A Length of Chain  

​A Summerwalk at SummerWorks - 2009​

Summerworks is a curated summer festival in Toronto founded in 1991. In 2005 they inaugerated a program of local walking tours called Summerwalks.   
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A Length of Chain was an interactive tour that re-surveyed the land along the busy Queen Street West (once called Lot Street).  The tour began with a detailed account of the controversial purchasing of the land that is now Toronto from the Mississaugas of the New Credit First Nation. Participants then resurveyed the old Lot St. with a small imperial system measuring wheel. The tour detailed the lives of the first European owners of these substantial 'lots' of land. 

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Who were these first Europeans? Mostly British Army Officers. They were very well treated by John Graves Simcoe because of their unwavering loyalty to the British Crown.

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Visitors gained a new understanding of the busy urban Toronto landscape and how the rhythm of this original survey is still present in the city of today. 

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Writer and researcher. Delivered with the help of my daughter.

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