University Of Toronto - St George Campus

Lonely Planet review

Campus life rotates around the grassy/muddy expanse of King's College Circle, where students study on blankets, kick soccer balls around and dream of graduation day in domed Convocation Hall. Dating from 1919, sociable Hart House is an all-purpose art gallery, music performance space, theatre, student lounge and café. Soldiers' Tower next door is a memorial to students who lost their lives during WWI and WWII.

A nearby mid-19th-century Romanesque Revival building houses the U of T Art Centre (tel: 416-978-1838, 15 King's College Circle), a contemporary art gallery for Canadian and world cultures.

If you're architecturally bent or have an inclination for urban planning, check out the Eric Arthur Gallery (tel: 416-978-5038; www.ald.utoronto.ca; 230 College St, 2nd fl), curated by the Faculty of Landscape, Architecture and Design.

The most famous U of T college is the ultratraditional Trinity College (416-978-2651, 6 Hoskin Ave), where entering collegians are anachronistically required to wear academic robes to meals. It's worth looking around the traditional quadrangle and the Anglican Chapel, which was designed by Sir Gilbert Scott, the same man responsible for Britain's ubiquitous red telephone booths. Pick up a self-guided tour pamphlet from the rack near the door. The leafy Philosopher's Walk leads north along the east side of Trinity College towards the stone-and-iron Alexandra Gates on Bloor St W, just east of the Royal Conservatory of Music.

Free university walking tours of the historic St George campus visit these sights and more. Student tour guides shed light on the haunted stonemasons love triangle at the neo-Romanesque University College, and point out how the campus' old cannons aim toward the Provincial Legislature a stone's throw (or one good shot) east of campus.