For Listings in Annex and Yorkville Toronto click here
The Annex and Yorkville is a Neighbourhood in downtown Toronto. The traditional boundaries of the Neighbourhood are north to Dupont Street, south to Bloor Street, west to Bathurst Street and east to Avenue Road. The City of Toronto recognizes a broader neighbourhood definition that includes the adjacent Seaton Village and Yorkville areas.
Bordering the University of Toronto, the Annex has long been a student quarter and is also home to many fraternity housing and members of the university's faculty. Predominantly English-speaking, it is an affluent neighbourhood with well-educated residents.
European settlement of this area began in the 1790s when surveyors laid out York Township. The area east of Brunswick Avenue became part of the village of Yorkville, while the region west of Brunswick was part of Seaton Village. In 1883, Yorkville agreed to annexation with the City of Toronto. In 1886, Simeon Janes, a developer, created a subdivision which he called the Toronto Annex. The Annex area became part of Toronto in 1887 and Seaton Village joined Toronto in 1888.
In 1886, Simeon Janes, a merchant and land developer, created a subdivision which he called the Toronto Annex. The lands had been annexed by the City in order to provide essential services such as water, sewers and paved roads. The City of Toronto continued to annex additional properties west to Bathurst Street and the Annex as it is known today, was born. Many of the homes in the Annex were built during this time and into the early 1900′s, encouraging the emergence of one of Toronto’s elite neighbourhoods.
First residents of the area included Timothy Eaton, patriarch of the Eatons Department Store and George Gooderham, president of Gooderham & Worts Distillery. The Annex’s first residents included such famous personages as Timothy Eaton, the noted patriarch of Eatons department store, who helped fund the building of Trinity Methodist Church in 1889 at 427 Bloor Street West. Today it is the thriving Trinty-St Paul’s Centre and includes the United Church, a performing arts centre with a great variety of classes, and the home of Tafelmusik, the renowned historical orchestra. The church also provides community based services including the Out of the Cold program for the homeless. Another distinguished, early resident of the Annex was George Gooderham, president of the Gooderham and Worts Distillery.
Rife with history, the Annex’s classic buildings are still in evidence everywhere. At the intersection of Brunswick and Bloor presides a grand building established in 1876: Ye Olde Brunswick House, at 481 Bloor Street West is one of Toronto’s oldest taverns and remains well known today as The Brunswick House (affectionately nicknamed ‘The Brunny’ by locals). E. J. Lennox, the architect of Old City Hall, built one of his most enduring homes at 37 Madison Avenue, and the architectural style he used-red brick, rough-faced stone, deep archways-is to be found everywhere in the Annex.
Other historical buildings in the Neighbourhood include Wiener’s Hardware at 432 Bloor Street West, operated by four generations of Wieners since 1923; Paupers Pub, at 539 Bloor Street West, a beautifully restored building originally built as a bank in 1914 by the CIBC and offering one of the Annex’s best views of the Toronto skyline from its roof top patio; the large and famous Madison Ave Pub and Restaurant built out of 3 spectacular Victorian homes at 14, 16, and 18 Madison Avenue and houses 6 British style pubs, 4 fireplaces and 5 multilevel patios; and the historic landmark, the Bloor Cinema, at 506 Bloor Street West. Built as a movie theatre in 1905, it has an art deco facade with an interior that seats 800, including a two tier balcony and one large screen with a magnificent curtain. It is one of Toronto’s best loved and last remaining repertory cinemas, home to many film festivals and special film events. Across the street, Lee’s Palace at 529 Bloor Street West was also originally built as a movie theatre in 1941 and is now a well known venue for live music concerts. The colourful, iconic cartoon mural was added in the 1990′s.
The Annex's Golden Era lasted until the early 1900s, when the upper classes began to migrate northward above the Davenport escarpment to newer more fashionable suburbs in Forest Hill and Lawrence Park.
In the 1960s, the proposed Spadina Expressway would have divided the Annex in half. Annex area residents, along with other resident groups, successfully opposed its construction.
The Annex has endured, and is now over 100 years old. It remains one of Toronto’s premier neighbourhoods.
The Annex is mainly residential, with tree-lined one-way streets lined with Victorian and Edwardian homes and mansions, most of them built between 1880 and the early 1900s. Because of its proximity to the university, the Annex has a high rate of seasonal tenant turnover, and its residents range from university students to long-time residents.
The Annex is densely populated. If the rest of the geographical Toronto (the official City of Toronto, not including suburban municipalities) was built in a similar manner to the Annex, the entire population of the sprawling GTA (approximately 6 million people) would fit in an area less than one-tenth the size that it does now.
The stretch of Bloor Street between St. George and Bathurst is a vibrant social and retail area, offering to Toronto a wide range of services from upscale dining to discount retailers like Honest Ed's. Between Bathurst and Christie, street signs on that stretch of Bloor call it the Koreatown. During the 1950s and 1960s, an influx of Hungarian immigrants moved into the Neighbourhood after the 1956 Hungarian Revolution was suppressed, and many of the businesses and properties along Bloor are owned by Hungarian-Canadian families.
The Annex is home to many examples of a uniquely Toronto style of house that was popular among the city's elite in the late nineteenth century. Examples of this style survive in the former upper class areas along Jarvis and Sherbourne Street and also within the University of Toronto campus. Most of these buildings are found in the Annex, and the style is thus known as the 'Annex style house.'
The original conception is attributed to E.J. Lennox, the most prominent architect in late nineteenth century Toronto. His 1887 design for the home of contractor Lewis Lukes at 37 Madison Avenue introduced a design that would be imitated and modified for the next two decades.The Annex style house borrows elements from both the American Richardson Romanesque and the British Queen Anne Style. Annex style houses typically feature large rounded Romanesque arches along with Queen Anne style decorative items such as turrets. The houses are most often made of brick, though some also incorporate Credit Valley Sandstone. Built for many of the city's wealthiest citizens the houses are also large. As the wealthy moved away from the Neighbourhood, many of the houses were thus subdivided into apartments.
Seaton Village
Seaton Village or 'West Annex' is that part of the Annex west of Bathurst Street. Although the Koreatown shopping district is at its southern border, it is sometimes referred to as the "West Annex". While Seaton Village shares several characteristics with The Annex (notably its architecture and its popularity with University of Toronto students), it is generally quieter, more family-oriented, and with smaller, less expensive homes.
Vermont Square Park is near the centre of Seaton Village. The park has a playground, including a wading pool. St. Albans Boys and Girls club and the Bill Bolton hockey arena are also located in the park.
Clinton Street features a house almost totally covered with circular "woodcakes" cut from billiards cues.
Admiral road in the Annex is home to the Canadian writer Margaret Atwood. David Suzuki lived on Bernard Avenue, two blocks away. Catherine O'Hara lived in the Annex for several years. Explorer Norman Elder owned 'The Norman Elder Museum' at 140 Bedford Road. The noted urban theorist and activist Jane Jacobs lived at 69 Albany Avenue for the 37 years up to her death in April 2006. Members of the rock band Sloan also reside in the Neighbourhood, as does former Governor General of Canada, Adrienne Clarkson and her husband John Ralston Saul.
Seaton Village is the former home of Canadian poet and children's author Dennis Lee and Oscar-winning (for Chicago) sound engineer David Lee (no relation; now deceased). Canadian actress Rachel McAdams shares a house in the Annex with her brother. It is the current home of novelist and playwright Ann-Marie MacDonald and sociologist Barry Wellman.
The Annex’s main shopping district is on Bloor Street. This stretch of stores includes a hodgepodge of clothing boutiques, book stores, food markets, travel agencies, restaurants and outdoor café’s. The Mirvish Village Shopping district on Markham Street, south of Bloor street, is a quaint collection of bookstores, art galleries, antique stores and one of a kind specialty stores.
The Annex really comes alive at night when people from all over the city converge upon the restaurants and night clubs and bars. Fitness enthusiasts can get in shape at either the University of Toronto’s Athletic Centre or at the Miles Nadal Jewish Community Centre at the intersection of Bloor St. and Spadina Ave. in Downtown Toronto.The JCC fitness centre offers a number of fitness programs ranging from cardio to Yoga and Pilates, swimming, martial arts as well.
The Native Canadian Centre of Toronto is located in the Annex at 16 Spadina Road. This centre offers a variety of programs and services for Toronto’s Native Community as well as the general public.
Amongst the most notable other attractions are the Bata Shoe Museum across from St. George subway station, the Royal Ontario Museum at Bloor and Avenue Road, the Annex Theatre and the adjacent Bathurst Street Theatre which is a landmark roadhouse for original Canadian theatre. Nearby, Casa Loma and the Spadina House Museum are big tourist attractions. Held in and around the Annex for twenty years, the summer Fringe Theatre Festival is one of the city’s cultural highlights, featuring comedy, drama, dance, and a range of other independent productions. It is no wonder that the area has long been a popular locus for legions of famous writers and artists, perhaps most notably Margaret Atwood, Dennis Lee and Morley Callaghan – both as a place of residence and as a source of inspiration.
The Annex is well served by public transit, including seven TTC subway stations: Bathurst, Bay, Bloor-Yonge, Christie, Dupont, St. George and Spadina. Buses and/or streetcars operate on Bathurst Street, Christie Street, Dupont Street and Spadina Road. Motorists are within minutes of Toronto’s business and entertainment districts and are approximately twenty five minutes from the commuter highways.
Some of the popular schools in the area are:
Huron Jr. Public School, Jesse Ketchnum Jr. & Sr., Palmerston Jr., Central Technical School, Loretto College, University of Toronto School, Royal St. Georges College, and of course, The University of Toronto.
