Kensington Market TorontoKensington Market Toronto is a district just north-west
of the downtown area of the city. The market has been in
business almost a hundred years, with some of the original
stores still surviving. It became a National Heritage Site
in 2006.
Toronto Kensington Market lies roughly between College Street to
the north, Spadina Avenue (and China Town) to the east,
Dundas Street West (and China Town) to the south, and
Bellevue Avenue to the west. The heart of the district lies
along Augusta and Kensington Avenues.
Visiting the market may be best on Sundays, particularly the
car-free Sundays during the
summer.
These are usually the last Sunday of the month but it's best to check out the market's website (see link below) for up-to-date information.
Tom's Place on Baldwin Street has been a Toronto fixture for
over fifty years now and Tom still works there. The store sells
men and women's clothes with an emphasis on European fashions.
Another interesting clothes store is Courage My Love, selling
and renting vintage clothes. Located on Kensington Ave,
it's a mecca for those, such as schools and amateur theatre
groups, putting on plays that span the time period of Victorian
to about the Fifties.
Kensington Market Toronto has also become home to the counter-culture and some of the wilder political groups, which makes for interesting sights on the streets and reading on the wall posters. As the University of Toronto and George Brown College are just to the north of here, students are the major driving force for both these relatively recent introductions. Knowing most of the 'sights' will be perfectly respectable doctors or lawyers in a few years time, as did so many of my own University contemporaries, takes a lot of the edge off the 'statement' the 'sights' are trying to make. Kensington Market is about food and clothes, basically, a 'rest-of-the-world' companion to nearby China Town's food and hairdressing. If you've enjoyed this market page, you may also want to visit our page on another, even older, Toronto Market --
St. Lawrence Market.
Return to Toronto from Kensington Market Toronto
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The market began when mainly Jewish immigrants moved into
the area in the early 1900's. Since then other refugees
have added their own flavor to the mix. On our recent
visit we saw Senegalese and Tibetan restaurants, as well as
Indian stores and restaurants. I particularly liked the
'Hungary-Thai' restaurant -- not a combination you're likely
to find in many parts of the world.
Being a market, you can do your grocery shopping at the many
stores selling vegetables, meat, cheese and so on. Many are
still original but, controversially, some chains, large and
small have begun to sneak in. It's buyer beware, if authentic
craftsman/woman is what you're looking for. If, like most of us, you're a shopper looking for a bargain, you won't need to worry about it.
