Doors Open...part one

It's Doors Open season in Ontario again and this past weekend I met up with friends who live in Cobourg (about a 2 hour drive east from where I live) and we set out to explore the area. 



The one place that I really wanted to see was Victoria Hall. 



It is an imposing structure that is now - and always was - used as a town hall, art gallery and concert hall.

and yes, there were fears that it might end up as a pile of stone rubble by the 1970s (it was built in 1860), but with the help of at least one feisty councillor named Lenah Field Fisher, it was restored to its former glory.

(you'll notice that these pictures were obviously not taken taken in the same season, and not even taken this year. there wasn't quite the profusion of flowers this year, so these are from 2012)

Inside, as well as the third floor art gallery, and the second floor concert hall is the main floor courtroom

With its panelled boxes, it's modelled after the Old Bailey in London and is the only known sunken court room in Canada.

Now, instead of being sent down for a criminal offence in this room, one can have a unique wedding setting.

this was possibly my favourite room of the day

Just down the street is the old armouries which is now the police station. 

I neglected to take a photo but, wouldn't you know it, I do have an old postcard. We toured the newly renovated facility and saw the dark old jail cells as well as the light filled new offices 

and I really wanted to add these jail cell keys to my old key collection. I wish I'd taken a picture of the whole display case to show just how enormous they were!

then we headed outdoors where we were treated to an impromptu first lesson on a segway!

for a brief millisecond, I thought about grabbing my friend's purse and taking off, just to have this poor cop try to chase me on this thing.

but, I remembered what those jail cells looked like and besides, we had more to see.....