Kensington

Originally part of a 100-acre park lot

granted to Captain John Denison in 1815,

Kensington developed into a middle class

Anglo-Saxon neighbourhood with distinctive

British street names like Kensington Avenue,

Fitzroy Terrace, Oxford Street, and Wales Avenue.

The neighbourhood began to change in the early

1900s when Jewish immigrants from Eastern

Europe started to settle there. Excluded from the

Toronto business community, Kensington?s Jewish families opened stalls in front of their houses, and

sold goods to each other. This Jewish market was the

start of an old world marketplace in the heart of the

Kensington neighbourhood.

Today the area represents the true meaning of

the word eclectic, with people from more than 30

cultural backgrounds, including Portuguese, East

Indian, Ethiopian, and Caribbean.

Defined by its popular outdoor market,

Kensington has become a hot spot for tourists and a

popular Toronto shopping destination.

The Kensington Market is the city's only year-round

outdoor market. It is a place of organized

confusion; where merchants sell their goods right

out on the sidewalks and restaurant radios trumpet

the words and music of a far-off land. It is a haven

of fresh fruit, vegetables, and dry goods stores. Some

of the best local produce and meat shops are found

on these cramped little streets, and the seafood, dry

goods, and dollar stores on Spadina are just a few

blocks away. Kensington Avenue itself also houses

several cafes and some of the best vintage clothing

stores in the city.

The shopping on the periphery of the Kensington

neighbourhood includes Chinatown on Spadina

Avenue, Portugal Village on Dundas Street West,

and the trendy shops and restaurants along Queen

Street West.

The local park and meeting place for Kensington

residents is Bellevue Square, which is located

right in the centre of the neighbourhood and has a

children?s playground and a wading pool.

Cecil Community Centre at Spadina and

College features a large hall that is used for theatre productions, sports, parties, and weddings.

The Shaw College Public Library serves as a

meeting place and offers reading material in a

number of languages that reflect the cultural

diversity of Kensington residents.

Streetcar service on Bathurst Street connects

passengers to the Bloor-Danforth subway line. The

Spadina, Dundas, and Queen streetcars travel to the

Spadina Station on the Yonge-University-Spadina

subway line. Motorists are already downtown and

are just minutes from the Gardiner Expressway and

Lake Shore Boulevard.

Many of the area's Victorian row houses, built

between the 1870s and 90s, are small to moderate in

size and feature decorative accents. The houses in

the heart of the Kensington Market have market

stalls on their front lawns and many are oriented to

the rear of the property where small laneways

offer privacy from the hustle and bustle of the

marketplace.

The Kensington neighbourhood is presently

being revitalized by a handful of new housing

projects. These new developments include Victorian

inspired townhomes that are situated on Oxford

Street and the Kensington Market Lofts, a unique

condominium project situated in three former

George Brown College buildings on Baldwin and

Nassau Streets.

Community Resources

City of Toronto

www.toronto.ca

Kensington Market

www.kensington-market.ca

Toronto Public Library

www.tpl.toronto.on.ca

Toronto District

School Board

www.tdsb.on.ca or 416-397-3000

Toronto Catholic District

School Board

www.tcdsb.org or 416-222-8282

Toronto Transit

Commission

www.ttc.ca or 416-393-INFO(4636)

Cycling Information

www.toronto.ca/cycling/index.htm

Toronto Police Hotline

416-808-2222