Kensington Market is a distinctive multicultural neighbourhood in Downtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The Market is an older neighbourhood and one of the city's most well-known. In November 2006, it was designated a National Historic Site of Canada. Robert Fulford wrote in 1999 that "Kensington today is as much a legend as a district. The (partly) outdoor market has probably been photographed more often than any other site in Toronto."
Its approximate borders are College St. on the north, Spadina Ave. on the east, Dundas St. W. to the south, and Bathurst St. to the west. Most of the neighbourhood's eclectic shops, cafes, and other attractions are located along Augusta Ave. and neighbouring Nassau St., Baldwin St., and Kensington Ave. In addition to the Market, the neighbourhood features many Victorian homes, the Kensington Community School, Bellevue Square and Toronto Western Hospital.
History
Early history
George Taylor Denison, after serving in the Canadian Militia during the War of 1812, purchased an area of land in 1815 from Queen Street West to Bloor Street, roughly between where Augusta and Lippincott Streets now run. Denison used the area now known as Bellevue Square Park as a parade ground for his volunteer cavalry troop, which he commanded during the Upper Canada Rebellion. This troop later became the Governor General's Horse Guards. In 1837 a brewery opened in the area of St Andrew Street and Kensington Avenue (marked in 1858 map of the area) and after several ownership changes ceased operations in 1894.
The Denison estate was subdivided in the 1850s. During the 1880s, houses were built on small plots for Irish and Scottish immigrant labourers coming to Toronto; much of the housing is in the style of Victorian architecture row houses, which are moderate in size and exemplify true Victorian architecture. Many of these houses still stand along Wales Avenue and elsewhere, and these homes have been inhabited by many waves of immigrants in the decades that followed. Housing found closer to the market area tends to feature retail at the front of the house.
During the early twentieth century, Kensington became populated by eastern European Jewish immigrants and some Italians, who occupied "The Ward", an overcrowded immigrant-reception area between Yonge Street and University Avenue. It became a cluster of densely packed houses and was one of the poorer areas of the city.
The area became known as "the Jewish Market". Jewish merchants operated small shops as tailors, furriers and bakers. Around 60,000 Jews lived in and around Kensington Market during the 1920s and 1930s, worshipping at over 30 local synagogues. From the beginning, the market sold items imported from the homelands of many immigrant communities.
Post-war developments
After the Second World War, most of the Jewish population moved north to neighbourhoods uptown or in the suburbs. During the 1950s, a large number of immigrants from the Azores, fleeing political conflict with the regime of António de Oliveira Salazar, moved into the area and further west along Dundas Street. The arrival of new waves of immigrants from the Caribbean and East Asia changed the community, making it even more diverse as the century wore on. The Vietnam War brought a number of American political refugees to the neighbourhood, and particularly to nearby Baldwin Village, adding a unique utopian flavour to local politics. As Chinatown is located just east of Kensington, the Chinese are now the largest ethnic group. During the 1980s and 1990s, identifiable groups of immigrants came from Central America, Somalia, Ethiopia, Sudan, Iran, Vietnam, Chile and other global trouble spots.
In the 1960s there were plans to tear down the densely packed small houses and replace them with large, apartment-style housing projects, as was done to neighbouring Alexandra Park. These plans came to an end with the election of David Crombie as Mayor of Toronto. Crombie was strongly opposed to the massive urban restructuring plans that had been in vogue in previous decades.