Toronto Travel: Toronto: Kensington Market area - Al Waxman memorial
These video clips were taken during my walking tour with famous
Toronto historian and tour guide
Bruce Bell on July 16,
2007. After meeting at the famous and eclectic
OCAD Building (I call it the "gift box on stilts") just south of the
University of Toronto,
Bruce took us past the
Grange, Toronto's oldest building, past the
Art Gallery of Toronto to some of the mansions along
Beverley and
Baldwin Streets.
Along the way Bruce explained to us the early history of Toronto, and the family compact -- a group of extremely wealthy and powerful
English families that used to rule Toronto in the early days.
We then walked westwards to
Chinatown and the ethnic mix of the
Kensington Market area which started as a
Scottish market, then became a popular
Jewish residential area in the
1910s and
1920s (evidenced by two local synagogues) and morphed into the diverse, multicultural and hip neighbourhood that it is today. Vendors sell fruits, vegetables, cheeses, dry goods, meat, fish, vintage clothing and all sorts of other unique items in this
Bohemian neighbourhood. A great variety of different ethnic restaurants caters to eclectic tastes. We then visited
Denison Square and admired a statue of one of Toronto's popular actors,
Al Waxman, the "
King of Kensington". We then continued on our walk through busy Chinatown to Toronto's
Garment district along Spadina and
Queen Avenues and then headed east along a variety of restaurants and bars on
Queen Street West to end in front of the
Italianate palace occupied by
City TV. Along the way we got informed and entertained about Toronto's history from a small English enclave that started in 1793, to the exciting, vibrant and multicultural metropolis that it is today. You can read the full story at
http://www.travelandtransitions.com/stories_photos/chinatown_kensington
.htm.
The clips from this walking tour are part of my "Toronto Favourites" series and many more of these discoveries are to come.
I am actually a travel writer, and whenever I am not out of town, I write about the city that I live in: Toronto, a city that has many cool places. I love to get out and explore the city and discover some new cool spots, and now you can enjoy them with me.
Feel free to check out some of my 700+ articles and interviews on http//www.travelandtransitions.com. My personal travel stories are located at http://www.travelandtransitions.com/stories_photos.htm.
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