File:East Block, Parliament Hill, Ottawa, Ontario (29442200683).jpg

From Wikimedia Commons, the free media repository
Jump to navigation Jump to search

Original file(4,000 × 1,762 pixels, file size: 5.48 MB, MIME type: image/jpeg)

Captions

Captions

Add a one-line explanation of what this file represents

Summary

[edit]
Description

The East Block (officially the Eastern Departmental Building; French: Édifice administratif de l'est) is one of the three buildings on Canada's Parliament Hill, in Ottawa, Ontario, containing offices for parliamentarians, as well as some preserved pre-Confederation spaces.

Built in the Victorian High Gothic style, the East Block is, along with the Library of Parliament, one of only two buildings on Parliament Hill to have survived mostly intact since original construction. Though not as renowned as the Centre Block of parliament, the East Block formerly appeared on the face of the Journey Series design of the Canadian hundred-dollar bill. The East Block is open to the public for tours in July and August.

Designed by Thomas Stent and Augustus Laver, the East Block is an asymmetrical structure built in the Victorian High Gothic style, with load bearing masonry walls— being nearly 0.9 m (3 ft) thick at the ground level, expanding to 2.1 m (7 ft) thick at the base of the main tower. These are all clad in a rustic Nepean sandstone exterior and dressed stone trim around windows and other edges, as well as displaying a multitude of stone carvings, including gargoyles, grotesques, and friezes, keeping with the style of the rest of the parliamentary complex.

This detail continues on the interior of the East Block, where emblems, such as wheat sheaves, were carved in stone originally to indicate the various government departments housed nearby. The level of quality and luxury of the offices initially indicated the status of the inhabitant: large, wood panelled chambers with marble fireplaces and richly decorated plaster ceilings served for ministers of the Crown; intricate, but somewhat less detailed cornices were sufficient for senior bureaucrats; and basic, machine-made woodwork and concrete fireplace mantles filled rooms set aside for clerks. Though much of the original decor has been retained or restored, the spaces have been reorganized so that the East Block now houses, as well as ministers, members of parliament, senators, and parliamentary administrators. Corridors and entranceways are also lit by windows filled with stained glass, and contemporary adaptations of the original gas fixtures adorn the walls. Beneath the decor stand 0.6 m (2 ft) wide, double-wythe masonry partitions with a rubble fill core, and concrete floors more than 0.3 m (1 ft) thick.

The main historic spaces in the East Block are restored to reflect the period around 1872. The former office of the Governor General of Canada contains its original furnishings, and the woodwork, fireplace, and plasterwork are finished as they would have been just a decade after Confederation. The office that had been occupied by Sir John A. Macdonald contains a blue-grey Arnprior marble mantle, and the Prime Minister's furniture occupies the room. The previous Queen's Privy Council for Canada chamber holds a reproduction of the original table made at Upper Canada Village, above which hangs the same chandelier that hung there before the Second World War.

<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_Block" rel="noreferrer nofollow">en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_Block</a>

<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Text_of_Creative_Commons_Attribution-ShareAlike_3.0_Unported_License" rel="noreferrer nofollow">en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Text_of_Creative_Commons_...</a>
Date
Source East Block, Parliament Hill, Ottawa, Ontario
Author Ken Lund from Reno, Nevada, USA
Camera location45° 25′ 28.59″ N, 75° 41′ 57.4″ W Kartographer map based on OpenStreetMap.View this and other nearby images on: OpenStreetMapinfo

Licensing

[edit]
w:en:Creative Commons
attribution share alike
This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.
You are free:
  • to share – to copy, distribute and transmit the work
  • to remix – to adapt the work
Under the following conditions:
  • attribution – You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.
  • share alike – If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you must distribute your contributions under the same or compatible license as the original.
This image was originally posted to Flickr by Ken Lund at https://flickr.com/photos/75683070@N00/29442200683. It was reviewed on 10 March 2022 by FlickreviewR 2 and was confirmed to be licensed under the terms of the cc-by-sa-2.0.

10 March 2022

File history

Click on a date/time to view the file as it appeared at that time.

Date/TimeThumbnailDimensionsUserComment
current15:40, 10 March 2022Thumbnail for version as of 15:40, 10 March 20224,000 × 1,762 (5.48 MB)Mindmatrix (talk | contribs)Transferred from Flickr via #flickr2commons

There are no pages that use this file.

Metadata