St. John's: Downtown

Sunday 11 December 2016
“Walkers are 'practitioners of the city,' for the city is made to be walked. A city is a language, a repository of possibilities, and walking is the act of speaking that language, of selecting from those possibilities. Just as language limits what can be said, architecture limits where one can walk, but the walker invents other ways to go.” ― Rebecca Solnit, Wanderlust: A History of Walking


I began my series of blog posts about St. John's with a post on eating and drinking, which felt to be the most logical place to begin. Our trip could be easily divided into two categories: Eating and walking, and much of our walking took place in downtown St. John's.

What stunned me about downtown St. John's is how new it all is, the result of a fire that ravaged the city at the end of the 19th century. Very few buildings were left standing.
Late in the afternoon of 8 July 1892, a small fire broke out in a St. John’s stable after a lit pipe or match fell into a bundle of hay. Although containable at first, the flames quickly spread due to dry weather conditions, a disorganized fire department, and poor planning on the part of city officials. Within hours, the fire had destroyed almost all of St. John’s, leaving 11,000 people homeless and causing $13 million in property damage. (Source: Heritage Newfoundland and Labrador)
When we began researching things to do and see in the St. John's area, I relied heavily on the insight of bloggers. Here are just a few of the many places that helped me quickly fall in love with the city.

Harbourside Park

The National War Memorial

Bookish St. John's

Afterwords Bookstore (245 Duckworth St.)

Broken Books (183A Duckworth St.)



Jellybean Row

George Street Festival

The George Street Festival has been on bucket my list for many years, so we snagged tickets to not one, but two nights, to see our hometown boys Arkells and later Alan Doyle (formerly of Great Big Sea).


Fred's Records (198 Duckworth St.)

Government House

The Battery
The colourful Battery is where we began our hike up Signal Hill, but more on that memorable day later!

9 comments:

  1. Thank you for sharing this article with us! I believe there will be more people like me, they can find many interesting things in this article of you!
    autoketing
    Free shipping bar
    Shopify free shipping bar app

    ReplyDelete
  2. wow, i am really surprised with the idea of ??the article, it turned out long ago I and a lot of people have misunderstood about the issue, maybe I should visit it often.
    facebook chat downloader, facebook customer service live chat, best autoketing

    ReplyDelete
  3. What do I say about your posts? I love them. I read them everyday and always wait for new ones. I am very happy because I have something interesting to read. Hope you can upload more and more.
    autoketing
    chat facebook
    live chat on facebook

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thanks for posting about this article, it contains real information that extends my understanding, I'm sure everyone will see it as well.
    currency converter box online, currency converter box free, best autoketing app

    ReplyDelete
  5. Very interesting blog. Alot of blogs I see these days don't really provide anything that I'm interested in, but I'm most definately interested in this one. Just thought that I would post and let you know.
    Happy Wheels Game
    The-light-temple-fireboy-and-watergirl-2 Game
    Jelly-go Game

    ReplyDelete
  6. The author of this post is very talented, I greatly admire you, hope you will succeed in the next post.
    Stickman Warriors good games to try, Happy Glass free games online, Wheelie Challenge interesting game

    ReplyDelete

  7. food games 2019
    basketball online games
    soccer games
    I am very interested in this post, everyone should know it more, wish you success. The author of this post is admirable, it brings a lot of emotion to everyone reading it, let's share it more widely.

    ReplyDelete
  8. I feel great about it and love studying more on this topic. It is extremely helpful for me. Thanks for such a valuable help again
    jogo io jogar
    frivgame 2019
    2player games for kids

    ReplyDelete
  9. Annie Cooking Donuts games
    play Toon Escape: Mini Golf free
    Extreme Kick online
    I am really enjoying reading your well written articles. It looks like you spend a lot of effort and time on your blog. I have bookmarked it and I am looking forward to reading new articles. Keep up the good work.

    ReplyDelete

 
Designed with ♥ by Nudge Media Design