Chinatown’s shops and restaurants are a
boon for both starving students and foodies

Real Estate Guide › Central

Kensington - Chinatown

Average 2008 sale price:

$369,864

Property crime:

very high

Crime against people:

high

Neighbourhood map:

See map

There are few parts of downtown more storied than Chinatown and Kensington Market. Everyone in the city has their favourite restaurant, and citizens of all stripes spend leisurely Saturdays wandering the fish stalls on Baldwin, the used clothing stores on Kensington and Augusta, or the fruit vendors on most corners. And few neighbourhoods are as starkly dichotomous, with the distinct cultures of Chinatown and the market mixing only as much as geography requires. The market’s infamous population of neo-hippies and other left-leaning types typically lives and wanders west of Spadina; the few Chinese families that are left after the various exoduses tend to congregate east of Spadina, where family-name social clubs are still a common sight among the old houses on D’Arcy and Cecil. Caribbean and South American stores spice up the area. Baldwin Street, chockablock with restaurants, has a social scene all its own. To the south sits Alexandra Park, whose Victorian-style houses, built in the 1880s and ’90s, share the area with a mass of social housing from the 1960s. The residential aspects of the neighbourhood vary widely, as do the people who choose to live here: arts professionals on Sullivan Street, in the Grange and on Kensington proper; business folk in the gracious townhouses on Phoebe; condo dwellers in the Kensington Market Lofts; and students tucked into whatever ramshackle cubbyholes are available.

HOUSING STOCK: There’s a veritable mixed bag of late-Victorian piles here, with a lot of places in dire need of structural assistance, especially around the market. The sturdiest stock, also mostly Victorian, is to be found in the southwest and in the immediate vicinity of Baldwin Village. East of Spadina is the old neighbourhood of Grange Park, its narrow streets lined with Victorian row houses that were built between 1870 and the 1890s.

BARGAIN ZONES: The northeast sector of the neighbourhood often tends to have the best buys, as does the area immediately surrounding Alexandra Park.

THE VERDICT: There’s more character and life here than most major Canadian cities have in their entire greater metropolitan areas, but this character comes with a price—cockroaches and drunken 3 a.m. yodelling are common.

NEIGHBOURHOOD HOT SPOTS:
Bellevue Diner Slightly west of the market, this bistro is a bit higher end than you might expect, and a perfect spot for wine and people-watching. 61 Bellevue Ave., 416-597-6912.
Tap Phong Trading Company Despite its huge sign, this general store is still an undiscovered wonder, even for many Chinatown habitués. 360 Spadina Ave., 416-977-6364.