Halifax

So, I'm living on Brunswick St right at the bottom of Citadel Hill (for those of you who don't know, Citadel Hill is the big hill in the middle of downtown upon which a fort was built to help defend the city...more on it later). Brunswick is the street on the foreground of the picture in the blog banner.

Beginning in the mid-1700s, Halifax was but a garrison town for His Majesty's army. New England had insisted that England establish a garrison here to offset the threat from the French who had a fort in Louisbourg in Cape Breton (http://www.louisbourg.ca/fort/).

To the right edge of the photo is the south end of the hill. Here one set of barracks was constructed for the soldiers, and still exists as Royal Artillery Park. And another barracks was erected at the north end. The path connecting them was officially called Brunswick St but was unofficially reffered to as "Barracks St". And upon the length of this little street, with soldiers moving back forth, the pimps, prostitutes, and bars set up shop. By all accounts it was a slum of filth and squalor with rowdy & horny drunken soldiers of His Majesty's army living it up.

None of that remains (un)fortunately. Anyone reading this who is familar with Halifax will recognize that it hasn't entirely disappeared, after all the bar The Palace still exists.