Gothic Summit Day 2: Bunnies, Bunnies Everywhere

Today was the conference portion of the Summit; we heard many interesting and insightful papers covering topics across Canada, Britain, and even South of the Equator. We found that UVic was a welcoming campus with blooming trees and flowers everywhere. What we weren't prepared for were the hordes of bunnies hopping all over the campus (we say hordes because we don't know if the correct term is flock, gaggle, murder, or herd); there were literally thousands of little bunnies from babies to behemoths all over the campus munching on treats left for them by the students - it was an odd and yet endearing scene all around.

NOTE: a conferencer who shall remain unnamed ate rabbit for dinner!!!

The Daily Debacle - April 15th

Our first day in Victoria was on the whole a good one, though our spirits were lifted and then crushed when we thought we spotted a killer whale in the Victoria Harbour (unlikely - we know). While walking by the pier and admiring the view we saw ocean spray like from a blow hole, we quickly went for our cameras ready for the orca to strike again, but what we not prepared for was our excitement to be smashed to discover the blow hole spray was really a repeated splash caused by a kid throwing rocks off a cliff - what a jerk.

Victoria 2010 - Malcolmites Unite in the Name of Gothic Architecture

This marks the beginning of the 2010 Gothic Summit in Victoria, BC. We have all descended upon Victoria to discuss our current research interests in the realm of Gothic architecture in Canada. In the tradition of the Summit we have arrived early to check out the local architecture scene before the conference begins.

Our adventure began early this morning on an airplane ride fit for Monty Python - one stinky onion lady, one mid-air yoga practitioner aiming his rear end in our general direction, and one gaseous gent dropping stink bombs up and down Malcolm's aisle!!!

Once arriving in Victoria we dropped off our luggage and hit our first church, St. Andrew's Presbyterian, 1890.

Our Building of the Week: St. George's Anglican Church, Sibbald Point

Stepping through the lych gate and entering the churchyard of St. George's, Sibbald Point is like stepping out Ontario and into rural England. This is the second St. George's on this property, which was donated for the construction of a church by the Sibbald family. Built in 1877, the current church replaced the original 1839 wooden church. The current building was designed by Gavillais and Thompson of Barrie and executed by local craftsmen in the memory of Susan Sibbald.
Architecturally the church is lovely with quoines, stringcourses, labels and functioning gargoyles all executed in handcut stone.

A Nice Day of Architecture Spotting...

I would like to recommend Unionville, Ontario to those looking for a nice day of building hunting. Unionville is a small village in Markham, Ontario that developed over the course of the 19th century. The village is freckled with Victorian architecture - cottages, houses, a historic railway station, mills, factories, storefronts and churches - making it a great spot for lovers of 19th-century architecture.

( Former Second Congregational Church, 1879, E.J. Lennox, architect.)

Posting Drought

Hi everyone,

Just wanted to apologize for our lack of posts lately - the winter term is just ending and there are lots of papers to write and, even worse, to mark. 

On the bright side, it looks as though the drought will soon be over as we are heading out to B.C. next week for the Annual Gothic Summit conference and to check out a bunch of B.C. architecture!  We're hoping to post pretty regularly while we're out there, so please stay tuned to check in on our adventures!

Poll Results

We asked you what church you like best, St Mark's Port Hope or St John's Port Hope, and 100% of voters chose St John's!


It seems that our readers (by far) prefer the more advanced style of Gothic Revival used at St John's, built 1867-1868 by the firm of Gundry and Langley, over the Commissioners' style of Gothic used at St Mark's.

Thanks for voting and be sure to check in soon to vote for the next poll!