The Real Estate section is sponsored by:
Great Spaces
Living History
An antique lover gives his Annex semi the royal treatment By Kelvin Browne
Scroll over squares for details
A visit to Andrew Taylor’s stately Victorian home on Tranby Avenue feels like a crash course in 18th- and 19th-century history: period furniture, large-scale oil paintings, walls and tabletops layered with rare artifacts and objets. Taylor, a 44-year-old ophthalmologist who specializes in laser surgery, has been collecting antiques since he was a child, and he’s peppered his finds throughout his three homes (he also has a house in Niagara-on-the-Lake and a condo in Miami).
He spends a few days a week in Toronto and two days in Niagara, where he also has a practice, and often heads to Miami or New York on weekends. With such a frenzied schedule, his meticulously preserved Annex home base is a quiet retreat. “There’s a comforting permanence to antiques,” says Taylor. “They’re survivors—they’ve found people who have cared about them and protected them, even as they’ve travelled between continents.” The mahogany dining room table is Taylor’s standout piece: it once belonged to Princess Margaret, who received it as a wedding present from a British army regiment in 1960. The middle section of the table is over 200 years old.
The Tranby house has a particularly illustrious pedigree in Toronto design circles: it was once owned by Lynda Reeves, the HGTV personality and publisher of Canadian House and Home, and she sold it to the interior designer Sloan Mauran. Taylor, who had lived across the street on Tranby, had his eye on the place for over 10 years, coveting its 12-foot ceilings. When Mauran decided to sell in 2003, he made an offer before the house hit the market.
Photographs by Michael Graydon
Comments
Comment on this story
Neither Kelvin Browne nor Toronto Life necessarily agree with the comments posted here. Editors will not correct spelling or grammar. Toronto Life reserves the right to edit or delete comments entirely. Read our full policy
Some articles on this site require that you have a Torontolife.com account in order to comment, and this is one of them. If you do not have an account, you can register now.
Related
More Great Spaces Articles
- Up in the Air
- Mod Men
- Immaculate Concept
- A Room of Their Own
- Cable Guy
- Lakeside DIY
- Home Made
- Gut Feeling
- Industrial Strength
- No Small Feat
See all Great Spaces articles »