Thread by @TODreamsProject

1. Clowns & firefighters got into a brawl at a Toronto brothel on this night 168 years ago.

It sparked the strangest riot in the city's history.

So, here's a thread about the Toronto Circus Riot…

2. It was the summer of 1855 and S.B Howes' Star Troupe Menagerie & Circus had come to town.

They pitched their tents on the big Fair Green at Front & Berkeley, where they planned to perform twice a day for two days.

There were acrobats! Trick riders! Exotic Animals! Clowns!

3. Seth Benedict Howes was one of the most respected circus owners in the business.

He's been called "the father of the American circus" — beginning as a trick rider before working with P.T. Barnum & helping invent the whole idea of a modern travelling circus.

4. But circuses were also notorious places. Moving from town to town, living on the edges of society, they were deeply associated with drinking, gambling, s–x work & violence.

Shows often ended in brawls. As one lion tamer put it, “A circus had to be an efficient fighting unit.”

5. And Toronto was pretty rough, too.

It was a growing city of about 40,000 people, but in a lot of ways, it was still a frontier town. Muddy streets. Wooden sidewalks. Hundreds of taverns and beer shops.

Plus, countless brothels.

6. One of the most popular was Mary Ann Armstrong's place — near King & John, just out of sight in this pic lost in a haze of coal smoke.

That's where the circus clowns went to unwind after the first day of performances…

And where they got into a scrape with some firefighters.

7. Firefighters were no strangers to violence, either.

This was before a centralized, public fire dept — when rival fire halls would race to a blaze & fight over who got to put it out.

Some were even accused of starting fires so they could come to the rescue & get paid for it.

8. Just a couple of weeks before the Circus Riot, the Firemen's Riot broke out.

When firefighters were called to a blaze on Church Street... they began looting the houses they were supposed to save, beating up the owners, and attacking the police who were called in to stop them.

9. We're not entirely sure how the brawl began between the clowns from S.B. Howe's Star Troupe Menagerie & Circus and the firefighters from the Union Hook & Ladder Company.

Some say the clowns cut in line at the brothel. Others say they knocked the hat off a firefighter's head.

10. What we do know is that the clowns won.

The firefighters retreated — with one of them pretty injured — leaving the circus performers to enjoy the brothel for the rest of the night.

But the clowns had picked a fight with the wrong people on the wrong night of the year.

11. To understand why, you need to know Toronto was a VERY Irish city.

More than 1/3 of the population was born in Ireland — a higher % than even Boston or New York.

But it was also very anti-Catholic.

Not only were 75% of Torontonians Protestant, many of them were Orangemen.

12. The Orange Order was founded in northern Ireland, fiercely Protestant & passionately anti-Catholic, often associated with the Troubles & sectarian violence.

Since Toronto was so Irish & so Protestant, the Orange Lodge was also VERY popular here in "The Belfast of Canada."

13. For more than a century, the Orange Order kept a stranglehold on power in Toronto.

Nearly every mayor was Orange. Practically all public employees, too. City councillors. Civil servants. Police officers… Firefighters.

And the Orangemen looked out for each other.

14. During the Firemen's Riot, several arrests were made. But the police suddenly couldn't remember the names or faces of any of those involved.

That kind of thing that happened in Toronto countless times — including after the frequent riots between Orangemen & Irish Catholics.

15. The biggest day of the year for the Orange Order was the anniversary of a victory over Irish Catholics in the 1600s.

There was a massive parade in Toronto every year, just like the ones in northern Ireland. Thousands marched in it, while tens of thousands cheered them on.

16. That day was July 12. The same day the clowns picked a fight with the firefighters at the brothel.

So not only had the clowns made enemies of the local Orange Order. They'd done it on the biggest Orange night of the year.

17. The day after the brawl at the brothel, a crowd began to gather at the Fair Green. An angry crowd. An Orange crowd. A crowd looking for revenge.

The Toronto Circus Riot was set to begin.

18. People started throwing rocks. Circus tents were set on fire. There were cries of "Murder the damn Yankee son of a bitches!" and "We'll have the livers out of them!"

Performers began running for their lives, some trying to take refuge in the lake as their circus burned.

19. The police were called—but they were Orange, too, of course. And so was their boss.

Chief Sherwood was one of the city's most notorious Orangemen, famous for organizing his own riot years earlier — it ended in gunfire, with one of his political opponents dead in the street.

20. Under Chief Sherwood, Toronto police officers tended to join riots, not quell them.

And so when they arrived at the Circus Riot, the police kept the crowd from setting fire to the cages of the animals… but let the rest of the chaos carry on.

21. In the end, Mayor Allan had to step in.

He was an Orangeman, too — but he still didn't want the violence getting out of control.

Some say he personally saved the life of a circus performer, grabbing an axe out of a rioter's hand. And he eventually called in the militia.

22. The Circus Riot finally came to an end.

Thankfully, no one had been killed. But when it came time for consequences, the memories of the police were suspiciously fuzzy yet again.

They claimed not to recognize any of the 17 people accused of taking part in the riot.

23. “It would really appear," the Globe newspaper complained, "that the city is at the mercy of a band of ruffians, who may kill, burn, or destroy, as they please and that the law is perfectly powerless either to prevent or punish their misdeeds.”

24. The cover up over the Circus Riot was far from the last.

Chief Sherwood would clash with City Hall for years to come. There would be more riots, murder, even a bank robber freed before trial.

And in the end, city leaders took dramatic action.

25. Four years after the Circus Riot, every single police officer in Toronto was fired. The department was restarted from scratch.

But the city was still deeply Orange. Many officers were rehired & the Orange stranglehold on power would last for another century to come.

26. It wasn't until 1955 that Toronto finally elected a mayor who *wasn't* Protestant.

Nathan Phillips was Jewish. He ran against a fiercely Orange mayor, promising to bring an end to the city's Orange century and be "the mayor of all the people."

Thanks so much for reading!

If you'd like more Toronto history stories, you can subscribe to The Toronto History Weekly newsletter for free:

And my new an online course, "Love, Death & Canadian History" starts very soon! https://t.co/QJcwLTT786 https://t.co/zt0VgaEqdztinyurl.com/tohistory
adambunch.com/lovedeathcanad…

I also give a talk about the Circus Riot fairly often, in case you've got a group that's interested.

And if you're looking for more about the Orange Order in Toronto, I highly recommend William J. Smyth's "Toronto, The Belfast Of Canada" book.