building is home to Ontario's provincial legislature. Tours are offered every weekday year-round and on weekends during the summer.
The Ontario Legislative Building is a structure in central Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It houses the Legislative Assembly of Ontario, and the viceregal suite of the Lieutenant Governor of Ontario and offices for members of the provincial parliament (MPPs). The building is surrounded by Queen's Park, sitting on that part south of Wellesley Street, which is the former site of King's College, which was leased from the university by the municipal government of Toronto in 1859, for a "peppercorn" payment of CAD$1 per annum on a 999-year term. The southern portion of the site was later handed over to the provincial government.
© OpenStreetMap contributors
The seated figure of Queen Victoria is facing south towards University Avenue. To Queen Victoria's left is a small grove of cherry trees that bloom in early May.
The equestrian statue of Edward VII first stood in India, but was moved to Canada after 1969, when India became a Commonwealth republic.
Hart House is a Gothic-revival student centre complex overlooking a lawn within Hart House Circle. Among its many common rooms, the building's Great Hall is noted for large stained-glass windows and a long quotation from John Milton's Areopagitica that is inscribed around the walls. The adjacent Soldiers' Tower stands 44 m tall as the most prominent structure in the vicinity, its stone arches etched with the names of university members lost to the battlefields of the two World Wars. The tower houses a 51-bell carillon that is played on special occasions such as Remembrance Day and convocation.
The Front Campus, the traditional heart of the university, is focused on the oval lawn historically enclosed by King's College Circle. It is dominated by University College on its north side. If you are visiting Toronto by private car, you can park in the Landmark Garage (accessible via the west end of Wellesley Street) and then explore on foot the Front Campus and other nearby areas like Queen's Park.
Queen's Park Subway Station
This ceramic tile mural, a gift from the Government of Portugal, is located within the fare-paid area of the subway station mezzanine level. The mural's theme is Portuguese exploration of the New World.
The building features a 4-metre high bamboo grove just inside the main entrance. Effectively, it is a small interior park with benches within the bamboo grove.