Kensington Market is one of Toronto's most distinctive neighbourhoods, renowned for its bustling patchwork of food shops, vintage clothing stores, street art and historic Victorian row houses.
Its vibrant character has long made it a hub for independent business, artists and visitors from Toronto and beyond - but has also attracted real-estate developers, short-term rental operators and multinational companies whose involvement has raised concerns about neighbourhood affordability.
Now, research led by scholars in the University of Toronto's Faculty of Music and the department of anthropology in the Faculty of Arts & Science is generating data that can inform local advocacy and community planning efforts. The project, "Charting Commercial Change in Kensington Market," is the result of a collaboration with Kensington Market Community Land Trust , an initiative that aims to preserve the area's social and economic diversity by purchasing affordable housing.
Farzaneh Hemmasi, associate professor of ethnomusicology in U of T's Faculty of Music, says the project documents changes in Kensington's commercial landscape that have reduced access to goods, services and community supports.
"Part of what brought people to Kensington in the first place - and has made this an important place for so many different types of people - is that they've been able to make their lives with the resources that are in the immediate environment," says Hemmasi. "You need to have a drug store. You need to have a greengrocer. You need to have all of these things to make the market liveable.
"The types of goods and services available here have changed; there are a lot more bars and restaurants now. That's OK, but in terms of being a livable neighbourhood, it's not optimal."
The report is the first publication from "Keeping and Creating Kensington Market's Cultural Spaces," a research project led by Hemmasi and funded by U of T's School of Cities, an institutional strategic initiative .
Emily Hertzman, a researcher in the department of anthropology's Ethnography Lab , says the work provides quantitative insights that are helping measure changes in Kensington Market's mix of residential, commercial and mixed-use properties.
"We decided to do a study that would collect a lot of information about the existing commercial landscape and its non-residential history, including social institutions, religious places and art spaces," says Hertzman. "The land trust is primarily about housing, though not exclusively - they also want to make sure the neighbourhood's longevity and livability are supported by affordable commercial spaces and community-serving businesses."
In the 1920s, Kensington was an open-air market with live chickens, boxes overflowing with produce and bakers selling bagels on wooden rods. The population was largely Jewish and Italian. But, as "Charting Commercial Change" shows, the area's immigrant population has steadily evolved with the entry of Portuguese, Latin American, Caribbean and Chinese communities, among others.
The project also shows how spaces have been repurposed over time: a building at 241 Augusta Avenue started as a synagogue, was later turned into a greengrocer, and is now occupied by a national cannabis retailer.
The researchers say these changes have reduced quality of life for the residents of Kensington Market.
Affordability has long played an important role in shaping the market's character, says Dominique Russell, co-director of KMCLT and a resident of Kensington for more than 30 years.
"Kensington has always been a place for people to start," says Russell, the 2023-2024 John Bousfield Distinguished Visitor in Planning in the U of T's department of geography and planning. "When you have a concentration of people who are economically able to live in the same neighbourhood, that gives it a certain kind of energy.
"I worry about the last remaining pockets of affordability; we just lost a whole artists' studio, and saw an artist lose his entire livelihood."
Russell points to cherished traditions such as Pedestrian Sundays and the Solstice Festival as hallmarks of Kensington Market's character, but says changes in the local business mix have made everyday necessities harder to find.
The research is part of the Kensington Market Research Project initiated in 2014 by Joshua Barker, director of the Ethnography Lab and dean of the School of Graduate Studies.
It also continues the extensive work conducted by Hemmasi , including research into Kensington's underground music spaces.
"Kensington Market was created by the people who live in it," says Hemmasi, "and it's consciously recreated every day by the actions and reactions of those people."
