July 17, 2007
Hello from Toronto: Exploring Chinatown
and Kensington, Two of Toronto's Most Vibrant Ethnic Neighbourhoods
In all my explorations of Toronto over the last few years I have
learned that in addition to numerous world-class sights and attractions,
Toronto has many lesser known nooks and crannies that are full of
history, interesting stories and anecdotes. One of the best people
to learn from about the twists and turns of Toronto’s history
is Bruce Bell, a well-known
author, playwright, actor, standup comedian who is also a passionate
historian and has become one of Toronto’s most well-recognized
history experts.
Bruce explains something
The story of how I met Bruce is also quite intriguing: my brother,
who happens to live in Austria, was reading a German travel magazine
that was featuring a story about Bruce, so he called me up and said
that there is this guy that is doing all these neat walking tours
through Toronto and that’s how I connected with Bruce –
through a European detour. Over the past couple of years I have
taken two of his tours, covering the downtown area and featuring
a culinary exploration of Toronto’s
famous St. Lawrence market. I have always enjoyed the experience
and wanted to do another tour with Bruce for a while.
The OCAD building, a gift box on stilts
Well, I figured it was definitely time for more entertaining and
informative explorations of Toronto; this time it was going to be
Chinatown-Kensington, one of Toronto’s most vibrant and fascinating
neighbourhoods. So I called up Bruce and said let’s do another
tour. To share the experience I brought out six of my friends and
we met yesterday at 6:30 pm at one of Toronto’s modern architecture
icons: the OCAD Building at 100 McCaul Street, just south of the
University of Toronto campus. The OCAD Building, I call it the “gift
box on stilts”, is part of the 2004 redevelopment of the Campus
of the Ontario College of Art & Design. The Sharp Centre for
Design has a unique “table top” structure which has
quickly become one of Toronto’s most recognizable landmarks.
The Grange, undergoing renovation, situated next to the AGO
We met in the Butterfield Park area, surrounded by the stilts holding
up the table top of this extraordinary building. From there we headed
west into a green space that features Toronto’s oldest house:
“The Grange” was built in 1817 for D’Arcy Boulton
Jr., a member of one of early Toronto’s most prominent families
who owned about 2000 acres of land in the area. The classical mansion
reflects the British architectural traditions of the 18th century.
Today, the Grange is owned by the Art Gallery of Ontario and is
in the process of being renovated and integrated into the AGO’s
Frank Gehry-led redesign.
One of the yellow-brick mansions on Beverley Street
After leaving this park we walked north on Beverley Street which
features several yellow-brick mansions of some of Toronto’s
most pre-eminent families, the “Family Compact” –
the true power brokers of the early 19th century. Families such
as the Cawthras and others owned huge tracts of land in what is
today’s downtown Toronto. The Bolton family even owned a private
racetrack near the intersections of Dundas and Beverley and many
formal social occasions were celebrated on their enormous estate.
We also passed by a former hotel which dates back to 1822, one of
the very few hotels left from that era which today is a men’s
residence.
A former hotel on Beverley Street, dating back to 1822
Our stroll took us westwards on Baldwin Street, a street with a
mix of imposing mansions, historic apartment buildings and narrow
Victorian homes with attractive architectural details and amazingly
intricate woodwork. Bruce stopped at a mansion of one of Toronto’s
most influential historic figures: George Brown (1818 to 1880) was
a Scottish-born Canadian journalist, politician and one of the Fathers
of Canada’s Confederation. He was also the founder and editor
of the Toronto Globe newspaper which today is known as the Globe
and Mail.
Bruce talks about George Brown
Bruce enlightened us that George Brown was an important figure
in the Underground Railroad, a network of secret routes and safe
houses that allowed African slaves to escape from the United States
to Canada in the 19th century. Ironically, as much as George Brown
supported the cause of freeing black slaves, he remained a staunch
anti-Catholic. Bruce elaborated that while the United States was
characterized by an ongoing conflict between Blacks and Whites,
early Canada’s conflicts mostly unfolded between Protestants
and Catholics. Bruce added that in 1880 George Brown was shot by
one of his former employees at the Globe newspaper, a certain George
Bennet who had been fired from his job for drunkenness. Although
George Brown only suffered a leg injury at the time he died about
6 weeks later from the wound.
