Before there was a New City Hall in Toronto, there was Old City Hall... but of course, nobody called it Old City Hall until there was a New City Hall to compare it to. And when Old City Hall was just City Hall, there was already an "Old" City Hall located in what we know as the South St. Lawrence Market. Below are images of the building from TPL's Digital Archive.
In addition to the police station and market on the ground floor, the new building (designed by architect Henry Lane) also included the offices of the Mayor and City Treasurer, and the city council chambers, which were located on the second level (with a public gallery at the north end). These days, the Market Gallery is all that remains of the original council chambers.
Toronto's population grew rapidly throughout the second half of the 19th century, and the St. Lawrence Market location, despite repeated expansions and renovations, eventually became too small to house the operations of the municipal government, which moved to the newer Hall on Queen Street upon its completion in 1899.
Going back even further, city council meetings were originally held in a market building located at the south-west corner of King Street East and Jarvis (the present location of St. Lawrence Hall). This building was never officially designated as City Hall, but council meetings took place there between 1834 – when the town of York was incorporated as a city and renamed Toronto – and 1845, when the municipal government moved over to the St. Lawrence Market location.
In 1834, 27 people were injured or killed here in what John Ross Robertson's "Landmarks of Toronto Vol. 1" refers to as "a frightful accident" on page 62:
A political meeting was being held and the gallery was overcrowded. While one of the speakers was haranguing the assemblage part of the balcony gave way precipitating the people to the floor below. In the descent many were caught upon the sharp upcurved iron hooks of the butchers' stalls.
They probably leave this part out when couples inquire about holding their weddings at St. Lawrence Hall. In 1849, the northern end of the market was badly damaged in the Great Fire of 1849 and the entire building was demolished and replaced by St. Lawrence Hall and the North Market.
