The History of Kensington Market
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- Опубліковано 23 гру 2024
- Old Toronto Series & ACO Toronto(Architectural Conservancy of Ontario: Toronto Chapter) Present: The History of Kensington Market
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Hosted, Researched, Filmed, Edited by: Morgan Cameron Ross
As a child, every Saturday we headed to Spadina and Kensington Market for our Europe Foods. Great memories, people and food.
How, oh how do you do this. You surely make your parents proud. Thank you.
Lived on Kensington Ave in the ear.y 1970's and worked up the street at the ElMocambo. We painted the two pillars outside our front door in bright swirling colours so they looked like two barber shop poles, seeing as my friends and I were young hippies. The neighbours next door hated it. We called our house the Kensington Palace. We thought we were clever. Up the street was Daiters dairy and Perlmutters bakery. Good times. Good memories.
As a Portugese immigrant in the early 1970s, I remember fondly shopping there with my mother.
Thank you for portraying T.O. in such a beautiful way. What a wonderful "walk down memory lane".
Thanks for watching!
Thank you for this!! My parents came to Toronto in the 70s from Azores, Portugal I spent so much time in the market as a kid in the 80s.
Wonderful piece. Enjoyed every bit of it and, as a Torontonian, learned a lot too. The flavor of the neighbourhood is something special. A big family, a people place. The beautiful song says it all too -- "He finds his fortune in the faces that surround him. His wife says helping other people brings him luck. But then his mother tells a slightly different story. He's the only king around without a buck (laughs)." ...Beautiful memories.
My family moved from Guyana to Canada in the early 70's and lived with a beautifully generous Polish family... surrounded by many other ethnic groups... I grew up hearing amazing stories of how everyone mostly got along in this new world and alot of this open mindedness way of living has stayed with me onto my children... it still vibrates with it's beautiful bohemian vibes to this day as I still go back and visit...
I hope it remains the vibrant, artistic, multicultural community this city, and world for that matter, needs!!
Thanks for this video! As a native Torontonion, this is super spectacular and more people should recognize the service you are providing to this historical city. Just showed this to my uni class and they all found it mesmerizing.
Thanks for the nice words!
Thank you for making this video. Brought back many family memories.
Thanks! Make sure to subscribe!
I live 7 mins away and grew up shopping here. Has changed so much but so much the same
I'm doing an ethnography project for a class. Your video was more than helpful. I had no idea where to even start. I remember watching King of Kensington when I was around 7,8 years old. I didn't understand some of the content but I did love watching it. Meegwetch.
Thanks for watching!
Thanks very much for all the content in videos. Well done 👍👍
Glad you like them!
Great information and the delivery is perfect
Thanks for watching!
I also searched King Of Kensington and found an episode with Mike Myers from 1976. He was around 13 years old but you can tell it's him.
Thanks
Great work with the commentary and editing! Learning so much of our city
Man, I'm glad I found your channel. I grew up in Oshawa and my dad had many friends and acquaintances in the GTA. Great to see all this history. Keep up the awesome work. Thank you from Stratford, Ontario
A couple of things: You actually played the "Kings of Kensington" theme, that was awesome! Another thing, thank you for doing this video, it brought back a lot of memories when I used to go there with my grandparents in the 80s. Definitely subbed to your channel, love your content! 👍👍👍
Thanks! Catchy tune. Hard to get out of your head though.
best video I've seen of K-Market. Only thing missed was a reference to all the vintage stores
Definitely an important part of the market. Hard to cover everything in a short form video though. Lots of great spots there though, for sure!
Glad to have stumbled on your channel via The Star today. Thanks for sharing. Cheers!
Thanks for watching!
Visited Toronto a few years back and Kensington was my favorite district.
One of the first places my parents shopped, other than Roncesvalles, when we first came to Canada in 1980. My dad knew the owner of the cheese shop, and my 8 yr old self remembers the overwhelming smell and the gigantic barrels of delicious cheese!
Your channel is a amazing, like a time machine.
Thanks!
I love videos like this. Educational and historical.
Thank you so so much🙏🏼 for all the archives digging you do in orderly create such a cool content for us ❤️ love it!!
Thanks! Make sure to checkout our Old Canada Series too
Grew up in area and went to George Brown College in the early 80’s. Lunch was a beef patty in coconut bun with a ginger beer ! $2.00
Zimmermans was like the Honest Ed’s in a “supermarket space” then.
