Downtown notes

My new dayjob has me in downtown St. John’s, one of my favourite places. It’s old St. John’s, at least some of the building pre-dating the Great Fire of 1893 – some, but not many. The architecture on the stone buildings is a bit Georgian, a bit Gothic. Shannon Patrick Sullivan in his novel The Dying Days portrays an invisible St. John’s, one made of memory – memory without marker. Walking around downtown or Bowing Park, you can see why he’s done that. Downtown is already crackling with the arts, oil money and misery; behind this sticky present is an obscured past. Wooden houses were hastily built after the Fire. Downtown looks old but hurried.
I tell visitors to park their cars elsewhere and just walk around downtown. You miss a lot when you’re looking for a parking space.

Here’s what I’ve found in the past few weeks.

1. In my cups 1: Britannia Teas
2. In my cups 2: Hava Java
3. Omens for my ears: Afterwords Bookstore
4. Metamorphoses: Say Nothing, Saw Wood and Recent Works