Historic apartment building on Baldwin Street
Just a few steps further west we saw the mansion of Robert Baldwin,
a member of the Parliament of Upper Canada and a key public figure
around the time of the 1837 uprising of the Toronto population against
the entrenched British power structure. The unsuccessful Upper Canada
Rebellion of 1837 was an uprising against the British colonial government,
particularly about the issue of land allocation. Most of the land
in and around the old City of York was owned by the “Family
Compact”, a group of extremely wealthy Anglican conservative
families that represented Canada’s elite at the time. Robert
Baldwin was instrumental in establishing Responsible Government,
which advocated increased independence from Britain and self-government
for Upper Canada.
Fabulously detailed Victorian wood carvings
We had finally arrived on Spadina Avenue, the expansive north-south
artery that is the centre point of Toronto’s Chinatown. This
historic neighbourhood, one of three Chinatowns within Toronto’s
city boundaries, is centered around Spadina and Dundas and is the
largest Chinese shopping area in the city. Old Chinatown is actually
one of North America’s largest, not surprisingly as Toronto
features the second largest Chinese population in Canada after Vancouver.
View of Toronto's Old Chinatown, with the famous Bright Pearl Restaurant
Recent years have seen a migration of Chinese immigrants to the
suburbs which has led to the closure of some of the local restaurants.
Many former Chinatown residents, originally from mainland China,
Taiwan and Hong Kong have moved outside the City’s boundaries
and the void has been filled by many ethnic Chinese people from
Vietnam. As a result an increasing number of store signs are now
in Vietnamese, in addition to the well-established Chinese stores.
Exotic fruits
Goods sold include fruits and vegetables, meat and seafood, low
cost clothing and general merchandise, all of which are sold at
very reasonable prices. Recently there has been a noticeable local
increase in Latin American immigrants, testament to the fact that
Toronto’s demographics continue to be in flux.
Ducks hanging in Chinatown display windows
The same story applies even more to Toronto’s Kensington
area, roughly bounded by Spadina Avenue, College Street, Queen Street
and Bellevue Avenue. As Bruce explained, it is one of Toronto’s
most ethnically diverse and eclectic neighbourhoods and has been
attracting immigrants from different countries of origin for the
last 130 years or so. Originally the Denison estate, the Kensington
area became a residential area for Irish and Scottish immigrant
labourers. The small working-class houses in this historically inexpensive
area have been inhabited by successive waves of immigrants from
different places. From 1910 onwards, Jewish immigrants from Eastern
Europe as well as some Italians started to stream into the area.
The entire Kensington area became known as “the Jewish Market”,
and about 60,000 Jewish residents lived here in the 1920s and 1930s
who worshipped in about 30 local synagogues.
The Anshei Minsk Synagogue
We stopped at the Minsker Synagogue at 10 St. Andrew Street, home
of the Congregation Anshei Minsk, Toronto’s Downtown Synagogue.
Construction of the synagogue commenced in 1922 and was finally
completed in 1930. As a result of the out-migration of many of the
Jewish residents from Kensington, today it is one of the few synagogues
still in active operation in downtown Toronto.
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Colourful murals |
Unique shops |
Fresh veggies and fruits |
Captivated by the colourful and unusual variety of stores we walked
through narrow streets filled with a jumble of vintage clothing
stores, bakeries, restaurants, shops selling anything from fish,
cheese and meat to dry goods and assorted merchandise. At about
7:30 pm most of the stores had closed or were in the process of
closing, but the diverse and unusual storefronts and murals illustrate
the Bohemian flavour of this area. Bruce pointed out numerous favourite
hangouts: places such as Cob’s Bread, Graffiti’s Bar
and Grill, My Market Bakery, the Chocolate Addict and many other
unique nooks and crannies illustrate the free-spirited character
of this unusual neighbourhood. At the intersection of St. Andrew
and Augusta we stopped to admire a “half a house” that
was attached to some flat-roofed houses and the complex was then
capped off on the other side by another “half a house”.
Two half houses, separate by two flat-roofed structures
One of the most poignant symbols of Toronto’s multi-ethnic
mixing is a restaurant called the “Hungary Thai”, an
eatery that surprisingly combines European and Asian culinary traditions
originating in Hungary and Thailand. There is no better area than
Kensington Market to come face to face with Toronto’s culturally
diverse makeup. Today's Kensington features residents and merchants
from all over the world, including people of Latin, Carribean, European
and Asian origin.
The Hungary Thai restaurant
Southwest of Augusta Avenue we turned onto Bellevue Square Park,
a green space that is frequented by a very Bohemian crowd of people,
representing some of Toronto’s artists and counterculture.
Kensington Market is one of the few areas that features Cannabis
cafes and products, and there is a distinct marijuana culture that
pervades the area, particularly on Bellevue Square Park. The northwest
end of the park features a statue of Al Waxman (1935 to 2001), a
Toronto actor who starred in a popular television series “The
King of Kensington” and was involved in numerous charitable
organizations and events. Bruce pointed out that Al’s wife
Sara is immortalized on a bench right next to the statue in a carving
that says “Sara loves Al”.
Statue of Al Waxman, a beloved figure in Kensington
Right opposite the Al Waxman statue at the corner of Bellevue Avenue
is another relic from Kensington’s Jewish history. The Kiever
Synagogue on Denison Square was built in 1912. Its twin towers are
crowned with Stars of David which give it a distinct middle-eastern
or Byzantine feel. Although many Jewish residents have left the
Kensington area over the last few decades to move further north
in the City, the Kiever Synagogue continues to be active and to
offer religious services every Sabbath as well as educational services
to the remaining Jewish population.
We proceeded southwards on Augusta Avenue until we reached Queen
Street. At the corner of Augusta and Queen we stopped and Bruce
made us aware of one of the emblematic statues guarding the entrances
of Kensington: an oversized cat prancing on a globe, an appropriately
offbeat symbol of this colourful neighbourhood.
Cat on a globe
Across the street Bruce pointed out the former Alexandra Park public
housing complex that has been renamed the Atkinson Housing Co-op.
Bruce explained that this residential complex was a major urban
planning mistake and had become one of Toronto’s most crime-ridden
areas. In 2003 the former Alexandra Park became Canada’s first
public housing complex to be converted into a tenant-managed, non-profit
housing cooperative, a move which has greatly improved the safety
in this area.
Graffiti in Kensington
At the intersection of Dundas and Queen Streets, right in the heart
of Chinatown, Bruce stopped again to show us the Art Deco Victory
Theatre, a former vaudeville theatre. He also explained that this
theatre had at some point morphed into the Victory Burlesque, home
of famous Gypsy Rose Lee, the famous burlesque dancer who became
known for putting the “tease into striptease”.
Beautiful Victorian side street in Kensington
The history of the Spadina area is colourful indeed. Jewish immigrants
from Eastern Europe settled in the area from 1832 onwards, but major
immigration got into full swing in the 1890s. Many of these poor
Jewish immigrants had little language skills and began to work in
low-paying jobs in the garment factories that had sprung up near
Spadina.
Chinese sculptures, squeezing the CN Tower
Numerous Jewish delicatessens, tailors, cinemas, Yiddish theatres,
synagogues and other political, social and cultural institutions
developed in the area. Indeed, as Bruce pointed out, Spadina Avenue
became the centre of the Garment District which still survives on
a much smaller scale today – even today there are numerous
fashion and fur stores that sell their merchandise to the public
at wholesale prices. Bruce also elaborated that many of the buildings
and warehouses became gradually higher, a direct result of the invention
of the Otis safety elevator which made it feasible to carry out
industrial manufacturing on higher level floors.
A former hotel in the Garment District
Our group then stopped at the Glen and Paul Magder Fur Store which
was a pioneer in reforming Toronto’s Sunday shopping laws
by staying open on Sundays, despite heavy fines. Right around here
we also got to admire the former location of a theatre owned by
the parents of Mary Pickford, the famous Toronto born-actress, “America’s
Sweetheart” who became Hollywood’s biggest star of the
Silent Era. Together with Charlie Chaplin, Douglas Fairbanks, and
D.W. Griffith, Mary Pickford was a cofounder of United Artists film
studios.
Vietnamese signs in Chinatown
We then walked east on Queen Street which features a whole stretch
of eateries, restaurants and eclectic bars and taverns, including
the Rivoli, an extremely popular bar, restaurant and pool hall.
At the Horseshoe Tavern Bruce explained that many famous music acts
of Toronto, including Blue Rodeo, got their start at this tavern.
The Rivoli, long a popular spot on Queen Street West
Incidentally this was also a favourite hangout for the notorious
Boyd Gang, a 1950s gang of bank robbers led by Edwin Alonzo Boyd.
The gang garnered a lot of media attention due to its sensational
actions, including bank robberies, jail breaks, liaisons with beautiful
women, gun fights and daring captures. Two of the gang members were
captured and hanged for the murder of a policeman in 1952 while
Edwin Boyd, by then a Canadian folk hero, was sentenced to eight
life terms plus twenty seven years concurrent. He was paroled in
1966, relocated to British Columbia and died in 2002.
The Friendship House
Just steps further east is the “Friendship House”,
where Russian refugees were taken in, it is also the centre of the
Communist League of Toronto and the former location of the 1980s
television series “Street Legal”.
The townhouses owned by two sisters who had a spat
A few steps east is a series of Victorian townhouses that, as Bruce
explained, were owned by two sisters who had had a serious falling
out. Although the buildings were symmetrical in appearance the sisters
did their best to modify the architecture to ensure that each of
their sides would look different from the other sister’s property.
Bruce pointed out a couple of former vaudeville theatres, explaining
that in the era before cinemas and podcasts, almost every city block
had one or more of these theatres which were popular entertainment
spots for the locals.
The Black Bull Tavern, dating back to 1822
At the Corner of Queen and Soho is the Black Bull, a decades old
hotel and tavern that features a spacious outdoor patio. Bruce explained
that in the 1800s Toronto's city limits extended to Peter Street,
and the tavern housed in this building was the last tavern on the
way out of town. This was at a time when a horse and carriage ride
to Niagara Falls could take two days, so a final watering hole on
the outskirts of town was important.
Ecclectic shopping opportunities on Queen Street West
Another significant Toronto landmark rose up impressively in front
of our eyes: Toronto’s CHUM City Building, the main studio
complex of CTV Globemedia. The building houses City TV and its famous
Speakers Corner video booth (which allows members of the public
to voice their opinions on any topic), Cable Pulse 24, MuchMusic,
Star! and the Fashion Television Channel. Its 1914 Neo-Gothic terra
cotta façade make it an instantly recognizable landmark in
downtown Toronto, and the news truck with the turning wheels that
is built into the eastern façade make it a real icon of the
downtown core.
The Neo-Gothic of the CHUM City Building
Well, our informative and entertaining Chinatown-Kensington Tour
had come to an end. Bruce, with his dramatic abilities, was able
to educate us and entertain us at the same time, introducing us
to historically significant parts of the city that we had never
seen or simply walked by without noticing.
Although a relatively young city, Toronto has a fascinating history,
and Bruce Bell is just the guy to open our eyes to it.
The OCAD Building at night
Useful books about Toronto:
Useful websites:
Bruce's
website: Bruce Bell Tours
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