Really enjoyed this. The history gives a better dimension to what now exists. It was a thing to go down to Kensington market ... my family did it in the 60's and probably before that but that's when my memory of it started. Walking along those store front businesses/homes was something else. A butcher would step out with a weiner to sample and it was never declined. The aromas floating in the air is an ingrained memory. Clothes made by women of a family (usually Jewish), sold out of suitcases by the father, are another memory. Thank you for such a good account.
I know someone who grew up around there, they said in the 60's the butcher would kill the chicken right there. They also remember the Jewish market where they had a huge oak barrel where they kept the Kosher Pickles. You stuck your hand in and fished one out for 25 cents. Must have been amazing to live around there during that time. What I find interesting about that area is, its always constantly changing, its dynamic, trendy and most people are respectful of the diversity.
the King of Kensington theme made my day!
So well made. Thank you.
Glad you enjoyed it! Make sure to subscribe!
Thank you this video. Memories of my George Brown College days!
Can you do a piece on The Sunnyside Amusement Park? I just found out there are remnants of it there.
This was so intresting thank you so much ! I would love to hear one about the history of little portugal !
Definitely will be doing one on Little Portugal at some point!
Love it ..wish there was more footage of rides and attractions
I enjoyed kensington market a great deal. I used to live on Walmer road, just north of Bloor, and would walk down Spadina, and then go to Kensington Market to get foods and see/hear interesting things. So much was going on there.
Good memories.
Amazing content!! Never knew it had such an interesting story.
PS Love the narration. Really easy to listen to and keep the attention.
Glad you enjoyed it!
Awesome video! Love your channel, you have some great content. Pls keep making new videos! These will age perfectly.
Thanks!
I grew up in Parkdale during the 70’s. Every Saturday I would go with my dad to shop there. Fresh meats, bakery, produce and veggie stands plus that stinky cheese shop. I remember a shop where you could get live chickens.
Used to live in Kensington, it’s such a cool place
I attended George Brown, while doing my Chefs Apprenticeship at the Windsor Arms Hotel, when it was in the Market, 1977-1979
@David Hinsley I had no idea there was a GBC campus in Kensington Market, thank you for that.
Do you remember which building it was in?
@David 21 Nassau, re-watched it and saw it's mentioned.
Great memories I have from Kensington market.
I used to live there my favourite place in Toronto !!!
They better not get rid of this iconic area its very unique its a good area to come by with friends
Very interesting! Thanks for sharing this. May I know also what's the name of the song played at the beginning of the video please?
That is the theme song of "King of Kensington". You can find it on UA-cam.
my favourite part of the city
Great spot!
I love this series as a native 4th generation torontonian I’ve always been greatly interested in the history of our beautiful city I do have a request I was born in the beaches at Queen and Beech do you have anything on that neighbourhood also my father’s family were greek immigrants and settled in the Danforth so another area I’d be interested in
Thanks
can you do one video about Manning Ave?
I appreciate your acknowledgement of Vegan restaurants, and cafes. The face of multiculturalism in Toronto has changed from selling live animals for food to other facets of culture. Those older facets have brought consequences to our world in the last few years.
The Bakeries. The Bakeries. The Bakeries.
If small businesses in Kensington don't survive the pandemic. Post-Pandemic, we are going to struggle to hang on to this GEM of Toronto as developers lineup to build condos.
Fingers crossed!
@Fozzy I'm not a big fan of gentrification, but it's a reality we have to contend with. Building condos is also a possibility that can be done in a good way. For instance, keeping the storefronts intact while building 6-8 storey condos above the storefronts wouldn't change much of the character of the Market. Additionally, it would heighten the density, thereby increasing the number of walk-in customers for the local Kensington Market businesses. If done well, condos can actually help the local Kensington Market businesses stay afloat.
It _can_ be a win-win.
@@miyojewoltsnasonth2159 Yeah, I vote no.
Also the filming location of the first Police Academy movie’s riot scene!
