Harbord Village

flar · #1 Posted **Oct 27, 2013, 5:45 AM**

hmm, where is this?

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kool maudit · #2 Posted **Oct 27, 2013, 9:29 AM**

to me, this area embodies the best of pre-war residential toronto.

Jaborandi · #3 Posted **Oct 27, 2013, 4:30 PM**

Another excellent tour by flar, this time of a charming neighbourhood that is so often overlooked or forgotten. I think I know where my next walk will be to. Thanks!

rousseau · #4 Posted **Oct 27, 2013, 4:47 PM**

Thing is: where else could it be? Too bad that most of these houses cost $2 million. Otherwise I'd want to live there.

Great tour, Flar. Thanks.

montréaliste · #5 Posted **Oct 27, 2013, 4:54 PM**

Loved walking around that whole westside area of Toronto a coupla months ago. I agree with Kool Maudit, Harbord Village is good stuff.

softee · #6 Posted **Oct 28, 2013, 2:08 AM**

There's only one place that could be. Old Toronto definitely has its own, distinctive style of housing.

flar · #7 Posted **Oct 28, 2013, 5:29 PM**

A pretty large section of old Toronto looks like this, except some streets in this area have the big boulevards and more trees. The Harbord Village area must have been more upper middle class back in the day.

Heading west, the typical streets are a little plainer and have smaller front yards and fewer trees, more like this:

Toronto has those distinctive steep, narrow bay and gables. Hamilton has a similar housing format, but it typically looks more like this:

Beedok · #8 Posted **Oct 28, 2013, 5:35 PM**

So it's a neighbourhood of Toronto that looks like Hamilton but costs 5x as much?

flar · #9 Posted **Oct 28, 2013, 5:42 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Beedok

So it's a neighbourhood of Toronto that looks like Hamilton but costs 5x as much?

Hamilton could start by planting a few trees, implementing proper traffic control, enforcing property standards and outlawing the practice of turning those tiny front yards into driveways. Toronto is so much more pleasant simply because the streets are lush with greenery rather than concrete slabs like in Hamilton.

xzmattzx · #10 Posted **Oct 28, 2013, 5:45 PM**

Nice pictures! Why did you go to Harbord Village? Is it because it seemingly has an above average stock of Victorian houses?

Where is Harbord Village? I have never heard of this area.

flar · #11 Posted **Oct 28, 2013, 6:00 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by xzmattzx

Nice pictures! Why did you go to Harbord Village? Is it because it seemingly has an above average stock of Victorian houses?

Where is Harbord Village? I have never heard of this area.

It's beside the University of Toronto, right between Kensington Market and the Annex.

I didn't specifically plan to go to Harbord Village. I was just in the area and it seemed like a nice place to take a morning walk.

I don't think Harbord Village is even historically the name of this area, the neighbourhood association just started calling it that, probably when it started to (re)gentrify.

Dr Awesomesauce · #12 Posted **Oct 29, 2013, 12:32 PM**

I'm not so sure. People talk about Toronto's distinctive housing vernacular but aside from those attached cottages with the mansard roof, any of those houses could have been in Hamilton. I've always found it to be an interesting phenomenon, really, though I suppose we owe those similarities to geography.

Thanks for the pics, by the way.

flar · #13 Posted **Oct 29, 2013, 1:15 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dr Awesomesauce

I'm not so sure. People talk about Toronto's distinctive housing vernacular but aside from those attached cottages with the mansard roof, any of those houses could have been in Hamilton. I've always found it to be an interesting phenomenon, really, though I suppose we owe those similarities to geography.

Thanks for the pics, by the way.

There are some subtle differences, such as the firewalls between units in Hamilton, but certainly more similarities and many almost identical specimens can be found in each city. Hamilton has a lot of the "bay and gables" style.

I would say the pic below shows one of Hamilton's distinctive housing types that's less common in Toronto:

But this is also in Hamilton:

Jaborandi · #14 Posted **Oct 29, 2013, 4:03 PM**

I would venture to say that the orange brick in Hamilton is bit more vibrant than its Toronto counterpart.

M II A II R II K · #15 Posted **Oct 29, 2013, 4:21 PM**

You didn't get a picture of that fish and chips shop.

Docere · #16 Posted **Jan 18, 2015, 1:34 PM**

My hood. Too bad I'm a year late to the thread!

yaletown_fella · #17 Posted **Jan 18, 2015, 5:59 PM**

Wow! You JUST missed my parent's old house in picture number 7. It's right beside the right-most house.

kool maudit · #18 Posted **Jan 18, 2015, 7:46 PM**

might be my favorite area of toronto.

Centropolis · #19 Posted **Jan 19, 2015, 12:39 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by rousseau

Thing is: where else could it be? Too bad that most of these houses cost $2 million. Otherwise I'd want to live there.

Great tour, Flar. Thanks.

nice vernacular-focused shots.

2 million?

toronto must be hyper-gentrifing. the equivalent is 50k to 300k homes, here.

Docere · #20 Posted **Jan 19, 2015, 3:29 AM**

It isn't $2 million in Harbord Village - that sounds like The Annex to the north. Average price in HV is about $1 million.

I love the neighborhood! The first pic (corner of Sussex and Major) is one of my favorite Toronto houses.