Four stone stumps complicated the return of the gargoyles to Toronto’s Old City Hall. The originals had been cut from the clock tower by hand, leaving different profiles at its corners. Each replacement needed its own cast base to fit the surviving stone, according to a 2008 account of the project in Traditional Building. [1]

The new creatures were bronze, not sandstone. Contractor Heather & Little identifies them as replicas cast by Toronto’s MST Bronze. [2] But their appearance required interpretation. In the magazine account, Heather & Little’s Cameron Forbes recalled that distant archival photographs revealed size better than detail. Designers worked through small models; Traditional Cut Stone then made a full-sized foam version for casting. [1]

A foreshortened view of a projecting creature between two clock faces, with stone ornament and a small metal cap behind it.
An upper-corner gargoyle on 12 May 2009. “Old City Hall” (Commons title: “Gargoyle peering down on Queen Street”) — Bryce Edwards, CC BY 2.0.Photo: Bryce Edwards · Source · CC BY 2.0 · Full-frame resize and JPEG compression; no cropping or enhancement. Original embedded ICC retained byte-for-byte; no colour conversion.

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Old City Hall, Toronto. This map locates the town or region, not a verified exact historic event site.

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Forbes said the original plan was to make the figures in copper, but casting them in bronze would take less time. Their components were cast in December 2002. Stainless-steel supports anchored them to the tower, and a finish mixing artificial patina with sifted-sand mortar gave the metal a stone-like colour. [1]