Nice. Grew up on nearby Robert St, with my Portuguese parents being patrons during its Portuguese heyday in the 1970's. Sad that gentrification is inexorable with property values skyrocketing. Harbord Village, just north, is gentrified now, our old house torn down a few years ago & replaced with a bland modern concoction. Dad paid $12K for it in 1962. Saw notice it sold for 100X that before demolition. The Market's multi-ethnic ethos helped develop a true cosmopolitan experience. It's shameful to see the sick intolerance being promoted by some in Canada's social media & politics.
I love coming to Kensington area... Unfortunately a lot of the stores that made Kensington an fun place to come to are no longer there... Chocky’s, Zimmermans long gone. The memories are imprinted.
Lived in K/ M for four years . Best / worst time of my life . 🤔💰
what was bad about it?
Yea miss the u save center
Ironically Al Waxman lived 2 blocks away from me in Forest Hill. I was about 7 when the King of Kensington came out and the first time I saw Mr. Waxman walking his dog down Forest Hill Road I loudly said to my mother, what is he doing here! My mom was really embarrassed. I was a bit of a snot at that age.
Great Historical Plane, Kensington Market is the Imortal Birth of Police Academy , Revolution 1984 Movie.
And humber college along lakeshore as well.
Glad someone mentioned the Police Academy movie scene. We recall seeing that scene as children and everyone knew where that was and cheered.
You left out Bob Snider busking on the weekends.
sHOUT OUT to the great jazz at the Poetry Club.
I lived in Toronto growing up. Never went there
The coronavirus outbreak doesn't help either. Great video btw.
What, no mention of the Bunchofuckingoofs?
I've actually seen the original Fort Goof firsthand, my mom used to hang out with them.
Holy Joe!
Such an amazing place. I used to live in the colourful alleyway off Kensington Ave & St Andrew. Some developers came in and treated it like a cash grab, forcing out all the renters and then converting the entire building into to Air BnBs, which were eventually shut down due to bylaw violations (karma!) I don't live in the market anymore but I miss it greatly.
Spadina bus
Today, in 2023, Kensington Market is the focal point of the ‘douchebag’ community.
i used to love going to kensington market, and walk the streets, but it's loosing its charm now, how sad time has corrupted the area
Today , Kensington Market is a Tourist Trap. No good things there to see and do. Everything is expensive there.
Is the cafe there where people would go to smoke marijuana? Met woody there 😂😂😂❤💛💚👁👁👁
With Zimmermans gone. No point in visiting Kensington market. Doesn’t feel the same.
It's a miserable hellhole if you live on Augusta between Oxford and College thanks to the St.Stevens homeless center / safe Injection site that turned this block into "little Hastings Vancouver" with a daily morning zombie apocalypse of junkies/vagrents/convicted sex offenders and unstable CAMH rejects screaming, yelling, having schizophrenic meth and crack fueled tantrums,bum fights , harassement, vandelising , littering needles ,assaults, trespassing on patios, pissing and shitting on doorsteps with zero security or police presence in a residential neighborhood
still there and thriving 4 years later. worse I'd say.
Weed capital of the city
Kensington Market is highly overrated, but the locals love it. It's not even a market - it's a bunch of old decrepit buildings with a lot of garbage and graffiti The area looks decidedly dirty and run down and and I certainly don't shop there! Tear it all down and start again - or build condos, which is probably what will happen!
@John In the 1960s, Yorkville was "a bunch of old decrepit buildings with a lot of garbage and graffiti." Nobody would say that about Yorkville today. Things change.
*Here's How (as I wrote to someone else) Kensington Market could change:* I'm not a big fan of gentrification, but it's a reality we have to contend with. Building condos is also a possibility that can be done in a good way. For instance, keeping the storefronts intact while building 6-8 storey condos above the storefronts wouldn't change much of the character of the Market. Additionally, it would heighten the density, thereby increasing the number of walk-in customers for the local Kensington Market businesses. If done well, condos can actually help the local Kensington Market businesses stay afloat.
It _can_ be a win-win.
Stay in your suburb, John, and everyone will be happier! Much safer and homogenized than heading to these weird downtown neighbourhoods.
@@miyojewoltsnasonth2159 No, condominiums with decorative facades of storefronts is not the answer. For starters, the types of stores that exist in Kensington Market would be completely priced out of the market, and replaced by multinational chain stores. There are a myriad of neighbourhoods in Toronto and they do not all have to be exactly the same. Why is there fear of a neighbourhood that is unique?