The Golden Square Mile, also known just as the Square Mile, is the nostalgic name given to an urban neighbourhood developed principally between 1850 and 1930 at the foot of Mount Royal, in the west-central section of downtown Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The name "Square Mile" has been used to refer to the area since the 1930s; prior to that, the neighbourhood was known as 'New Town' or 'Uptown'. The addition of 'Golden' was coined by Montreal journalist Charlie Lazarus, and the name has connections to contemporary real-estate developments, as the historical delimitations of the Golden Square Mile overlap with Montreal's contemporary central business district.

From the 1790s, the business leaders of Montreal looked beyond Old Montreal for spacious sites upon which to build their country homes. They developed the farmland of the slopes of Mount Royal north of Sherbrooke Street, creating a neighbourhood notorious for its grandeur and architectural audacity. At the Square Mile's peak (1850–1930), its residents included the owners and operators of the majority of Canadian rail, shipping, timber, mining, fur and banking industries. From about 1870 to 1900, 70% of all wealth in Canada was held by this small group of approximately fifty men.

By the 1930s, multiple factors led to the neighbourhood's decline, including the Great Depression, the dawn of the automobile, the demand for more heat-efficient houses, and the younger generations of the families that had built these homes largely moved to Westmount. During the Quiet Revolution, some of the businesses created in Montreal, on whose fortunes the Square Mile had been built, moved to Toronto. In this period, the Square Mile evolved to gradually become the central business district, and many of its grand houses were demolished. The face of the Square Mile was altered, leading to the formation of Heritage Montreal to preserve architecture in the city.

By 1983, only 30% of the mansions in the northern half of the Square Mile had survived demolition; and only 5% survived south of Sherbrooke Street. Many of the remaining mansions, such as the James Ross House, today known as Chancellor Day Hall, are today owned by McGill University. Nevertheless, the mansions of the Golden Square Mile represent a prosperous period during which Montreal was the cultural and financial capital of Canada.

Borders

The neighbourhood had precise borders measuring roughly a square mile, covering the area between Boulevard René-Lévesque at the southern end; Pine Avenue at the foot of Mount Royal at the northern end; University Street at the eastern end, and Guy Street, along with Côte-des-Neiges Road, at the western end. In effect, however, the 'Square Mile' was contained within a far smaller area, between Sherbrooke Street and Pine Avenue, and Côte-des-Neiges and University, covering scarcely nine streets on the north–south axis. From east to west: McTavish Street, Peel Street, Stanley Street, Drummond Street, Mountain Street, Ontario Avenue (now Avenue du Musée), Redpath Street, Simpson Street, and Guy Street; and three streets on the east–west axis, from south to north: Sherbrooke St. West, McGregor Street (now Doctor Penfield Avenue) and Pine Avenue.

Architecture
The architects of the Square Mile included Robert Findlay, Bruce Price, Sir Andrew Taylor, William Thomas, John Hopkins and the brothers Edward and William Maxwell. The architecture was an eclectic mix of the Neo-classical, Neo-Gothic, Romanesque, Second Empire, Queen Anne and Art Nouveau, though other styles also figured prominently, sometimes within the same home. By World War I, simpler houses were built, such as Herbert Molson's. Maison Cormier was one of only a few examples of Art deco.

Scottish sandstone and local granite were commonly used materials, and most homes had substantial grounds, atria and large conservatories. A great many of the Square Milers were keen horticulturalists and aside from their gardens, they enjoyed keeping hothouse flowers through the long winters. The streets of the Square Mile were lined with elm, spruce and maple trees, but an outbreak of Dutch elm disease in the 1970s destroyed those that had once lined Sherbrooke Street.

Montreal's mercantile community (1642-1930)

In 1642, a fort named Ville Marie was founded on the Island of Montreal by Paul de Chomedey de Maisonneuve. Ville Marie became a centre for the fur trade and French expansion into New France until 1760, when it was surrendered to the British army, following the French defeat of the Battle of the Plains of Abraham. British immigration expanded the city.

The British immigrants who came to Montreal after the Conquest tended to be from well-connected mercantile families and immigrated to Canada as a means to further their fortunes, unlike earlier British immigrants who came to North America to escape religious or political persecution.

The city's golden era of fur trading began with the advent of the locally owned North West Company. In the 1760s, the men of the Beaver Club, a gentlemen's dining club, provided the financial backing and necessary management to take control of the fur trade. The new merchants were associated with the North West Company, the Hudson's Bay Company and the agents of the East India Company, and eventually dominated the fur market in most of British North America.

As many of the wealthy French Canadians moved from Canada to France following the Conquest, British merchants were able to cheaply purchase vast tracts of land upon which to build factories, and take control of the banking and finance of the new Dominion. The growing fortune of the Montreal mercantile elite of this era was consolidated through marriage and company mergers. After the collapse of the fur trade in the 1850s, the mercantile elite turned its interest to railways and shipping.

By the mid-19th century, the Montreal mercantile elite, residing in the Square Mile, firmly held the reins of Canada's economy. The merchants successfully connected Canada by building a network of railroads and exploiting maritime routes and the port of Montreal, which l remained the principal port through which immigrants arrived, and also through which Canada's produce was shipped to and from Britain and the Empire.

For decades, the wealth accumulated from the fur trade, finance, and other industries made of Montreal's mercantile elite a "kind of commercial aristocracy, living in lordly and hospitable style," as Washington Irving observed. In 1820, John Bigsby penned his impressions of the city:I found, but did not expect to find, at Montreal a pleasing transcript of the best form of London life — even in the circle beneath the very first class of official families. But I may be pardoned; for I had seen in the capital of another great colony (Cape Town) considerable primitiveness of manners.. (In Montreal) at an evening party at Mr Richardson's the appointments and service were admirable; the dress, manners, and conversation of the guests, in excellent taste. Most of the persons there, though country-born, had been educated in England (Britain), and everything savoured of Kensington. There was much good music.. Some of the show-shops rival those of London in their plate-glass windows, and its inns are as remarkable for their palatial exterior as they are for their excellent accommodation within.. Montreal is a stirring and opulent town.. Few places have so advanced in all the luxuries and comforts of high civilisation as Montreal.

Periods

Early estates

Before the 1840s, the landed, political and wealthier merchant classes of Montreal lived on their seigneuries during the summers and came to the city only for Parliament or to conduct business during the winter. In 1816, Francis Hall, then a young officer with the 14th King's Hussars, observed that Montreal's gentry "live in a splendid style, and keep expensive tables". They kept townhouses on St. James Street, Notre-Dame Street and overlooking the Champ de Mars; enjoying among other entertainments the German Orchestra and Viennese dances held at the Hayes House theatre on Dalhousie Square. In 1795, Isaac Weld commented that "the people of Montreal, in general, are remarkably hospitable and attentive to strangers; they are sociable also amongst themselves, and fond in the extreme of convivial amusements".

But lively as it was, Old Montreal with its frequent fires and swelling population was becoming less desirable. The wealthy merchants in particular began to seek large plots of land on which to build homes worthy of their success while remaining close to their business interests; and, their eyes turned to the fertile farmland under Mount Royal. John Duncan observed in 1818 that, "a number of very splendid mansions have lately been erected on the slope of the mountain, which would be regarded as magnificent residences even by the wealthy merchants of the mother country". In 1820, John Bigsby described the view from Château St. Antoine, then said to be 'the most magnificent building in the whole city and standing within 200 acres of parkland roughly at the end of Dorchester Street:

I had the pleasure of dining with (William McGillivray) at his seat, on a high terrace under the mountain, looking southwards and laid out in pleasure-grounds in the English style. The view from the drawing room windows of this large and beautiful mansion is extremely fine, too rich and fair, I foolishly thought, to be out of my native England. Close beneath you are scattered elegant country retreats embowered in plantations, succeeded by a crowd of orchards of delicious apples, spreading far to the right and left, and hedging in the glittering churches, hotels, and house-roofs of Montreal...

The early residents of the Square Mile enjoyed marked benefits from being the first to settle there: The houses were surrounded by acres of parkland, with long carriage drives, vineries, orchards, fruit and vegetable gardens. The surveyor Joseph Bouchette noted that the produce from these gardens in the summer months was "excellent in quality, affording a profuse supply... in as much, or even greater perfection than in many southern climes". In 1822, Sir Richard Phillips commented that,

A number of handsome villas now make their appearance around the town, and there are numerous sites still unoccupied, which will probably be hereafter crowned with elegant seats. Few places in the world possess more capabilities of this kind than Quebec and Montreal; if the latter is less bold than the former in its scenery, it possesses much richness and delicate beauty, which need nothing but wealth and taste to display them to advantage; the former already exists in Montreal to a great extent, and there are also very respectable proofs of the existence and growth of the latter.

