Quote:
Originally Posted by hkskyline
Quite a lot of nice historic homes in this neighbourhood without the posh elitist exclusivity of Rosedale!
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Indeed. The Annex style house was a hybrid of the Richardsonian Revival and Queen Anne Revival, built in the 1880s and 1890s.
Rosedale may be centrally located but it's tucked away in the ravines, not on the grid, and is much more homogeneous. It's Toronto's first garden suburb.
The Annex was initially home to much of the Toronto elite but was more mixed socioeconomically. By the Depression the Social Register set had moved out of the neighborhood (often to the Davenport hill around Casa Loma or to Rosedale). Many elderly widows turned their large homes into rooming houses.
There was some urban renewal in the 1950s and 1960s (as seen by the modernist apartment buildings) and the Annex was threatened by the proposed Spadina Expressway which would run right down the middle of it. The successful Stop Spadina movement was centered in the Annex.
The Annex is close to the University of Toronto (you can see the Robarts Library in the picture of St. George subway station) and is home to a lot of academics and students. The university expansion of the 1960s began the process of gentrification. Today it's one of Toronto's most desirable neighborhoods.
The Annex is very well served by transit and contains 4 subway stations in its boundaries (St. George, Spadina, Dupont, Bathurst). I didn't get a Dupont station pic, but has a really cool looking entrance (1970s era futurism).
I really like all the park squares throughout the neighborhood: Taddle Creek Park on Bedford/Lowther, Gwendolyn MacEwen Park on Walmer Rd., Jean Siebelus Square on Brunswick/Kendal, St. Alban's Square on Howland/Albany. And I'm a frequenter of Hot Docs which I mentioned.
What's interesting about the Annex is it combines a very grand upscale urbane feel with a very student/youthful feel.
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