The Don Jail was built because the previous jail at Front and Berkeley was badly overcrowded. It was built to house 40 prisoners and by 1857, it was holding 180.

So, logically, April decided to reach out to the Northampton Museum directly. Yesterday she shared their correspondence with me. The person who wrote her back was a woman named Rebecca, whose title is "Curator, Shoe Specialism, Northampton Museums and Art Gallery." If that is all I had seen of the letter I would've considered it a satisfying experience because that is an OUTSTANDING title. Rebecca, the Shoe Specialism Curator, told April that "The shoes are a woman’s leather peep toe sling back sandal and a man’s leather slip on shoe." She estimated that they're from the late 1950s or early 1960s. She then expanded on the practice of shoe concealment in general. Rebecca shot down the commonly assumed rationale of shoes being an item placed within walls to ward off evil spirits which, she informed us, are formally known as "apotropaic" items. She said that current thinking on the matter is that wall shoes are about good luck and hope. She went on, saying "they could also be in some cases mini time capsules, hidden rubbish or hidden for a lark by builders, or if a child’s shoe is found in a master bedroom a symbol of fertility, wishing the couple lots of children." So there is certainly some wiggle room here, but I'm liking the good luck explanation best. Rebecca concluded by saying, "In due course the information you have provided will be added to the concealed shoe database. Thank you for sending it in, it is much appreciated."

People often ask me why I am so fascinated with England. There are a lot of reasons, but a really big one is that every third town in England has a museum that is known for something profoundly random and uncommercial like "concealed shoes" research. That museum is not just some lark or side hustle by an enthusiast, but a proper, governmentally-funded public good, open from Tuesdays through Sundays from 10 to 5, which employ educated curators who are specifically dedicated to the esoterica in question and who take obvious pleasure in educating others about it. It's absolute Wes Anderson shit and I positively live for it.

In today's newsletter I wrote about my friend @aprilrichardson.com's introduction to horsehair plaster and the discovery of shoes hidden in walls. This led to the discovery of a strangely specific museum curator and, folks, I find the whole story delightful. www.cupofcoffeenews.com/cup-of-coffe...

Sherlock Holmes Is Finally Free To Be Gay I recently watched the utterly ridonkulous TV show Young Sherlock, which takes some delightfully strange liberties with the character of Sherlock Holmes....

As of 2023, Sherlock Holmes is finally in the public domain in the United States -- which means that Arthur Conan Doyle's heirs and random other rights-holders can no longer insist that the character be free of any trace of homoeroticism.

buttondown.com/charliejane/...

Happening later today at 5pm. amherstburgfreedom.org/event/cheryl...

The Don Jail was Toronto's most notorious prison. In part one of this episode, we'll explain why the prison was built and the ideas behind its design. We'll also talk about some of the people who spent time there during the 19th century.
spotifycreators-web.app.link/e/ndv23fX3v2b

Toronto's Most Notorious Murders. Explore bone-chilling true tales from the city's past with this online course from author Adam Bunch. Begins May 7, 2026. Pay what you like. adambunch.com

"Toronto's Most Notorious Murders" is back — four weekly lectures filled with some of the most bone-chilling true tales from the city's past.

Pay what you like!

Learn more: adambunch.com/murderregist...

Close up of a tree branch with cherry blossom buds. The CN tower is visible in the distance and the sky is blue with some clouds.

📍 Trinity Bellwoods Park #Toronto

Canada’s residential school abuse survivors face fresh battle to stop testimony being destroyed First Nation communities warn that government must act as accounts face destruction, risking central part of Canada’s reckoning with its colonial past

Canada’s residential school abuse survivors face fresh battle to stop testimony being destroyed

Riots of Toronto: A Walking Tour. Join author Adam bunch for dramatic true tales from rampaging firefighters, brawling clowns, drunken revellers and more. Saturday, April 25 at 4pm. Meet at George & Adelaide Streets. We'll end near Yonge & Dundas around 6pm. Pay what you like.

A dramatic new Toronto history walking tour!

The city has been shaken by countless riots over the years — from rampaging firefighters to brawling circus clowns. So we'll be talking about some of the most fascinating Toronto riots in the places where they happened.

Next Saturday! Pay what you like!

Street art decorates underpass at Warden and St. Clair avenues Two new murals were unveiled with a ribbon cutting at Warden and St. Clair avenues this week.

Maybe an offshoot of this? I know Barbara Dickson has been doing a ton to share that history: www.toronto.com/news/street-...

April 19 is more than a date in Toronto’s history, it’s the anniversary of the Great Fire of 1904, when flames swept through the downtown core and changed the city forever.

#OnThisDay #1900s #greatfireof1904 #firefighting #history #torontohistory #toronto #canada #jeremyhopkin

The tops of tall trees visible above a thick low lying fog blanketing the Toronto islands.

