From Hippies to High Society: Yorkville

Toronto has been described as a “mosaic of neighborhoods.” The former village of Yorkville was once located outside the city limits but lies just a stone’s throw from the intersection of Yonge Street and Bloor Street West, one of the busiest intersections in the city and the junction of two major subway lines. Once a quiet suburb, Yorkville became the hub of the Toronto jazz and folk music scene in the 1960s and 1970s, home to artists like Neil Young and Joni Mitchell. Today, Yorkville is an upscale retail destination with chic boutiques, fine art galleries, luxury hotels, award-winning landscape architecture, and condo towers framing a dense network of streets with charming cottages and heritage buildings. New construction and the conversion of heritage properties continue to transform the character of what was once considered “the Canadian Haight-Ashbury.