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Kensington Market in Toronto

Wednesday, 3 June 2026 - 11:00 am (CET/MEZ) Berlin | Author/Destination: North America / Nordamerika
Category/Kategorie: General, Bon appétit, Shopping Reading Time:  8 minutes

🔊 Listen to this Post Kensington Market is a distinctive multicultural neighbourhood in Downtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The Market is an older neighbourhood and one of the city’s best-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.

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 moved there from “The Ward“, an overcrowded immigrant-reception area between Yonge Street and University Avenue. The Ward was a cluster of densely packed houses and was one of the poorer areas of the city. The Ward’s residents moved west of Spadina Ave to enjoy less population density, better housing conditions, and opportunities to create storefront businesses.

In the 1920s, 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.

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.

The market resisted the recession of the 1980s partially thanks to a floating population of students attending George Brown College, which was where the Kensington Lofts are today. George Brown College sold the property in the mid-1990s and without the extra student traffic, many stores were victims of the recession of the mid to late 90s. In addition, many Portuguese store owners were by that time too old to continue working their small shops, which led to abundant vacancy and invited a new wave of immigrant entrepreneurs. Businesses like Jumbo Empanadas, La Perola, El Emporio Latino and El Buen Precio took advantage of the growing wave of Latin American immigrants and opened the door to offering ethnic street foods. In 2000, a young couple of entrepreneurs opened the first taqueria in Canada, calling it “El Trompo”.

All this movement lead to a rebirth of Augusta Avenue. A Nike store tried to open up in the market and the community rejected it very strongly by dumping dozens of running shoes splattered with red paint in protest for the treatment Nike’s workers receive around the world.

Today the neighbourhood is a noted tourist attraction, and a centre of Toronto’s cultural life as artists and writers moved into the area. Land prices in the area have increased sharply, but despite its increased appeal to professionals, Kensington remains a predominantly working-class, immigrant community. In 2021, after a year of neighbourhood organizing to resist the eviction and displacement of residents of a 3-storey building, a local Community Land Trust was able to purchase the building and preserve the affordable rents provided. The Kensington Market Community Land Trust continues to own and operate the building as of 2024.

Kensington is protected by a variety of policies, mainly to enhance the atmosphere that is unique to the neighbourhood. In November 2006, Kensington Market was proclaimed a National Historic Site of Canada. Toronto‘s “Official Plan”, which is the vision for the city until 2026, does not designate much change for the neighbourhood as seen in its land use map for the neighbourhood.

In addition to the Official Plan, Kensington is subject to “Site and Area Specific Policy.” The policies which relate to proposed developments state, “Any public or private developments and work should be consistent with the special characteristics of the area.” The new developments must adhere to these guidelines which include:

• low-scale buildings with retail at grade (street level);
• minimal setbacks;
• open-air display of goods on the boulevard.

Through city policy, the Kensington uniqueness will be upheld for all to enjoy.

Read more on DestinationToronto.com – Kensington Market, DestinationOntario.com – Kensington Market and Wikipedia Kensington Market (Smart Traveler App by U.S. Department of State - Weather report by weather.com - Global Passport Power Rank - Travel Risk Map - Democracy Index - GDP according to IMF, UN, and World Bank - Global Competitiveness Report - Corruption Perceptions Index - Press Freedom Index - World Justice Project - Rule of Law Index - UN Human Development Index - Global Peace Index - Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Index). Photos by Wikimedia Commons. If you have a suggestion, critique, review or comment to this blog entry, we are looking forward to receive your e-mail at comment@wingsch.net. Please name the headline of the blog post to which your e-mail refers to in the subject line.