Osgoode Hall by John Honsberger

Author:John Honsberger
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Dundurn
Published: 2004-03-14T05:00:00+00:00

Upper rotunda.

There was space on the second floor for courtrooms, on the east and west sides, for the Court of Queen’s Bench and the Court of Common Pleas. The courtrooms in the west wing formerly used by the Court of Queen’s Bench and Common Pleas were refitted for the use of the Court of Chancery and the Court of Error and Appeal.

The Great Library, with its “serene, uplifting space, generous height, tall columns and magnificent plasterwork domes,”63 was at the front of the second floor across the centre of the building. It was strictly classical, with all parts except for the fireplace conforming to the demands of the Corinthian order. It was originally planned to have a door in the centre of the west wall to provide access to the adjacent west wing. This was changed to the southwest corner to accommodate a massive, ten-foot-high stone fireplace and mantel with a carved stone clock flanked by two candelebras. Brass gallery railings replaced the iron railings the original specifications called for. Over the mantel was a high baroque mirror, which was soon replaced by the portrait of John Beverley Robinson.64 At forty feet in width, the room was not quite as broad as the benchers desired, but the height of the ceiling — also forty feet — exceeded the benchers’ expectation by ten. The east wall had a single window, which was later walled up and against which the First World War memorial was subsequently placed. Across the south wall were seven tall Italianate windows that allowed bright daylight to stream through — too much, perhaps, for books.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.