Why Kensington Market Is Still One of Toronto’s Best Places to Explore

By Isabelle Henaghan, University of Toronto Mississauga, Canada

Kensington Market quickly became one of my favourite spots in the city. It’s a neighbourhood that feels completely different from downtown Toronto with so much colour, creativity, and character. The streets are lined with vintage stores, independent cafés, tiny bakeries, and food spots from all over the world. Every time I go, I notice something new: a mural I hadn’t seen before, a second-hand shop hidden down a side street, or a live band playing outside a café.

One afternoon, while browsing through a vintage shop, I started chatting with an elderly leatherworker who had been working in the area for decades. What began as a casual conversation turned into a fascinating deep dive into the history of Kensington Market and the challenges the neighbourhood faces today.

Kensington Market has long been known as one of Toronto’s most diverse neighbourhoods. After the end of the Second World War, particularly during the 1950s, it developed into a vibrant, multi-ethnic working-class community. Immigrant families from across the world settled here, opening small businesses, markets, and food shops that reflected their cultures. Affordable housing and tight-knit community networks made it a place where new arrivals could build lives and livelihoods.

However, like many inner-city neighbourhoods around the world, Kensington Market has also been shaped by the pressures of gentrification. Between 2000 and 2020, average rents in the area more than doubled. As property values increased, many long-standing businesses and residents faced the risk of being priced out. Walking around today, you can sometimes see the signs of this tension with “for lease” notices appearing where beloved local shops once stood. It makes the wider idea of a “housing crisis” feel very real and very local.

In 2017, residents and local organisers created the Kensington Market Community Land Trust, an initiative designed to protect the neighbourhood from being entirely reshaped by rising property prices. The idea behind a community land trust is simple but powerful: instead of properties being bought and sold purely for profit, the trust purchases buildings and holds them permanently for community use.

Since 2021, the organisation has managed to acquire several properties in and around the neighbourhood, including buildings on Kensington Avenue and Spadina Avenue. These properties now contain a mix of homes, apartments, and small businesses which are all protected from the extreme rent increases that have been affecting the area.

The trust raises funds in creative ways, including community investment bonds and partnerships with the city. Residents can literally invest in the future of their neighbourhood, helping ensure that local businesses stay locally owned and that people who work in the area can still afford to live there.

Learning about this while standing in the middle of Kensington Market made the whole place feel even more special. What initially seems like a colourful, quirky neighbourhood also has a really strong sense of community and collective action behind it. People here care deeply about protecting the culture and diversity that make the area unique.

As a year-abroad student, discovering places like Kensington Market has been one of my favourite parts of living in Toronto. It’s the kind of neighbourhood where you can spend hours wandering without a plan, browsing vintage stores, trying food from different cultures, or just people-watching from a café patio. It’s also a place that tells a bigger story about cities, communities, and how people come together to protect the spaces that matter to them.

If you’re coming to Toronto for your year abroad, I’d definitely recommend adding Kensington Market to your list. Go for the vintage shopping, the food, and the atmosphere but also take a moment to appreciate the history and community spirit that make the neighbourhood what it is today.