Horticulture Building (Toronto) 1907 and was designed by local architect G. W. Gouinlock in the Beaux-Arts style. It is a one-storey building, in the layout of an "E", with a large glass dome at the intersection of the wings. The glass dome is the site of the main entrance facing south. The wings extend to the east and west to the north. The site was previously the location of Toronto's Crystal Palace building, an exhibition hall fashioned after the design of the Crystal Palace in London, England. Toronto's Crystal Palace was destroyed by fire on October 18, 1906, spread by sparks from a
Great Fire of London halt further spread eastward. The social and economic problems created by the disaster were overwhelming. Evacuation from London and resettlement elsewhere were strongly encouraged by Charles II, who feared a London rebellion amongst the dispossessed refugees. Despite several radical proposals, London was reconstructed on essentially the same street plan used before the fire. By the 1660s, London was by far the largest city in Britain, estimated at half a million inhabitants. John Evelyn, contrasting London to the Baroque magnificence of Paris, called it a "wooden, northern, and inartificial congestion of Houses", and expressed alarm about the fire hazards posed by