📍 Toronto Islands | Shrouded in fog, treetops floating above the lake #Toronto

Weird fog, Toronto

A familiar neighbourhood - Toronto City Hall from Bay Street (At Adelaide St. W.)
Image from a circa 1950s postcard.

Gift of Norm Attikin
Toronto Public Library

#baystreet #1950s #torontohistory #postcard #jeremyhopkin

Looking for something to do with lunch?

finding-old-castle-frank | Jane's Walk Toronto Festival

📣Let's go "Finding Old Castle Frank" on a Jane's Walk! 👣

Join me on Saturday, May 2 at 10:00 AM at Castle Frank Station as we explore around the history and geography of the Castle Frank area! 🏰

Full details on the @janeswalk.bsky.social site!

www.janeswalkfestivalto.com/saturday-may...

This is exactly what is planned to happen. A half-baked sloppy rebuild of the paths, ignoring other aspects of the park’s layout.

Instead of discipline, coherence and design, we spend more money giving more room to the trucks.

bsky.app/profile/dami...

One of the busiest parks in Toronto and as usual, it looks like trash. Staff destroying the landscapes they’re supposed to care for by driving full-size pickups through them. Incoherent design. Poor construction. Ugly fixtures. Somebody should lose their job over this.

This Friday at noon! Bizarre and unlikely tales from the history of baseball in Toronto — from donkeys to black cats to mysterious disappearances

A free lunchtime lecture over Zoom hosted by the Toronto Public Library.

Learn more: tpl.bibliocommons.com/v2/events/69...

The 1926 Toronto Maple Leafs Baseball Club: Toronto Mike'd Podcast Episode 1881 In this 1881st episode of Toronto Mike'd, Mike chats with DM Fox, author of The Howleyites: Toronto’s Changing City, A Stadium Rising, and The Champions of 1926, about the 1926 Toronto Maple Leafs Bas...

Here's my chat with @dmfox.bsky.social, author of The Howleyites: Toronto’s Changing City, A Stadium Rising, and The Champions of 1926, about the 1926 Toronto Maple Leafs Baseball Club.

www.torontomike.com/2026/04/the-...

Seems like a good time to share an amazing bit of reporting by Cokie Roberts that has stuck with me: Her discovery of a letter from Louisa Adams detailing how Congress left behind *40 pregnant mistresses* after the extra-long session of 1820, necessitating more orphanage space -->

Register – Rails Reclaimed: How Toronto’s rail infrastructure found new life – Zoom Rails Reclaimed: How Toronto’s rail infrastructure found new life – Zoom, Tue 14 Apr 2026 - Rails Reclaimed uncovers the afterlives of Toronto’s rail infrastructure. How many former streetcar, radial ...

7pm Tonight! Join me for "Rails Reclaimed", my Second Tuesday Zoom talk for the Toronto Railway Museum.

This event is free and open to the public, but registration is required.

www.tickettailor.com/events/toron...

#torontohistory #streetcarhistory #transit #torontorailwaymuseum #jeremyhopkin

In which we'll talk about Toronto in the 1920s (no, I wasn't around then), the Golden Age of baseball, Maple Leaf Stadium, the real Toronto Maple Leafs, rising Canadian nationalism, and a larger than life character named Howling Dan Howley.

This thread explains how prison libraries are already run on a shoestring budget and all books are donated. Eliminating prison libraries is a crime.

Shawn Micallef: Artemis II rekindled our interest in space — which makes the loss of this Toronto landmark hit that much harder Artemis II returns to Earth even as crews demolish the McLaughlin Planetarium, the symbol of a bygone era of enthusiasm for space exploration.

In @thestar.com today I wrote about the dreamy rekindling of space travel coinciding w Toronto’s terrestrial tear down of a communal place to share the Dark Side of the Moon.

Mark Carney has been in power for a year. His government's stated policy is to minimize regulation on AI. He rushed an AI consultation that privileged business interests, not Canadian values. Experts in its social effects were sidelined into a consultation that was summarized by AI.

Pls stop listening to Evan Solomon & the Cdn Vichy tech bros

Banners of Jays players hang outside the Rogers Centre looking over large lines for the Springer bobblehead

Fun fact about these player banners that hang outside the SkyDome. (I was talking to the guy at the Authentics Store.)

They sell them after the season, but they're a pain in the ass for staff (they're about 3 storeys tall and 300 pounds). To date they've only ever sold one: to Chris Bassitt's dad.

Saturday! A new walking tour all the history of spies in Toronto. Pay what you like! No registration required!

Poilievre’s comments on folklore aren’t quaint—they’re dangerous Poilievre’s allegory to Robin Hood was not, after all, a quaint diversion from matters of real political substance. His speech sets a dangerous precedent for shifting public discourse toward the my…

Chris Greencorn looks at the keynote Pierre Poilievre delivered for the Margaret Thatcher Lecture and the context behind Poilievre's reference to Robin Hood.