List of principal structures built
 Beaver Hall. Built in 1792, for Joseph Frobisher, it stood between the McTavish and McGill properties on the site that is today commemorated as Beaver Square. It stood amidst 40 acres made up of forest and apple trees, roughly where the Sun Life Building is today. The house measured 80 feet across and his dining room comfortably sat forty guests. It burned down in a fire in 1847.
 Burnside Place. Built in 1797, for James McGill. Unlike the mansions built by McGill's contemporaries, Burnside was a comfortable farmhouse of two stories over a basement for the kitchen and servants, standing on 46 acres of land, and used by the McGills during the summer. In his will, McGill bequeathed the property and £10,000 to establish a university, which would become McGill University. Immediately after his death, the house was occupied by his stepson, François-Amable Trottier DesRivières, who fought to keep the house for himself rather than give it to the Royal Institution for the Advancement of Learning as his stepfather had intended. The last person to occupy the house was John Bethune; it was replaced by the Arts Building in 1837. "Burnside Place" is visible in an early photograph by William Notman, a view from Mount Royal towards the harbour, taken in 1860. It was located roughly where McTavish and De Maisonneuve intersect. The Arts Building is located further up the hill. The engraving by John H. McNaughton, 1842, shows "Burnside" in relation to the McTavish House, which was located near the site of the new Arts Building.
 McTavish House. Built in 1800 for Simon McTavish. Constructed with dressed limestone by French masons. The facade of the main house measured 145 feet across, with two semi-circular towers, capped by typically French conical roofs at each end. Soon after its completion, it was described as "a large, handsome stone building.. at the foot of the mountain in a very conspicuous situation. Gardens and orchards have been laid out, and considerable improvements made, which add much to the beauty of the spot". The house was left empty from 1805 and was supposedly haunted by McTavish. It was demolished in 1860/61, when the estate was broken up and sold off in plots. Some of the stone from the original house was used to construct Braehead in 1861.
 Chateau St. Antoine. Built in 1803, for William McGillivray. A 'fine Georgian structure of cut stone', the house was described in 1816 as the most magnificent building in the whole of the city. The house, which boasted 'an enchanting' ballroom, stood on Cote St. Antoine near the end of Dorchester Street within 200 acres of parkland 'laid out in pleasure-grounds in the English style'. McGillivray was said to have lived like a lord, enjoying a magnificent view of the city and the river. The house was afterwards occupied by several different owners: John McKenzie, Louis-Joseph Papineau,  Charles Wilson and finally the Desbarats family. It has since been demolished.
 McLeod House, Rue St. Antoine. A 'first class house' built circa 1810 for Archibald Norman McLeod, since demolished.
 St. Antoine Hall, St. Antoine Street; a forty-two room home built for John Torrance, 1818; A 'handsome residence' built in the palladian style, on a 'grand and sprawling estate,' renowned for its acres of gardens, greenhouses, vineyards and orchards, surrounded by a high brick wall. Since demolished.
 Piedmont, Pine Avenue; built before 1820, when Louis-Charles Foucher moved in with his family. It was purchased in the 1830s by John Frothingham; inherited in 1870 by John Henry Robinson Molson. The house stood among orchards and formal gardens and was approached by a long tree-lined drive on what are today the grounds of McGill University. Its 10 acres of grounds were purchased by Lords Strathcona and Mount Stephen in 1890, on which they built the Royal Victoria Hospital. The house was demolished in 1939.
 Lunn House, Sherbrooke Street; built in 1825 for William Lunn, demolished 1920
 Manoir Souvenir, between Dorchester Boulevard and the fashionable Rue Saint-Antoine; it stood within a park of 240 acres and was built in 1830 for Frédéric-Auguste Quesnel; afterwards inherited by his nephew, Charles-Joseph Coursol. It still stands today, though derelict and barely recognisable from its former grandeur.
 Terrace Bank, Sherbrooke Street; built in 1837 for John Redpath who purchased the 235-acre estate for £10,000 from the Desrivières family in 1836. He subsequently subdivided the property at a profit of £25,000, with little infringement on their space, before building his home on a plot amidst gardens and orchards with a private road that ran up to the house from the corner of Mountain and Dorchester streets. The house was enlarged by the Redpaths in 1861 and since demolished. The land on which the house stood has been replaced by Redpath Crescent.
 Kildonan Hall, Sherbrooke Street; built in the 1840s for Joseph Mackay. In the photograph of the house its conservatory can just be made out on the left, and the coach house and stables are seen beyond the arch to the right of the house. It was demolished in 1930.
 Mount Prospect House, Sherbrooke Street; built in 1842 for William Workman, demolished 1952
 Athelstane Hall, 'a fine house' on St. Alexander Street; built in 1844 for John Smith, and afterwards occupied by Rev. Gavin Lang. Since demolished.
 Notman House, Sherbrooke Street; built 1843-45 for Sir William Collis Meredith, to the design of John Wells (architect). Although it lies outside the Square Mile and is of more modest proportions than its counterparts, it is the only surviving residence of its era on Sherbrooke Street - that was once lined with many like it. It is also one of Quebec's only few remaining Greek Revival residences. It was purchased by Alexander Molson circa 1865, who sold it in 1876 to William Notman, for whom it is named today. In 1894, it was purchased by Sir George Drummond for use as the St. Margaret's Home for Incurables. In 2012, it was purchased by the OSMO Foundation.
 Rosemount, McGregor Street; built in 1848 for Sir John Rose, 1st Baronet on land that he purchased from Sir George Simpson; purchased in 1871 by William Watson Ogilvie and altered by him in 1890; purchased in 1926 by Sir Percy Walters who demolished the house in 1943 to create 'Percy Walters Park'.

1850 to 1869
Following the strikes and the Burning of the Parliament Buildings in Montreal, the new decade was "like the arrival of a Montreal spring, prosperity and stability invigorated the city in the early 1850s". Sir Hugh Allan was elected President of the Montreal Board of Trade in 1851 and work on railways and steamships was evident everywhere, bringing with it a surge of construction. There were now a dozen architects practising in the city and the newly rich competed with one another for the largest, most decorative homes.

The city's lively reputation had not diminished, as Charles Goodrich suggested with a hint of disapproval: "If you wish to enjoy good eating, dancing, music and gayety, you will find an abundance of all (at Montreal)". While staying at Donegana's Hotel in 1853, Clara Kelly wrote to her father, Sir Fitzroy Kelly, describing her impressions of the city and the Square Mile in its infancy:

The scenery I find remarkably pretty, and, moreover, the city has an air of comfort, and to a certain extent of antiquity, rarely to be seen in the States.. The view from (Mount Royal's) summit is most picturesque, - green undulating land dotted with country houses and cottages, with beautiful gardens and trees.. The scene of the terrible fire which occurred here three years ago was pointed out to us. It has fearfully devastated a great part of the town. It seems difficult to understand how such a fire could have lasted so long a time and have done so much mischief, as the houses were not built of wood, which I had always imagined to be the case.. (We visited) a most beautiful and wonderful garden, belonging to a Montreal merchant (probably John Torrance of St. Antoine Hall), whose name I forget but who has collected here everything which is rich and rare, in shrub or flower.

Completed in 1863, Sir Hugh Allan's new house, Ravenscrag, was to be the jewel of the Square Mile, as he intended. He purchased fourteen acres from the decaying McTavish estate and built a sumptuous home of 72 rooms that excelled "in size and cost any dwelling-house in Canada," surpassing Dundurn Castle. By the 1860s, Montreal had come of age, which was recognised by three Royal visits from the future Edward VII, Prince Alfred and Prince Arthur, the most of any colony.

List of principal structures built
 Masson House, Dorchester Street; built c.1855 for Wilfrid Masson
 St. James's Club, Dorchester Street; built 1857, since demolished
 Homestead, Dorchester Street; built in 1858 for Harrison Stephens. The house remained in the Stephens family until his grandson sold it in 1929, and it was demolished.
 Strathearn House, Beaver Hall Hill; built in 1860 for William Dow, now a restaurant
 Braehead, McTavish Street; built 1861 for Orrin Squire Wood. Designed by James Brown and constructed of Montreal limestone taken from the demolished house of Simon McTavish, one whose original estate it stands. Purchased 1869 by Matthew Hamilton Gault. The next generation of the Gaults gave it to the army to be used as a convalescence hospital for disabled soldiers during World War I. Purchased by George H. Duggan in 1929, who donated it to McGill, 1944. Still standing, known as Duggan House.
 Mount View, Sherbrooke Street; built in 1862 for James Linton; altered, but still standing
 Ravenscrag, Pine Avenue; built 1863 for Sir Hugh Allan, now the Allan Memorial Institute
 David Law House, Cote des Neiges; built 1863, since demolished
 Iononteh, a greystone mansion that dominated upper Peel Street. Built 1865, for Andrew Allan by John W. Hopkins. Since demolished.
 Galt House, Simpson Street; built in the 1860s for Sir Alexander Tilloch Galt, later lived in by George Caverhill; since demolished
 Dilcoosha, Sherbrooke Street; built in the 1860s for Jesse Joseph, demolished in 1955 due to structural problems. McLennan Library Building now occupies the site.
 David Morrice House, Redpath Street; built in the 1860s, since demolished
 Prince of Wales Terrace, Sherbrooke Street; built in 1860 by Sir George Simpson, demolished in 1971 by McGill University to make way for the Samuel Bronfman Building.
Victoria Skating Rink, Stanley Street; built in 1862, demolished after 1925. It was built through the capitalization of a number of industrialists of the area of the Victoria Skating Club.

1870 to 1889

Following the Confederation of Canada, the mercantile elite was led by the Allan brothers (Sir Hugh and Andrew), described by the Gazette as the "pioneers of our commercial greatness". In 1878, the Marquis of Lorne and Princess Louise were posted to Canada as the new Vice-regal couple, while Montreal was attracting celebrities of the day such as Charles Dickens, Rudyard Kipling, Mark Twain and Abraham Lincoln. At the same time in London, the likes of Emma Albani and Sir Gilbert Parker were representative of Quebec's culture.

In the 1880s, the Canadian Pacific Railway was completed under the direction of Lord Mount Stephen, Lord Strathcona and R.B. Angus, after which it was continued by Lord Shaughnessy and Sir William Cornelius Van Horne. Celebrating their success, they spared no expense on their homes, with interiors decked in detailed mahogany and private art galleries housing works of the likes of Raphael, Rembrandt, Cézanne, Constable and Gainsborough etc. Van Horne's collection of Japanese pottery brought connoisseurs from Britain, the United States and Japan; and the Old Masters collection belonging to James Ross was frequently loaned out for public exhibition around the world.

Ashton Oxenden was Bishop of Montreal from 1869 to 1878. As an Englishman, previously well travelled in France, Italy, Germany, Switzerland and Spain, he paid a high complement to "this flourishing and wealthy city" when he stated that, "upon the whole, I prefer Montreal, as a place of residence, to almost any town that I have ever seen." Oxenden particularly enjoyed the "picturesque city's cheerfulness (and the) kindness of its inhabitants":

There is an abundance of charitable institutions at Montreal (and) all well managed.. among the Roman Catholics especially there are many institutions on an enormous scale.. I have hardly seen a beggar in the streets or in the country. There is a great absence of poverty, except perhaps among the lowest French population.. Happily there is at present (1871) a kindly feeling between the Roman Catholics and Protestants, each pursuing their own course without molesting the other. The general cost of living (is) much the same as in an ordinary English town.. Dinner parties are frequent in Montreal. There is perhaps a little too much expense devoted to them; and this prevents all but the wealthy from indulging in such hospitalities.

The Upper parts of the town are of more recent growth, and contain commodious and detached houses, belonging to the men of business and persons of fortune. The streets in this part of the town are as yet incomplete, showing at present certain gaps, which will ere long be filled up with handsome houses. They are all flanked by trees, chiefly maples (which) greatly add to the beauty of the town. The Montreal builders are excellent. They not only run up their houses at an indescribable speed, but they build them well and substantially.

Aside from the men at the very top, the CPR had also brought about another housing boom to the Square Mile: In 1885, Sir John Abbott, the company's chief lawyer, built his new home on Sherbrooke Street and Peel, and in doing so set a trend among his boardroom colleagues, as Oxenden had correctly predicted, filling the gaps within the Square Mile.

List of principal structures built
 Van Horne Mansion; built in 1869 for John Hamilton, President of the Merchant's Bank. In 1890, it was purchased and enlarged to 52 rooms by Sir William Cornelius Van Horne. It remained in the Van Horne family until it was controversially demolished in 1973.
 Bellevue Hall, at the foot of Bishop Street on Dorchester Street; built before 1870 for William Edmund Phillips, since demolished.
 Elmbank, off Dorchester Street; built in the 1870s for Andrew Robertson, since demolished
 John James Redpath House, Sherbrooke Street; built in 1870, demolished 1955.
 Tiffin House, Sherbrooke Street. Built in 1874, demolished in 1896.
 Burland House, University Street. Built in 1875 for George Bull Burland; designed by J.W. Hopkins. Purchased and restored by architect Claude Gagnon in 1973.
 Rokeby, Sherbrooke Street. Built 1875 for Andrew Frederick Gault, designed by James Brown. Since demolished.
 Lord Shaughnessy House, Dorchester Street; completed in 1876 by William Tutin Thomas; now the Canadian Centre for Architecture
 R.B. Angus House, Drummond Street; built in 1878, before it was demolished in 1957, it served as McGill's Conservatory of Music
 Strathcona House, off Dorchester Street; built 1879, best associated with Donald Smith, 1st Baron Strathcona and Mount Royal, demolished 1941
 Lord Mount Stephen House, Drummond Street. Built over three years (1880-1883) at a cost of $600,000, it was designed by William Tutin Thomas. In 1888, Mount Stephen retired to England and he left the house to his niece, Elsie (Stephen) Meighen, the mother of Elsie Reford. Income tax was introduced after the First World War and in 1926 the Meighens were forced to sell the property. It was purchased by three anglophone businessmen, Noah Timmins, J.H. Maher and J.S. Dohan, who two years later converted it into a private club, the Mount Stephen Club In 1975, it was designated a National Historic Sites of Canada as the best example of Renaissance Revival architecture in Canada.
 Cragruie, McGregor Street; built on a plot of ten acres of land in the 1880s for Duncan McIntyre. McIntyre's estate had extensive frontage on both Pine Avenue and Drummond Street, with a connecting right-of-way to Peel Street. The house was demolished by 1935, but the land remained under the ownership of the McIntyre family until 1947 when McIntyre's descendants (Mrs Archibald Hodgson, Mrs Lewis Reford, Mrs R.A. Snowball and Duncan McIntyre Hodgson) gave it to McGill University. The area became known as McIntyre Park, and in 1966 the McIntyre Medical Sciences Building was built upon the land.
 Louis-Joseph Forget House, Sherbrooke Street; built in 1883, now offices
 Francis Redpath House, Ontario Avenue. Built in 1885 and designed by Sir Andrew Taylor. The Sochacevski family (the present owners) began demolition in 1986 to replace it with a condominium block, despite opposition from Heritage Montreal and local citizens. The remains were razed in 2014.
 Baumgarten House, McTavish Street; built in 1887 for Baron Alfred Baumgarten. The house resembled the ancestral home of his wife, Donners Park, in Altona, Hamburg. His widow sold it to McGill in 1926 and it became the home of General Sir Arthur Currie. From 1935, it has been the McGill Faculty Club.
 Rotherwood, Redpath Street; built in 1887 for George Hague. After his death it was left empty for several years. His heirs had found taxes too heavy and could not afford to maintain the house. Unable to sell it at a decent price, it was demolished in 1929.
 Sir George Drummond's House, Sherbrooke Street, on the corner of Mansfield Street; built by Sir Andrew Taylor in 1888. It was  demolished by the City of Montreal in 1930 and the site was used as a car wash.

1890 to 1914
From the 1890s into the Edwardian era the city enjoyed a gilded age. Stephen Leacock recalled, "the rich in Montreal enjoyed a prestige in that era that not even the rich deserve". The men of the CPR retired in the 1890s, having created "the world's greatest transportation system," selling a package of cheap land (their land holdings were equal in size to the Province of Alberta) with a cheap ticket from Britain through to the Canadian West. Together they had built a nation, seeing over a million immigrants settle in the west, and by exploiting the mineral resources included in their land grants, they and their shareholders would see their net earnings grow year on year to $46 million in 1913. Unprecedented amounts of capital now flowed in from Britain to build Western Canada, and Montreal, where every major company had its headquarters, was once again at the centre of this latest web of prosperity - "those who thought that the government of Canada was in Ottawa were mistaken, it was here".

In perhaps no section of the Colonies have Englishmen and Scotsmen made more of their opportunities than in Montreal. There is an air of prosperity about all their surroundings which at once impresses the visitor. Taken all in all, there is perhaps no wealthier city area in the world than that comprised between Beaver Hall Hill and the foot of Mount Royal, and between the parallel lines of Dorchester and Sherbrooke Streets in the West End.

The wealth inherited and managed by the next generation of Square Milers continued to grow, but while many were successful as businessmen they were less entrepreneurial. They financed and worked closely with newcomers such as Sir Edward Beatty, Sir Herbert Samuel Holt and the last of the great Square Mile tycoons, J.W. McConnell. These men had easily integrated themselves into Square Mile society, but there was a new and hungrier generation of anglophones coming to Montreal, epitomised by Sir Henry Thornton, who were not as readily accepted by the older generation, which jealously guarded over the dominance of their cornerstones, the CPR and the Bank of Montreal. Notably, this new group included Max Aitken and Isaac Killam, who were 'pilled' (barred) from entry into the Mount Royal Club. In 1899, finding that the St. James' Club had become "too overcrowded," the Square Mile's leading businessmen, led by the likes of Strathcona and Angus, established the Mount Royal Club that overnight became Montreal's most prestigious. Lord Birkenhead found it to be "one of the best clubs I know in the New World, with the indefinable atmosphere about it of a good London club".

As much as the next generation spent their money on parties, new houses, grand refurbishments and summer homes, they also continued to pour money back into education, health, and culture; albeit for the most part to the benefit of Montreal's anglophone community. Giving an estimated $100 million to charity in his lifetime, McConnell followed in the magnanimous steps of some of Montreal's best remembered philanthropists, such as Lord Strathcona, to whom King Edward VII referred as "Uncle Donald" in recognition of his generosity towards charitable causes across the British Empire.

A strong British influence predominated in the Golden Square Mile during this era. This was recognised in London by increasingly frequent Royal visits. "The Union Jack flew from Ravenscrag (since inherited by Sir Montague Allan)" where the Montreal Hunt now met, and Lady Drummond was heard to reflect the sentiments of the Square Mile by stating, "the Empire is my country. Canada is my home". The best households were not always necessarily run by Canadians, but by governesses, butlers, cooks, nursemaids and maids sourced from Britain, who were used to working in large houses.

List of principal structures built

 Hector Mackenzie House, on the corner of Mountain and Sherbrooke Streets. Built 1891, designed by John Hopkins. Used as the Air Force Club during World War II, it was afterwards acquired by Standard Life and demolished in 1960 to make way for its new office tower.
 James Ross House, Peel Street. Built 1892, today McGill's Chancellor Day Hall
 Elmenhorst House, Peel Street; built in 1893, since demolished
 Ardvana, Pine Avenue. Built 1894, for Sir Vincent Meredith, 1st Bt. The land on which the house was built was formerly part of  Andrew Allan's estate, and given to his youngest daughter on her marriage to Meredith. The house was designed by the Maxwell brothers and the gardens were laid out by Olmsted & Eliot. The house was enlarged again in 1906. Lady Meredith gave it to the Royal Victoria Hospital to be used a nurses residence in 1941. McGill University purchased the building in 1975, and renamed it Lady Meredith House. It was designated a National Historic Site of Canada in 1990.
 Clouston House, Peel Street. Built 1894, by the Maxwell brothers for Sir Edward Clouston, 1st Bt. The imposing Château style mansion had a round corner tower capped by a conical roof and connected by way of a loggia to a polygonal oriel. The house was finished in rough masonry of buff and red sandstone. Sculptor Henry Beaumont designed the decorative stone carvings on the exterior. Construction of the building cost $44,715. The house was demolished in 1938.
 The Gatehouse, Peel Street; built for McIntyre & Angus, 1894; now part of McGill
 Crathern House, McGregor Street. Completed in 1894 for James Crathern. Demolished 1963.
 Lord Atholstan's house, today known as Maison Alcan, Sherbrooke Street. Built in 1896, it is now designated a Quebec Historic Monument. It is a leading example of the sympathetic restoration of an old property incorporated into modern use by Alcan as their headquarters.
 Orr-Lewis House, Sherbrooke Street. Built circa 1900 for Sir Frederick Orr-Lewis, 1st Bt., later of Whitewebbs Park, near Enfield in England.
 Frederick Molson House. Built in 1901, designed by Robert Findlay. Demolished by the City of Montreal in 1957.
 Charles Hosmer House, Drummond Street. Built in 1901, now part of McGill University
 Charles Francis Smithers House, Drummond Street. Built in 1902, designed by Robert Findlay. It was an excellent example of the Tudor style with Flemish influences. The facade was illegally demolished by real estate developers in 1974. After a paying a negligible fine, in 1977 the developers were allowed to demolish the rest of the house replacing it with a high-rise apartment building.
 Robert Wilson Reford House, Drummond Street. Built in 1900, designed by Robert Findlay. Demolished in 1968.
 Charles Meredith House, Pine Avenue. Built in 1904, now part of McGill University.
 Purvis Hall, Sir Mortimer Davis's house, Pine Avenue. Built in 1907, designed by Robert Findlay. Today it owned by McGill University and known as Purvis Hall.
 James Thomas Davis House, Drummond Street. Built by the Maxwells in 1908, it is now part of McGill University.
 Linton Apartments, Sherbrooke Street West. Built in 1908.
 Percy Cowans House, Ontario Avenue. Built by the Maxwells in 1909. The main structure survives and the house has been subdivided into apartments.
 J.K.L. Ross House, Peel Street. Built in 1910, today part of McGill University.
 Joseph-Marcellin Wilson House, Ontario Avenue. Built 1910, still standing.
 Charles G. Greenshields House, McGregor Street. Built 1911, still standing.
 Herbert Molson House, Ontario Avenue. Built in 1912, designed by Robert Findlay. It is still standing.
 Chancellor Beatty Hall, Pine Avenue. Built in 1912, by Morely Hogle for Albert Edmund Holt. Purchased by Sir Edward Beatty in 1924. Today part of McGill.
 University Club, Mansfield Street. Built 1913 to the design of Percy Nobbs.
 Sir Rodolphe Forget House, Ontario Avenue. Built in 1912, now offices.
 Charles Edward Deakin House, Redpath Crescent. Built 1913, still standing.
 Kenneth Molson House, Pine Avenue, at the top of Mountain Street. Built in 1914, the house of 47 rooms stood six storeys high and was complete with an elevator and a built-in vacuum cleaning system. There were seven master bedrooms, four bathrooms, a conservatory, a Billiard room and a Rifle range. There was a verandah on every floor, including one for the servants, and a two-car garage with chauffeur's quarters. It was demolished after 1938.
 Edmund Graves Meredith Cape House, Redpath Crescent. Built 1914, still standing.
 Frederick Beardmore House, Pine Avenue. Built in 1914, afterwards purchased by Sir Henry Worth Thornton. Still standing.
 J.W. McConnell House. Built in 1914, for Colonel Jeffrey Hale Burland, afterwards purchased by McConnell. One of the very few which remains a private house.

World War I

The men associated with the Beaver Club, the predecessors of the Square Milers, had almost all served in the Canadian Militia and on the outbreak of the First World War the next generation did not hesitate to take up arms. At his own expense, Hamilton Gault raised Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry, the last privately raised regiment in the British Empire. He was injured three times leading his regiment into battle, and even after losing a leg he still returned to the Front. Lord Strathcona's Horse, raised by that Canadian peer for the Boer War, was once again returned to action. The British Prime Minister David Lloyd George claimed to his biographer that had the war continued into 1919, he would have sought to replace Field Marshal Douglas Haig with the Square Mile's General Sir Arthur Currie.

The Ladies of the Square Mile raised money for the troops and some like Lady Meredith, the Gaults and the Baumgartens opened their houses to injured soldiers returning from Europe. The personal services in England of the Canadian Red Cross were under the charge of Lady Julia Drummond who saw that each Canadian soldier returned to an English hospital received a visit offering sympathy and supplying any basic needs. When Martha Allan trained as a nurse and bought an ambulance which she drove in France, her mother was inspired to set up a hospital in England for Canadian soldiers.

Economically, Montreal would emerge from the war nearly unscathed, due in a large part to the steady hand of the president of the Bank of Montreal, Sir Vincent Meredith. In 1919, fifty families were said to have controlled a third of Canada's invested wealth, and the great majority of them were based in Montreal.

The End of an Era

The Square Mile had reached its peak in the Edwardian era, both in spirit and substance. What followed was a steady decline as aggressive American-style corporations took control of the family businesses whose origins laid with the Scots-Quebecers and the Beaver Club. 'New money' swept into Montreal from the United States, Western Canada and, such as the Bronfman family, from different ethnic backgrounds. Similarly to the Canadiens of the Ancien Régime a century before, the Square Milers with their old-fashioned British ideals and business principles did not adapt to the changes in society and held themselves aloof. Newcomers, who neither knew nor cared about the old guard and their traditions were more often than not barred from entry into Square Mile society (such as membership to Montreal's most prestigious men's club, the Mount Royal), but this only served to further alieniate the declining enclave.

Changing attitudes, the war, the introduction of income tax and the invasion of commerce in the streets below Sherbrooke all played their part in the decline. The Wall Street Crash of 1929 affected a great number of Square Milers, though not as badly as it did their American counterparts. Art collections were sold and some tried to sell their houses, but there were no takers. The J.K.L. Ross House was sold for $50,000 in 1930, only a few years after it had been valued at $1 million. Those who had relied on investments moved to smaller, more heat-efficient houses in Westmount or took apartments at the Ritz-Carlton Montreal, whereas others like Sir Herbert Samuel Holt, who never dealt on margin, emerged untouched.

The Great Depression in Canada during the 1930s fueled the Quebec nationalist movement and set the course for the Quiet Revolution. The social divide between anglophones employers and French Canadian workers in Quebec had existed for a long time, but the economic turmoil of the Great Depression led to calls for change from the status quo. For the next four decades the Union Nationale government, with the support of the Catholic Church, dominated Quebec politics, undermining anglophone domination.

In 1977, the newly elected Parti Québécois (PQ) government passed the Charter of the French Language (known as Bill 101), making the use of French language mandatory for medium and large-scale companies when communicating with French-speaking staff. This law, the election of the PQ, and the threat of Quebec independence caused instability in the province's business environment, and accelerated the move of some companies' headquarters from Montreal to other Canadian cities, including Calgary and Toronto. Some companies remained in Montreal, including the Montreal Exchange North America's oldest brewery, Molsons, but others moved their headquarters elsewhere, such as the Bank of Montreal, Sun Life Financial, the Royal Trust and The Guarantee Company of North America. Toronto had surpassed Montreal as the financial capital of Canada in 1934, and the move of these companies out of Montreal marked the end of an era.

Demolition

By the end of World War II, the homes within the Square Mile were for the most part left empty or only partially occupied. Montreal's central business district had shifted northwest toward Sherbrooke Street, in the area of the Square Mile. From 1945 to 1965, many of the great mansions were acquired by commercial and civic institutions and demolished or repurposed beyond all recognition.

The majority of the mansions were demolished and replaced with high-rise office or residential developments, but some two dozen other homes were also transformed into university or commercial offices. Ravenscrag was left by Sir Montague and Lady Allan to the Royal Victoria Hospital in 1942. The sumptuous residence was converted into the Allan Memorial Institute, and McGill University used its fourteen acres of grounds to erect subsidiary buildings.

Some demolitions were controversial. The Van Horne Mansion, the centre of Square Mile society since the 1930s was demolished by promoter David Azrieli in 1973, igniting a vigorous public debate regarding conservation of historical buildings, and the reasons for which a building should be preserved. The demolition of the Van Horne mansion led to the establishment of Heritage Montreal to protect historic buildings at the provincial level. The architectural character of the neighbourhood stabilized, but the original Square Mile as it had been had already changed beyond recognition.

Prospect of further demolition
Modern architecture has emphasised the integration of older buildings with new developments. An example is Maison Alcan, formerly the home of Lord Atholstan, which became the headquarters of Alcan in the early 1980s. Another example is Lady Meredith House, home to McGill's Centre for Medicine, Ethics and Law, which was broken into and set on fire in the 1990s. McGill subsequently renovated and retrofitted the old house to its original elegance, hiring Julia Gersovitz, a McGill graduate and professor. However, threats to the built heritage of the Square Mile remain.

Royal Victoria Hospital
The buildings formerly occupied by the Royal Victoria Hospital and the remaining property on which they stand have been empty since 2015, when the hospital itself moved into the new 'McGill Superhospital' in the Glen Yards. The Royal Vic, a veritable Montreal landmark, has been expanded several times since it was built in 1893, and the changes have never before been cause for concern. In 1891, the public-spirited Lords Mount Stephen and Strathcona purchased the land and gave the necessary funds to the City of Montreal for which to build the hospital. However, they attached a caveat to their donation, stating that the land and its buildings must only ever be used for education and healing.

From 2010, Elspeth Angus (born in 1929), a descendant of R.B. Angus and an heir as the grand-niece of Lord Mount Stephen, has been fighting to maintain not just the wishes but the conditions set down by the founders to the city, and find use for the land and its buildings as a research facility. Heritage Montreal are also supporting her in her efforts. In 2014, McGill University released a proposal for the integration of the site into the McGill campus.

Francis Redpath Mansion

Built in 1886, it was designed by the noted architect Sir Andrew Taylor and was one of the last of his residential projects still standing in the city. In 1986, the Sochaczevski family, the new owners of Francis Redpath's house, began demolition in order to replace it with yet another a vista-changing condominium block. A portion of the house was destroyed before a court injunction was taken out and its destruction was temporarily halted.

In 2001, Mayor Pierre Bourque granted immediate demolition of the house. In 2002, following intervention by Heritage Montreal, Projet Montréal and local citizens, the Commission d'arbitrage de la Ville de Montréal refused the demolition permit granted by the Bourque administration, on the grounds of the solidity of the house and reminding the owner of his obligation to keep it in good condition—the Sochaczevski family had signed an agreement with the Montreal City Council to maintain the house when they bought it in 1986, but did nothing to maintain, protect or stabilize it.

As a mayoral candidate, Gérald Tremblay portrayed himself as a defender of the Redpath house and heritage buildings, but as soon as he gained office—strongly backed by The Suburban newspaper, owned by the Sochaczevski family—he considered a plan to allow demolition to continue. He withdrew his support after the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts stepped in to object.

In December 2013, Mayor Denis Coderre approved the final demolition permit, to be carried out in February 2014. It was demolished on March 19, 2014, just two weeks after Quebec Culture and Communications Minister Maka Kotto intervened to order a halt to the mansion's demolition, in accordance with the Cultural Heritage Act, the Court intervened—at the owner's request—to shorten the period granted in the minister's order. Heritage Montreal expressed regret that the discussions were limited to the owner and the minister, not the community nor municipal authorities. After these talks with the owner, Kotto concluded that Redpath House "does not present a national heritage interest," and gave the go ahead for it to be torn down to make for way for the promoter's development.

Institutions associated with the Golden Square Mile

The Square Milers built and funded various Montreal institutions including:
 McGill University
 Royal Victoria Hospital
 Montreal General Hospital
 McCord Museum
 Montreal Museum of Fine Arts
 Mount Royal Park
 Mount Royal Cemetery
 Campbell Concerts and Parks
 Ritz-Carlton Hotel
 Redpath Library
 Redpath Museum
 Allan Memorial Institute
 Molson Stadium
 Royal Montreal Curling Club
 Montreal Forum
 Montreal Rackets Club
 Montreal Snow Shoe Club
 Montreal Lacrosse Club
 Mount Royal Club
 Royal Montreal Golf Club
 Montreal Victorias
 Montreal AAA
 Montreal Winter Carnival
 Mount Royal Tennis Club
 Victoria Skating Rink.

See also

Beaver Club
Bridle Path in Toronto
Canadian Peers and Baronets
Royal Victoria Hospital, Montreal
Bishop's College School

References

Further reading
 Doug Bellevue. Montreal's Golden Square Mile: A Neighborhood.
 Donald MacKay, The Square Mile, Merchant Princes of Montreal, Douglas & McIntyre, Vancouver, 1987, 224 pp.
 Westley, Margaret W. (1990). Remembrance of Grandeur: The Anglo-Protestant Elite of Montreal, 1900-1950, Libre expression, 331 p. ()

 Dimitry Anastakis, Elizabeth Kirkland, Don Nerbas. Montreal's Square Mile: The Making and Transformation of a Colonial Metropole. University of Toronto Press, 2023.
 Smith, MacKay L. Montreal's Golden Square Mile: A Historical Perspective. Montreal: InfiniteBooks, 2016.

External links
 Youtube video of Elpseth Angus discussing the future of the Royal Victoria Hospital, Montreal
 Images de Montréal
 Virtual McGill – Canadian Architecture Collection, McGill University. Golden Square Mile Mansions
  Quartier du Musée - Ville de Montréal
 Quartier du Musée - official website
 Montrealbear.ca - The Golden Square Mile District
Walk in Golden Square Mile

Neighbourhoods in Montreal
History of Montreal
Historic districts in Canada
Economic history of Canada
Art gallery districts
Historic mansion districts
Quebec Anglophone culture in Montreal
Ville-Marie, Montreal
Upper class

Golden Square Mile


The Prince of Wales Theatre is a West End theatre in Coventry Street, near Leicester Square in London. It was established in 1884 and rebuilt in 1937, and extensively refurbished in 2004 by Sir Cameron Mackintosh, its current owner. The theatre should not be confused with the former Scala Theatre in London that was known as the Prince of Wales Royal Theatre or Prince of Wales's Theatre from 1865 until its demolition in 1903.

History

Phipps' theatre
The first theatre on the site opened in January 1884 when C.J. Phipps built the Prince's Theatre for actor-manager Edgar Bruce. It was a traditional three-tier theatre, seating just over 1,000 people. The theatre was renamed the Prince of Wales Theatre in 1886 after the future Edward VII. Located between Piccadilly Circus and Leicester Square, the theatre was favourably situated to attract theatregoers.

The first production in the theatre was an 1884 revival of W. S. Gilbert's The Palace of Truth starring Herbert Beerbohm Tree, preceded by a one-act comedy, In Honour Bound. This was soon followed by a free adaptation of Ibsen's A Doll's House, called Breaking a Butterfly. In 1885, Lillie Langtry, reputedly the first "society" lady to become an actress, played in Princess George and The School for Scandal. The first hit production at the theatre was the record-breaking comic opera, Dorothy, starring Marie Tempest, which was so successful that its authors used the profits to build the Lyric Theatre, where it moved in 1888. The wordless mime play L'Enfant Prodigue premiered in 1891 which, together with A Pierrot's Life in 1897, brought respectability to mime troupes in Britain. On 23 December 1886,
Henry Savile Clarke and Walter Slaughter's musical Alice in Wonderland (the first major production of the Alice books) debuted at the theatre, with Phoebe Carlo in the title role. Lewis Carroll attended a performance seven days later.

George Edwardes' musical play, In Town, often considered the first English musical comedy, was presented at the theatre in 1892 and was followed by Edwardes' even more successful A Gaiety Girl in 1893. In 1895, Basil Hood's Gentleman Joe, the Hansom Cabby began a long run starring the low comedian, Arthur Roberts, in the title role. The theatre then began to present straight plays with Maeterlinck's Pelléas et Mélisande (1898, with incidental music by Fauré) and Wills's adaptation of Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities as The Only Way (1899, also starring Harvey). Charles Hawtrey starred in the successful A Message from Mars (1901). In 1900–01, Marie Tempest played the title roles in the play English Nell (based on Simon Dale's novel about Nell Gwynn), Peg Woffington, a dramatisation of Charles Reade's novel, as well as Becky Sharp in a dramatisation of Thackeray's Vanity Fair.

The theatre played more musical comedies beginning in 1903, including the Frank Curzon and Isabel Jay hits Miss Hook of Holland (1907, its matinee version, Little Miss Hook of Holland was performed by children for children), King of Cadonia (1908), and The Balkan Princess (1910), and later the World War I hits, Broadway Jones (1914), Carminetta (1917), and Yes, Uncle! (1917).

The theatre then hosted plays such as Avery Hopwood's farce Fair and Warmer (1918) and Ivor Novello's The Rat (1924, Novello's first play, in which he also starred), and revues including A to Z (1921), Co-Optimists (1923), and Charlot's Revue (1924). They starred Gertrude Lawrence, Jack Buchanan, Beatrice Lillie, Stanley Holloway, and Jessie Matthews. Ms Matthews also starred, along with Richard Hearne, in "Wild Rose", featuring the memorable Jerome Kern song "Look for the Silver Lining". These were followed by The Blue Train (1927), Alibi (1928, directed by Gerald du Maurier with Charles Laughton as Hercule Poirot), By Candlelight (1928), and Journey's End (1929). In 1930, Edith Evans became the manager at the theatre, presenting and starring in Delilah, which was not a success. Beginning in 1932, the theatre presented a series of risqué "Folies"-style revues, including Voila! Les Dames (1935) and its last production, Encore les Dames (1937). These shows were so successful that they funded the rapid rebuilding of the theatre in 1937.

Cromie's theatre

After 50 years, the theatre's 800 seats were deemed insufficient for productions of the day, and it was demolished. On 17 June 1937, Gracie Fields sang to the workmen as she laid the foundation stone of the new Art Deco-decorated theatre, designed by Robert Cromie, and the theatre opened on 27 October that year. The new theatre's seating capacity was about 1,100, and it had a larger stage and improved facilities for both the artists and the public, including a large, stylish stalls bar (the bar itself was 14 metres long), complete with dance floor. The first productions at the new theatre were Les Folies de Paris et Londres, starring George Robey, followed by Folies De Can-Can in 1938, a continuation of the old theatre's series of successful risqué revues, which ran continuously until 2 am every night. The musical comedy, Present Arms, was offered in 1940, and in 1941 the theatre screened the UK premiere of Charlie Chaplin's The Great Dictator. The film had been banned in many parts of Europe, and the theatre's owner, Alfred Esdaile, was fined for showing it.

In 1943, Strike a New Note was notable for Sid Field's London debut, and he returned to the theatre in Strike it Again (1944), and yet again in Piccadilly Hayride (1946, a revue that ran for 778 performances). In 1949, Harvey, Mary Coyle Chase's comedy about an imaginary rabbit, was a success, as was Diamond Lil in 1948 starring Mae West. In the 1950s, the theatre hosted variety and revues, starring such famous performers as Norman Wisdom, Peter Sellers, Bob Hope, Gracie Fields, Benny Hill, Hughie Green, Frankie Howerd, and Morecambe and Wise.

In 1958, Bernard Delfont and Michael Dorfman took over the lease of the theatre from Moss Empires. In 1959, Paul Osborn's The World of Susie Wong became the theatre's longest-running play to date with 832 performances. On 4 November 1963, The Beatles performed From Me to You, She Loves You, Till There Was You, and Twist and Shout at the Prince of Wales Theatre, during the Royal Variety Show in the presence of The Queen Mother.

Neil Simon's play, Come Blow Your Horn, starring Michael Crawford, played in 1962, followed by a season of Martha Graham's dance company, including the world première of her ballet Circe. Next was a string of Broadway musicals, including Funny Girl in 1966 with Barbra Streisand, Sweet Charity (1967), and Promises, Promises (1969). The Threepenny Opera was revived in 1972. In 1976, Bernard Slade's Same Time, Next Year was a hit, as was I Love My Wife (1977), and Bedroom Farce (1978). In 1982, Underneath the Arches was a long-running hit. Andrew Lloyd Webber's Aspects of Love (1989) smashed all previous box-office records at the theatre, running for 1,325 performances. More recent productions are listed below.

Refurbishment was carried out in 2004 to increase the seating capacity slightly to 1,160 seats and to modernise the theatre's facilities. New bars were added, the auditorium completely rebuilt, the backstage areas refurbished and the theatre's famous tower and exterior completely gutted and refurbished with new LED lighting and a crisp modern finish.

The theatre re-opened with ABBA's musical Mamma Mia! on 16 April 2004. On 18 August 2007, Mamma Mia! became the longest-running show ever at the Prince of Wales, overtaking the previous record held by Aspects of Love with 1,326 performances at the venue and counting. The production marked another landmark on Thursday 23 August 2007, celebrating its 3,500th performance since its 1999 world premiere at the Prince Edward Theatre in Old Compton Street, London. The production left the theatre on 1 September 2012 and transferred to the Novello Theatre on 6 September 2012.

After a short run of Let it Be, before it transferred to the Savoy for a short run, the theatre is now home to The Book of Mormon which has become the theatre's longest running musical.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, The Book of Mormon was forced to close in March 2020. On 2 August 2021, the theatre re-opened with The Windsors: Endgame based on the Channel 4 sitcom The Windsors. Due to The Book of Mormon reopening on 15 November 2021, The Windsors played its final performance on 9 October 2021.

The theatre was grade II listed by English Heritage in April 1999.

Notable productions
 The Rat (9 May – 13 September 1924)
 It's Magic (10 December 1980 – 6 February 1982)
 South Pacific (20 January 1988 – 14 January 1989)
 Aspects of Love (17 April 1989 – 20 June 1992)
 Annie Get Your Gun (November–December 1992)
 Copacabana (23 June 1994 – 9 September 1996)
 Smokey Joe's Cafe (23 October 1996 – 3 October 1998)
 West Side Story (January–December 1999)
 Rent (December 1999 – January 2000)
 Fosse (8 February 2000 – 6 January 2001)
 The Witches of Eastwick (23 March – 27 October 2001)
 The Full Monty (March–October 2002)
 Rent (October 2002 – March 2003)
 Cliff – The Musical (March–June 2003)
 Mamma Mia! (9 June 2004 – 1 September 2012) – moved to Novello Theatre
 Let It Be (14 September 2012 – 19 January 2013) – moved to Savoy Theatre
 The Book of Mormon (25 February 2013 – 16 March 2020, reopened 15 November 2021)
The Windsors: Endgame (2 August – 9 October 2021)

Nearby tube stations
 Leicester Square tube station
 Piccadilly Circus tube station

References

Further reading
 Guide to British Theatres 1750–1950, John Earl and Michael Sell p. 133 (Theatres Trust, 2000)

External links

 Article on the theatre's history

1884 establishments in England
Art Deco architecture in London
Charles J. Phipps buildings
Grade II listed buildings in the City of Westminster
Theatres completed in 1884
Theatres completed in 1937
Theatres in the City of Westminster
West End theatres

Prince of Wales Theatre


Events
January 24 – Charles VII Albert becomes Holy Roman Emperor.
February 16 – Spencer Compton, Earl of Wilmington, becomes Prime Minister of Great Britain.
February 18 – British attack La Guayra.
April 13 – The first performance of George Frideric Handel's oratorio Messiah, in Dublin.
 May 17 – Frederick the Great's army defeats Austrians in Chotusitz; later Austria cedes Silesia to Prussia
May 25 – A battle is fought at Sahay.
December 2 – The Pennsylvania Journal first appears in print.
Daniel le Pelley succeeds Nicolas le Pelley as Seigneur of Sark.
Kingdom of Prussia captures Jihlava.
Christian Goldbach formulates Goldbach's conjecture.
Colin Maclaurin publishes his Treatise on Fluxions.
Anders Celsius proposes the Celsius temperature scale.
James Bradley succeeds Edmond Halley as Astronomer Royal.
Henry Fielding publishes Joseph Andrews.
John Carteret, 2nd Lord Carteret becomes Secretary of State for the Northern Department.
Rigging of Chippenham by-election causes a political scandal.
William Pulteney created as 1st Earl of Bath.
Robert Walpole was elevated to the peerage and thus moved from the House of Commons to the House of Lords, (see February 16, above).
University of Erlangen is founded.
Lopukhina Conspiracy at the Russian court.
Molde in Norway becomes a city.
Construction starts on the Foundling Hospital in London.
Eisenach builds its Stadtschloss (city castle).
 In Peru, Juan Santon takes the name Atahualpa II and begins an ill-fated rebellion against the Spanish rule
 Afghan tribes unite as a monarchy.

1742


The Grand Mosque of Damascus, also known as the Umayyad Mosque (Arabic: جامع بني أمية الكبير, transl. Ğām' Banī 'Umayyah al-Kabīr), is one of the largest and oldest mosques in the world.It is in one of the holiest sites in the old city of Damascus. It is also very important because of its architecture.

The mosque holds a shrine which is said to contain the head of John the Baptist (Yahya), honored as a prophet by Muslims and Christians alike. The head was supposedly found during the excavations for the building of the mosque. The tomb of Saladin stands in a small garden adjoining the north wall of the mosque.

In 2001, Pope John Paul II visited the mosque, primarily to visit the relics of John the Baptist. It was the first time a pope paid a visit to a mosque.

Images

Damascus
Holy places in Islam
Mosques in Asia
8th-century buildings and structures

Umayyad Mosque


Lofn is a goddess in Norse mythology. Lofn is described in the Prose Edda, written in the 13th century by Snorri Sturluson. She is described as a gentle woman who arranges marriages. She survived the Ragnarök, the battle at the end of the world to determine the fate of the gods.

Norse gods and goddesses

Lofn


Memos Makris (, ) (born April 1, 1913, in Patras – died May 26, 1993, in Athens) was a prominent Greek sculptor. He spent his early childhood in Patras but his family moved to Athens in 1919. He studied at the Athens School of Fine Arts and soon became involved in the artistic and cultural life of the 1930s. During the German Occupation Makris joined the National Resistance. After the liberation he continued his studies in Paris. He was deported from France in 1950 due to his political allegiance to the Left and sought political asylum in Hungary. In Hungary he became an important figure in the country's political and cultural life. In 1964 he was deprived of his Greek nationality, which he regained in 1975 after the restoration of democracy in Greece. In 1979 his first retrospective exhibition in Greece took place in the National Art Gallery.

Important works
Some of his monumental sculptures include the one dedicated to the victims of the Mauthausen concentration camp in Austria, the monument to the Hungarian volunteers of the Spanish Civil War in Budapest, the monument of Liberation in Pécs. Many other of his works adorn squares and buildings all over Hungary. In Greece he is most known for his sculpture of the head of a youngster that is located at the entrance of the NTUA commemorating the 1973 Athens Polytechnic uprising, and in Cyprus for the emblematic statue of archbishop Makarios in the Presidential Palace.

Sources
 Municipality of Patras - Municipal Gallery, Memos Makris, Catalogue of the sculpture retrospective, Ed. Dimitris Papanikolaou, Exhibition curators Zizi Makri and Clio Makri, Patras 1995.

Modern sculptors
Greek sculptors
Hungarian sculptors
1913 births
1993 deaths
Artists from Patras
20th-century Greek sculptors

Memos Makris


Rafic Bahaa El Deen al-Hariri (;    1 November 1944 – 14 February 2005), or Rafiq al-Hariri, was a Lebanese business tycoon and politician, who served as the Prime Minister of Lebanon from 1992 to 1998 and again from 2000 until his resignation on .

Hariri headed five cabinets during his tenure. He was widely credited for his role in constructing the Taif Agreement that ended the 15-year Lebanese Civil War. He also played a huge role in reconstructing the Lebanese capital, Beirut. He was the first post-civil war prime minister and the most influential and wealthiest Lebanese politician until his assassination.

Hariri was assassinated on 14 February 2005 by a suicide truck bomb in Beirut. Four Hezbollah members were indicted for the assassination and are being tried in absentia by the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, but others have linked the assassination to the Syrian government. The outcome of a 15-year investigation led to the guilty verdict of multiple people in Hezbollah's party taking part; however, the only one left alive would be Salim Ayyash, a well-connected, mid-level operative in Hezbollah.

The assassination was a catalyst for dramatic political change in Lebanon. The massive protests of the Cedar Revolution helped achieve the withdrawal of Syrian troops and security forces from Lebanon and a change in governments.

At one point, Hariri was one of the world's 100 wealthiest men and the fourth-richest politician.

Early life and education
Hariri was born on 1 November 1944 to a modest Sunni Muslim family in the Lebanese port city of Sidon. He had two siblings (brother Shafic and sister Bahia). He attended elementary and secondary school in Sidon, and graduated in business administration from Beirut Arab University.

Career
In 1965, Hariri went to Saudi Arabia to work. There, he taught for a short period of time before shifting to the construction industry. In 1978, he gained Saudi Arabian citizenship, in addition to his Lebanese citizenship.

In 1969, Hariri established Ciconest, a small subcontracting firm, which soon went out of business. He then went in business with the French construction firm Oger for the construction of a hotel in Ta'if, Saudi Arabia, the timely construction of which earned praise from King Khaled. Hariri took over Oger, forming Saudi Oger, which became the main construction firm used by the Saudi Royal family for all their important developments. As a result, a few years after his first contract with King Khaled, Hariri had become a multi-billionaire.

Having accumulated his wealth, Hariri started a number of philanthropic projects, including the building of educational facilities in Lebanon. His first initiative in Lebanon was the Islamic Association for Culture and Education, which he founded in 1979. The association was later renamed the Hariri Foundation. Hariri became progressively more embroiled in politics. His appeals to the United Nations and services as an emissary to the Saudi Royal family won him international recognition on the political stage for his humanitarian efforts.

In 1982, Hariri donated $12 million to Lebanese victims of the 1978 South Lebanon conflict and helped clean up Beirut's streets with his company's money and contributed to early reconstruction efforts during lulls in the Lebanon war. Said to have heavily financed opposing militias during the war, his former deputy Najah Wakim later accused him of helping to destroy downtown Beirut in order to rebuild it again and make billions of dollars in the process. After the conflict, he acted as an envoy of the Saudi royal family to Lebanon. He laid the groundwork that led to the 1989 Taif Accord, which Saudi Arabia organised to bring the warring factions together. Taif put an end to the civil war, building goodwill for Hariri politically. While acting as the Saudi envoy to Lebanon, he spent more time in Damascus than in Beirut where he ingratiated himself with the Assad regime; he had a new presidential palace built in Damascus as a gift to the Syrian dictator but Assad didn't use it personally.

Political career
Hariri returned to Lebanon in the early 1980s as a wealthy man and began to build a name for himself by making large donations and contributions to various groups in Lebanon. However, he continued to serve as a political advisor to Prince Bandar bin Sultan in 1983. He was implanted as the Saudis' strong man following the collapse of the PLO and the paucity of any viable Sunni leadership in the country as well as a response to the rising power of the Shiite militia Amal. As a former Saudi diplomatic representative, he played a significant role in constructing the 1990 Taif Agreement that ended Lebanon's sixteen-year civil war. In 1992, Hariri became the first post-civil war prime minister of Lebanon under president Elias Hrawi. In addition, he was the minister of finance. After the 1996 elections he also took on the role of minister of post and telecommunications. Hariri put the country back on the financial map through the issuing of Eurobonds and won plaudits from the World Bank for his plan to borrow reconstruction money as the country's debt grew to become the largest per capita in the world. Between 1992 and 1996 the public debt grew from $3 billion to $9 billion. His first premiership lasted until 1998, and Hariri was replaced by Salim Hoss as prime minister. In fact, as a result of the power struggle between Hariri and newly elected president Émile Lahoud, he left office.

In October 2000, Hariri was again appointed prime minister, replacing Salim Hoss, and formed the cabinet. In September 2004, Hariri defended UN Security Council Resolution 1559, which called for "all remaining foreign forces to withdraw from Lebanon." On 20 October 2004, his second term ended when he resigned from office. Omar Karami succeeded him as prime minister.

1992–1998 economic policies

Hariri implemented an aggressive new economic policy. In 1992 inflation was running at 131% but such was the confidence in Hariri's leadership that within two years it had been reduced to 12%. Perhaps Hariri's most important creation in the beginning of his career was "Horizon 2000" the government's name for its new rejuvenation plan. A large component of "Horizon 2000" was Solidere, the privately owned construction company that was established to reconstruct post-war Lebanon. Solidere was owned by the government and private investors. Solidere was largely focused on redeveloping Beirut's downtown and turning it into a new urban center as quickly as possible as one aspect of the various infrastructure redevelopment plans that would be implemented by "Horizon 2000". Solidere was given powers of compulsory purchase, compensating in Solidere shares rather than cash, and was accused of harassment and underpaying former land owners. Another aspect of the decade-long plan was the privatization of major industries. Numerous contracts were awarded in important industries such as energy, telecommunications, electricity, airports and roads.

The last and perhaps most significant aspect of "Horizon 2000" was economic stimulus via foreign direct investment. Specifically, Hariri supported foreign firms and individuals taking an interest in Lebanon's developmental potential. Hariri simplified tax codes and provided tax breaks to foreign investors. Due to his previous successes in the private sector and the numerous resulting international connections, Hariri was able to garner a significant amount of low-interest loans from foreign investors. Hariri also pursued aggressive macroeconomic policy such as maintaining strict regulations on bank reserves and inter-bank interest rates to curb inflation and raise the value of the Lebanese pound relative to the dollar.

Hariri's economic policies were a remarkable success during his first year in office. From 1992 to 1993 there was a 6 percent increase in real national income, the capital base of commercial banks effectively doubled, the budgetary earnings hovered at around a billion dollars, and commercial banks' consolidated balance sheets increased about 25%. By 1998, however, real GDP growth was around 1%, a year later it would be -1%, national debt had skyrocketed 540% from two to eighteen billion dollars, Lebanon's economy was in a miserable state.

In 1996 it was estimated that 30% of Lebanon's population were living below the poverty line and that there were 500,000 Syrian labourers working illegally in the country.

Hariri and Lebanon's political environment

Amid the political crisis brought on by the extension of President Émile Lahoud's term, Hariri resigned as Prime Minister, saying: "I have... submitted the resignation of the government, and I have declared that I will not be a candidate to head the (next) government."

During a BBC interview in 2001, Harīrī was asked by Tim Sebastian why he refused to hand over members of Hezbollah that were accused by America of being terrorists. He responded that Hezbollah were the ones protecting Lebanon against the Israeli occupation and called for implementation of passed United Nations resolutions against Israel. He was further accused of making the American coalition in the war on terrorism worthless and asked if he was ready for the consequences of his refusal, reminding him that George W. Bush had said: "Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists." He replied that he had hoped there would be no consequences, but would deal with them if they arrive. Hariri further said that he opposed the killing of all humans – Israeli, Palestinian, Syrian or Lebanese – and believed in dialogue as a solution. He further went on to say that Syria would have to stay in Lebanon for protection of Lebanon until they are no longer needed and Lebanon asks them to leave.

Lebanese Druze leader Walid Jumblatt, a recent recruit of the anti-Syrian opposition, emboldened by popular anger and civic action now being called Lebanon's Cedar Revolution, alleged in the wake of the assassination that on 26 August 2004 Syrian President Bashar al-Assad threatened Hariri, saying "[President of Lebanon] Lahoud is me. ... If you and Chirac want me out of Lebanon, I will break Lebanon." He was quoted as saying "When I heard him telling us those words, I knew that it was his condemnation of death." This meeting between Hariri and Assad, which had been on 26 August 2004, lasted for just fifteen minutes.

On 22 June 2005, Beirut International Airport was renamed Rafic Hariri International Airport. Additionally, Beirut General University hospital was renamed Rafiq Hariri Hospital. Rafic Hariri was succeeded by his son Saad Hariri as leader of the Future Party.

Corruption
Hariri was accused of corruption that plagued Lebanon during the Syrian occupation. Among the allegations made against him was that his wealth grew from less than $1 billion when he was appointed prime minister in 1992, to over $16 billion when he died. The
Company for the Development and Reconstruction of Beirut's Central District (French: Société Libanaise pour le Développement et la Reconstruction du Centre-ville de Beyrouth), more commonly known by the French-derived acronym "Solidere", expropriated most property in the central business district of Beirut, compensating each owner with shares in the company which were worth as little as 15% of the property's value. As the primary shareholder of the company, Hariri and his business associates profited immensely from this project. Moreover, it was reported in November 1996 that $26 million had been embezzled from the Ministry of Finance, which Hariri headed in addition to being prime minister during his first two terms in office.

Hariri and his protégés were not the only beneficiaries of this spending spree. In order to secure support from militia chieftains and pro-Syrian ideologues that Damascus had installed in the government, Hariri allowed kickbacks from public spending to enrich all major government figures. Contracts for the import of petroleum were awarded to the two sons of President Elias Hrawi.

As result of the growing criticism and popular discontent with Hariri's policies, the government banned public demonstrations in 1994 and relied upon the Lebanese Army to enforce the decree. Supporters of Michel Aoun were also perpetually harassed and detained. In return for a relatively free hand in economic matters, Hariri cooperated with Syria's drive to consolidate its control over Lebanon. Under the guise of "regulating" the audiovisual media, the government placed control of all major television and radio stations in the hands of pro-Syrian elites, a process which began on 17 September 1996 when Information Minister Farid Makari ordered a ban on the broadcasting of news programs. This was followed eight days later by a government decree ordering the closure of Lebanon's 150 privately owned radio stations and 50 TV stations. Licenses were to be issued to Hariri's Future Television, the Christian-owned Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation International (LBCI), Murr Television (MTV) owned by the brother of Interior Minister Michel Murr, and the National Broadcasting Network (NBN) being set up by Nabih Berri. The radio stations which were to be given licenses were Hariri's Orient Radio, Berri's NBN, and the Lebanese Forces's Voice of Free Lebanon. It was estimated that the move would result in the loss of 5,000 jobs.

Personal life
Hariri married twice. He had six children. In 1965, he married an Iraqi woman, Nidal Bustani, who is the mother of his three sons; Bahaa (born 1967), who is a businessman, Saad, who succeeded his father as leader of the future movement, and Houssam—who died in a traffic accident in the US in the late 1980s. They divorced. He married his second spouse, Nazik Audi, in 1976 and she is the mother of three of Hariri's children: Ayman, Fahd and Hind.

From 1982 until his death, Hariri owned 2–8a Rutland Gate, a large house in London's Knightsbridge district. The house was gifted to the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, Sultan bin Abdulaziz, after Hariri's assassination.

Assassination

On 14 February 2005, Hariri was killed when explosives equivalent to around  of TNT concealed inside a parked Mitsubishi van were detonated as his motorcade drove near the St. George Hotel in Beirut. 23 people, including Hariri himself, were killed. Among the dead were several of Hariri's bodyguards and his friend and former Minister of the Economy Bassel Fleihan. Hariri was buried along with his bodyguards, who died in the bombing, in a location near Mohammad Al-Amin Mosque.

A 2006 report by Serge Brammertz indicated that DNA evidence collected from the crime scene suggests that the assassination might be the act of a young male suicide bomber.

In its first two reports in 2014, the United Nations International Independent Investigation Commission indicated that the Syrian government may be linked to the assassination. Lawyers tasked with prosecuting those responsible for the 2005 bombing said they had received evidence linking Bashar Assad's phone to the case. In its tenth report, the UNIIIC concluded "that a network of individuals acted in concert to carry out the assassination of Rafiq Hariri."

A Canadian Broadcasting Corporation news investigation claimed that the special UN investigation team had found evidence for the responsibility of Hezbollah in the assassination. A UN-backed tribunal issued four arrest warrants to members of Hezbollah.

Hezbollah blamed the assassination on Israel.

Alleged Hezbollah supporters Salim Jamil Ayyash, Hassan Habib Merhi, Hussein Hassan Oneissi, and Assad Hassan Sabra have been indicted for the assassination and were tried in absentia by the Special Tribunal for Lebanon.

Aftermath

Hariri was well regarded among international leaders, for example, he was a close friend of French President Jacques Chirac. Chirac was one of the first foreign dignitaries to offer condolences to Hariri's widow in person at her home in Beirut. The Special Tribunal for Lebanon was also created at his instigation. Syria was initially accused of the assassination, which led to the withdrawal of Syrian troops from Lebanon following widespread protests.

Major General Jamil Al Sayyed, then head of Lebanese General Security, Brigadier General Mustafa Hamdan, Major General Ali Hajj and Brigadier General Raymond Azar were all arrested in August 2005 at the request of German prosecutor Detlev Mehlis, who was carrying out the UN investigation about the assassination. Sayyed was one of the persons who decided to assassinate Rafik Hariri according to a leaked draft version of the Mehlis report along with other Syrian high-rank intelligence and security officers and officials, namely Assef Shawkat, Maher Assad, Hassan Khalil and Bahjat Suleyman. However, later reports about the assassination did not repeat the allegations against Jamil Al Sayyed and other three Lebanese generals. Four Lebanese generals were held in Roumieh prison, northeast of Beirut from 2005 to 2009. They were released from the prison due to lack of evidence in 2009.

Following Hariri's death, there were several other bombings and assassinations against minor anti-Syrian figures. These included Samir Kassir, George Hawi, Gebran Tueni, Pierre Amine Gemayel, Antoine Ghanem and Walid Eido. Assassination attempts were made on Elias Murr, May Chidiac, and Samir Shehade (who was investigating Hariri's death).

An indictment against alleged Hezbollah members Salim Jamil Ayyash, Mustafa Amine Badreddine, Hussein Hassan Oneissi, and Assad Hassan Sabra was issued and confirmed by the Pre-Trial Judge of the United Nations special tribunal (see Special Tribunal for Lebanon) in 2011. In February 2014, the case against Hassan Habib Merhi was joined with the Ayyash et al. case. Proceedings against the accused Mustafa Badreddine were terminated in July 2016 following credible reports of his death. Salim Jamil Ayyash, Hassan Habib Merhi, Hussein Hassan Oneissi, and Assad Hassan Sabra currently remain on trial in absentia.

Hezbollah accused Israel of the assassination of Hariri. According to Hezbollah officials, the assassination of Hariri was planned by the Mossad as a means of expelling the Syrian army from Lebanon. In August 2010, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah presented evidence, consisting of intercepted Israeli spy-drone video footage, which he said implicated Israel in the assassination of Hariri. After an altercation between male Tribunal staff and women at a gynecology clinic in October 2010, Hezbollah demanded that the Lebanese government stop all cooperation with the Special Tribunal, claiming the tribunal to be an infringement on Lebanese sovereignty by western governments. On 1 November 2010, a report was leaked by Al Akhbar, a local secular, leftist newspaper, stating that Hezbollah drafted plans for a quick takeover of the country in the case an indictment against its members is issued by the UN Special Tribunal. The report states that Hezbollah conducted a simulation of the plan on 28 October, immediately following a speech by its secretary general.

On the other side, it was revealed by leaked US embassy cables that then Egyptian General Intelligence Directorate director Omar Suleiman reported that Syria "desperately" wanted to stop the investigation of the Tribunal.

See also
 List of assassinated Lebanese politicians
 List of Lebanese people in Saudi Arabia
 Hariri Tribunal, officially called the Special Tribunal for Lebanon

Notes

References

Sources
Sallam, Qasim (1980). Al-Baath wal Watan Al-Arabi [Arabic, with French translation] ("The Baath and the Arab Homeland"). Paris: EMA.
Stephan, Joseph S. (2006) Oeuvres et performances du president martyr Rafic Hariri, les performances economico-financieres avant Paris 2 et apres, le philanthrope batisseur
Blandford, Nicholas (2006). Killing Mr Lebanon: The Assassination of Rafik Hariri and Its Impact on the Middle East
Vloeberghs, Ward (2015). Architecture, Power and Religion in Lebanon: Rafiq Hariri and the Politics of Sacred Space in Beirut

External links

 Rafic Hariri () – Official site with news, video, press releases, speeches, statements, government policy, Cabinet decisions and UN resolutions

Print articles
 Family of Slain Lebanese Leader Demands Probe into Killing -The Associated Press/New York Times 17 February 2005
 Death of Businessman By Ajami, Fouad The Wall Street Journal-17 February 2005 Page A12

1944 births
2005 deaths
Rafic
People from Sidon
21st-century Lebanese politicians
Prime Ministers of Lebanon
Finance ministers of Lebanon
Beirut Arab University alumni
Businesspeople in construction
Lebanese billionaires
American University of Beirut trustees
Future Movement politicians
Assassinated Lebanese politicians
Terrorism deaths in Lebanon
Lebanese terrorism victims
People murdered in Lebanon
Deaths by car bomb in Lebanon
Lebanese emigrants to Saudi Arabia
Naturalised citizens of Saudi Arabia
Lebanese mass media owners
Grand Crosses of the Order of the Star of Romania
Recipients of the Order of the Liberator General San Martin
Grand Cross of the Legion of Honour
20th-century Lebanese businesspeople
20th-century Lebanese politicians
Assassinations in Lebanon
People of the Lebanese Civil War
2000s assassinated politicians in Asia

Rafic Hariri


Avtovo () is a station on the Kirovsko-Vyborgskaya Line of the Saint Petersburg Metro. Designed by architect , it opened as part of the first Leningrad Metro line on November 15, 1955. In 2014, The Guardian included it on the list of 12 most beautiful metro stations in the world.

Avtovo's unique and highly ornate design features columns faced with ornamental glass manufactured at the Lomonosov factory. Although the original plan envisaged using glass on all of the columns in the station, white marble was substituted on some due to time constraints. This marble was supposed to be temporary, but it has never been replaced. The walls are faced with white marble and adorned on the north side by a row of ornamental ventilation grilles. At the end of the platform a mosaic by V.A. Voronetskiy and A.K. Sokolov commemorates the Leningrad Blockade (1941-1944) during the Second World War.

Unlike the other stations on the first line, Avtovo is a shallow-level station, constructed using the cut and cover method.  It belongs to the shallow column class of underground stations.

Avtovo has as its entrance vestibule a large Neoclassical building with a domed cupola, located on the east side of .

Gallery

References

External links
  Description of the station on Metrowalks.ru
 Description of the station on Kommet.spb.ru

Saint Petersburg Metro stations
Railway stations in Russia opened in 1955
Railway stations located underground in Russia
Cultural heritage monuments of regional significance in Saint Petersburg

Avtovo (Saint Petersburg Metro)


Kwita Izina is a  Rwandan ceremony of giving a name to a newborn baby gorilla. It is named after the ancestral baby naming ceremony that happened after the birth of a newborn.

The ceremony's main goal is in helping monitor each individual gorilla and their groups in their natural habitat.  It was created as a means of bringing attention both locally and internationally about the importance of protecting the mountain gorillas and their habitats in Volcanoes National Park in the Virunga Mountains in the north of the country.

References
 Rwanda: Kwita Izina Ceremony to Celebrate 18 Baby Gorillas- 16 June 2009
 Africa: Kenya, Uganda Spice Up Kwita Izina- 13 June 2009
 CNN founder Ted Turner treks Mountain Gorillas - 26 May 2009
 Kwita Izina: Rwanda's 5th Annual Gorilla Naming Ceremony - Jun 25 2009
 "Year of the Gorilla" 5th annual Rwandan Kwita Izina ceremony, to be held on June 20th, 2009
 Rwanda: Kwita Izina Ceremony to Celebrate 18 Baby Gorillas
 Wildlife Direct - Photos From Gorilla Naming Ceremony Jun 23 2008

External links
 Kwita Izina Events Page  The Rwanda Development Board Kwita Izina Event page

Gorillas
Biosphere reserves of Rwanda
Virunga Mountains
Naming ceremonies

Kwita Izina


Dominoes is a game played with small tiles called dominoes. A domino is a rectangular tile with a line in the middle that separates it into two sides. Each side has a number of black spots. The number of spots is different on each domino. Some dominoes have a  side that is blank. The games possible with these objects resemble card games.

Other websites
Games

Games

Dominoes


In photography, exposure is used to mean two things. Photograhic films or sensors have a certain senitivity. That means that a certain amount of light needs to be able to reach the film or sensor, before the image is correctly exposed. An exposure can also refer to a photo exposed that way.

Photography

Exposure (photography)


Asteroids are assigned a type based on spectral shape, color, and sometimes albedo. These types are thought to correspond to an asteroid's surface composition. For small bodies which are not internally differentiated, the surface and internal compositions are presumably similar, while large bodies such as 1 Ceres and 4 Vesta are known to have internal structure.

A list of types can be found at asteroid spectral classes.

Present-day classifications
The present-day classification was initiated by Clark R. Chapman, David Morrison, and Ben Zellner in 1975 [1] with three categories: C for dark carbonaceous objects, S for stony (silicaceous) objects, and U for those which did not fit into either C or S. This classification has since been expanded and clarified.

A number of classification schemes are currently in existence [2][3], and while they strive to retain some mutual consistency, quite a few asteroids are sorted into different classes depending on the particular scheme. This is due to the use of different criteria for each approach. The two most widely used classifications are described below:

Tholen classification
The most widely used taxonomy for over a decade has been that of David J. Tholen, first proposed in 1984. This classification was developed from broad band spectra (between 0.31μm and 1.06μm) obtained during the Eight-Color Asteroid Survey (ECAS) in the 1980s, in combination with albedo measurements [4]. The original formulation was based on 978 asteroids.

This scheme includes 14 types with the majority of asteroids falling into one of three broad categories, and several smaller types. They are, with their largest exemplars:
 C-group dark carbonaceous objects, including several sub-types:
 B-type (2 Pallas)
 F-type (704 Interamnia)
 G-type (1 Ceres)
 C-type (10 Hygiea) the remaining majority of 'standard' C-type asteroids. This group contains about 75% of asteroids in general.
 S-type (15 Eunomia, 3 Juno) silicaceous (i.e. stony) objects. This class contains about 17% of asteroids in general.
 X-group
 M-type (16 Psyche) metallic objects, the third most populous group.
 E-type (44 Nysa, 55 Pandora) differ from M-type mostly by high albedo
 P-type (259 Aletheia, 190 Ismene; CP: 324 Bamberga) differ from M-type mostly by low albedo
and the small classes:
 A-type (446 Aeternitas)
 D-type (624 Hektor)
 T-type (96 Aegle)
 Q-type (1862 Apollo)
 R-type (349 Dembowska)
 V-type (4 Vesta)
Objects were sometimes assigned a combined type such as e.g. CG when their properties were a combination of those typical for several types.

SMASS classification
This is a more recent taxonomy introduced by Schelte J. Bus and Richard P. Binzel in 2002, based on the Small Main-Belt Asteroid Spectroscopic Survey (SMASS) of 1447 asteroids [5]. This survey produced spectra of a far higher resolution than ECAS, and was able to resolve a variety of narrow spectral features. However, a somewhat smaller range of wavelengths (0.44μm to 0.92μm) was observed. Also, albedos were not considered.
While attempting to keep to the Tholen taxonomy as much as possible given the differing data, asteroids were sorted into the 24 types given below. The majority of bodies fall again into the three broad C, S, and X categories, with a few unusual bodies categorized into several smaller types:
 C-group of carbonaceous objects including:
 B-type largely overlapping with the Tholen B and F types.
 C-type the most 'standard' of the non-B carbonaceous objects
 Cg Ch Cgh somewhat related to the Tholen G type
 Cb transition objects between plain C and B types.
 S-group of silicaceous (stony) objects including:
 A-type
 Q-type
 R-type
 K-type a new category (181 Eucharis, 221 Eos)
 L-type a new category (83 Beatrix)
 S-type the most 'standard' of the S group
 Sa, Sq, Sr, Sk, and Sl transition objects between plain S and the other types in the group.
 X-group of mostly metallic objects including:
 X-type the most 'standard' of the X group including objects classified by Tholen as M, E, or P-type.
 Xe, Xc, and Xk transition types between plain X and the appropriately lettered types.
 T-type
 D-type
 Ld-type: a new type with more extreme spectral features than the L-type
 O-type a small category (3628 Boznemcová)
 V-type

A significant number of small asteroids were found to fall in the Q, R, and V types, which were represented by only a single body in the Tholen scheme.
In this Bus and Binzel SMASS scheme only a single type was assigned to any particular asteroid.

A few Near-Earth objects have spectra which differ strongly from any of the SMASS classes. This is presumably because these bodies are much smaller than those detected in the Main Belt, and as such may have younger less-altered surfaces or be composed of a less varied mix of minerals.

Appraisal
These classification schemes are expected to be refined and/or replaced as further research progresses. However, for now, the spectral classification based on the two above coarse resolution spectroscopic surveys from the 1990s is still the standard. Scientists have been unable to agree on a better taxonomic system, largely due to the difficulty of obtaining detailed measurements consistently for a large sample of asteroids (e.g. finer resolution spectra, or non-spectral data such as densities would be very useful).

The three main groupings of asteroids are thought to be related to the three basic meteorite types:
 C-type - Carbonaceous chondrite meteorites
 S-type - Stony meteorites
 M-type - Iron meteorites

References
 C. R. Chapman, D. Morrison, and B. Zellner Surface properties of asteroids: A synthesis of polarimetry, radiometry, and spectrophotometry, Icarus, Vol. 25, pp. 104 (1975).
 D. J. Tholen Asteroid taxonomic classifications in Asteroids II, pp. 1139-1150, University of Arizona Press (1989).
 S. J. Bus, F. Vilas, and M. A. Barucci Visible-wavelength spectroscopy of asteroids in Asteroids III, pp. 169, University of Arizona Press (2002).
 S. J. Bus and R. P. Binzel Phase II of the Small Main-belt Asteroid Spectroscopy Survey: A feature-based taxonomy, Icarus, Vol. 158, pp. 146 (2002).

Asteroids

Asteroid spectral types


Harold "Harry" Morton (9 January 1909 – 4 April 1974) was an English professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper for Aston Villa in the 1930s.

Football career

Early career
Morton was born in Chadderton, near Oldham, Lancashire, and after working his way up through the local football leagues, he had trials with Bury, Southampton F.C. and Bolton Wanderers. However, before he was able to embark on a football career, he did his National service with the Royal Welsh Fusiliers serving with the British Army on the Rhine. He was spotted by Aston Villa Scouts Aston Villa during a match between the Villains and the B.A.O.R football team in Biebrich Germany. Impressed by his performance they asked the British Army permission to take him on. He signed with Aston Villa in 1930 and debuted his first division association football match against Manchester City at Maine Road in November 1931, replacing Biddestone who had been injured before kick off.

Aston Villa
After a trial with Villa in October 1930, he was signed as an amateur and made his club debut for the reserves in a Central League game against Everton Reserves on 22 November 1930. He went on to sign as a professional in March 1931. By the end of the 1931–32 season he had displaced Fred Biddlestone as first choice 'keeper and missed only one league game over the next three seasons, helping Villa to claim the runners-up position in the Football League in the 1932–33 season and reach the semi-finals of the FA Cup in 1933–34.

His form with Villa brought him to the attention of the England selectors but, although he had a trial in 1934, he was unsuccessful and the selectors chose Arsenal's Frank Moss instead to replace the injured Harry Hibbs.

Everton
In March 1937, Morton moved to Everton, making his debut in a 2–1 defeat at West Bromwich Albion on 13 March 1937. In his two years at Goodison Park, Morton was the understudy to Ted Sagar and only made 27 league and 2 FA Cup appearances. In Everton's Championship winning season, 1938–39, Morton only made one appearance.

In the summer of 1939, Morton was transferred to Burnley, but his career was brought to an end following the outbreak of the Second World War.

References

External links
 Aston Villa profile
 Everton profile

1909 births
People from Chadderton
Footballers from Greater Manchester
Sportspeople from the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham
1974 deaths
English men's footballers
Footballers from Oldham
Men's association football goalkeepers
Aston Villa F.C. players
Everton F.C. players
Burnley F.C. players

Harry Morton (footballer)


The Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool is the biggest reflecting pool in Washington, D.C. It is right next to the Lincoln Memorial.  The reflecting pool is long and can be seen in many photographs of the Washington Monument. There are paths and trees on both sides, and many people exercise around it.  It reflects both the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial, which means that you can see both if you look into the water.

It is on the west side of the National Mall, and is about 2,029 feet (618 m) long and 167 feet (51 m) wide. It is about 18 inches (46 cm) deep on the sides and 30 inches (76 cm) deep in the middle. It holds approximately 6,750,000 U.S. gallons (25,500,000 L) of water.

Events
Because the reflecting pool is right in front of the Lincoln Memorial, many famous events have happened there.

In 1939, singer Marian Anderson was not allowed to sing in the Constitution Hall in Washington, because of her race.  Instead, she sang on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial on Easter Sunday. Over 75,000 people went to the Reflecting Pool area to listen to her. President Franklin D. Roosevelt and his wife, Eleanor Roosevelt, helped make her concert at the Lincoln Memorial possible.

In 1963, the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom held a large Civil Rights rally around the reflecting pool.  This was where Martin Luther King gave his "I Have a Dream" speech to a quarter million people standing around and in the Reflecting Pool.

National Mall
Monuments and memorials in the United States
Buildings and structures in Washington, D.C.

Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool