Osgoode Hall

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Osgoode Hall in 1856

Areal view of Osgoode Hall in 1930s (the building is to the upper right of the photograph. Note the armories (now demolished) behind the complex (upper left area of photo).

Osgoode Hall is the name for a landmark building in downtown Toronto which houses the Ontario Court of Appeal, the Superior Court of Justice, and the headquarters of the Law Society of Upper Canada. The buildings also housed the Osgoode Hall Law School until 1969 when the faculty was relocated to the campus of York University in suburban Toronto.

The six-acre (24,000 m²) site at the corner of Lot Street (Queen Street today) and College Avenue (University Avenue today) was acquired by the Law Society in 1828. At the time the location was on the northwest edge of the city which has since grown around the building. It was originally bounded on its North side by Osgoode Street, and at its East by a street that would eventually be known as Chestnut street. The former no longer exists, and the latter now stops at Armoury Street as Nathan Philips Square now lies to the East. The original two and a half storey building was started in 1829 and finished in 1832 from a design by John Ewart and W. W. Baldwin. The structure was named after William Osgoode, the first Chief Justice of Upper Canada (what is now the Canadian province of Ontario).

An 1844 expansion was designed by Henry Bowyer Lane. In 1846 the Law Society entered into an agreement with the government to house the province's Superior Court at the hall. Today, the building is jointly owned by the Law Society and the government of Ontario.

From 1855 to 1857 the building was refurbished and enlarged again, according to a design by the firm Cumberland and Storm, to accommodate courts with the original 1829 building becoming the east wing. From 1880 to 1891 the building was again expanded twice in order to accommodate the law school.

Despite the expansions, the hall presents a unified design in the late Palladian style. The iron fence surrounding the lawns of Osgoode Hall has become a landmark in itself. Its distinctive iron gates are narrow and restrictive; they were designed to keep livestock out of the grounds of the Hall, there being a common practice of herding cattle down Queen Street during the 19th century.

The building is located opposite the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts.