Kensington Market, Toronto

Located in Toronto, Ontario, Kensington Market is a distinctive ethnic community with a strong sense of place. The Market is an older neighborhood that is also one of the most well-known in the city. It was officially classified as a National Historic Site of Canada in November 2006.

Following his service in the Canadian Militia during the War of 1812, George Taylor Denison purchased a tract of land in 1815 that stretched from what is now Queen Street West to Bloor Street. Denison used the area that is now known as Bellevue Square Park as a parade ground for his volunteer cavalry troop during the American Civil War.

During the early twentieth century, Kensington began to be populated by Eastern European Jewish immigrants from the Soviet Union. In addition, some Italians were housed in the Ward, a crowded immigrant reception center located between Yonge Street and University Avenue in Toronto. It turned into a squalid enclave of tightly packed dwellings, and it became one of the city’s poorest neighborhoods.

Following World War II, the majority of the Jewish community relocated north to communities uptown or in the suburbs, where they remain today. During the 1950s, a considerable number of immigrants from the Azores, who were fleeing political unrest, settled into the neighborhood, particularly along Dundas Street, which was then further west. As the twentieth century progressed, the new wave of immigrants from the Caribbean and East Asia transformed the community, making it increasingly varied as time went on.

The Market was able to withstand the 1980s in part due to the influx of students from George Brown College who came and went throughout the year. The Kensington Lofts are now being housed by the college in this building. It sold the property in the mid-1990s, and without the additional student traffic, several businesses were forced to close as a result of the recession.

Kensington Market has a Winter Solstice Festival every year, which is known as the Kensington Market Winter Solstice Festival. It is commemorated on the Winter Solstice, which takes place in December. It includes huge puppets, firebreathers, stiltwalkers, and samba musicians, among other things. Ida Carnevali organized the event in 1987 to herald the return of the sun on the shortest night of the year, which happens to be the longest night of the year.

Every summer, the festival of Pedestrian Sundays is also held in conjunction with it. Several Sundays throughout the summer, the streets are closed to automobiles. Aside from that, the area hosts a number of festivals to celebrate its diversity as a cultural community.

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