Conveniently nestled between Yorkville to the north, Cabbagetown to the East, the Bay St. corridor to the West and Carleton St. to the South, the “Village” as it is now known is one of Toronto’s jewels.
Long considered to be Toronto’s Gay neighbourhood, including a history that dates back to when canada was young, it has a lot to offer to anyone, not just the GLBT community. The community is very strong here and supportive of it’s own residents, including businesses. You won’t see much in the way of chain stores there as the BIA frowns on them. A few coffee shops and pizza places are present, as well as some decent restaurants. You will see unique shops for clothing, eyeware, art and travel in the area. There are some nice specialty shops too, like a very good butcher (Cumbrae’s), a bread and cheese shop, and even a chocolatier! The Village is one of the only neighbourhoods that can still boast an old-fashiond hardware store. Go into Dudley’s Hardware on Church and you will see how business used to be conducted. Church Street also has some of the best restaurants in the city with places like Byzantium and Fusion. If you like a good patio in the summer, then this is the place to see and be seen!
You might ask if this is a neighbourhood that is just for the gay community, but consider this, a single woman is very attracted to this neibourhood because she is safe there. There are lots of young married couples with children living there too! There’s even an elementary school right on the corner of Church and Alexander.
Culturally, this is the home of the National Ballet School of Canada. You can often see the students lined up at the various establishments at lunchtime. The Village has it’s own theater, Buddies In Bad Times, which is has put on critically successful productions. Add to this the annual events that take place such as Toronto Pride which attracts around a million people every year and is always a peaceful celebration of diversity. Literature events that require the street to be closed to traffic, intriguing events like the Fetish Fairs are something to indulge in, even if only as a spectator. Nuit Blanch has this area as an installation site.
Let’s not forget Hallowe’en in the Village is something that has snowballed into a night which allows us all to express our inner Mr. or Ms. Dress-up for people and pets of all ages and ilks!
The residents in the Village thrive on their community and embrace all who live there. It’s not an exclusive culture, but a warm and inviting one.
Largely, the inhabitants of the village are gay men, which makes it a warm, friendly and flamboyant place. The weekends are lively and it’s not unusual to see a drag queen walking down the street on the way to a gig!
There are lots of places to live in the Village including quite a lot of condo developments that are both new and a little older. The newer ones offer the Chic environments with the best updates of today’s condo market. While the older ones offer larger spaces with healthier reserve funds and they are often renovated so that you get the best of both worlds.
This afternoon I had been prepared to show my client 10 properties all within the area and price range that he had asked for. We’d now seen just shy of 15 units, and almost made a move on one specifically but didn’t want to be trigger happy, after all it is a Buyer’s market, right?? No kidding!!
