A Brief Guide To Toronto’s The Annex

Bounded on the north by Dupont Street, on the east by Avenue Road, on the south by Bloor Street and on the west by Bathurst Street, The Annex is one of Toronto’s oldest and most heterogenous neighbourhoods, bordering the University of Toronto. The neighbourhood stretches along Bloor Street West for a kilometer, considered by many as a food, shopping and entertainment mecca with an exciting mix of art galleries, theatres, cafes, bookstores, music stores, restaurants and bars.

Indeed, if you ever visit The Annex, one of the first things you’ll notice is that there is no shortage of activities vying for your time from shopping at Honest Ed’s to visiting the Royal Ontario Museum. The area is also home to several intoxicating venues for pub food and fine dining. Take Puck’n Wings for example or Sushi On Bloor, which provides an alternative to the myriad pub grub choices in The Annex.

Alongside the attractions mentioned above, The Annex is also home to popular venues including Insomnia, Sonic Boom, Bloor Hot Docs Cinema and Lee’s Palace for live music. Clearly, options for entertainment abound in The Annex are plentiful for pleasure seekers and stylish urbanites. In addition, being in close proximity to the University of Toronto, the flavour of The Annex wouldn’t be the same without its hard-working future scholars and therefore features a number of popular student hotspots. Notable attractions include Madison Avenue Pub, which includes a piano bar, The Brunswick House, Duke Of York, Future Bakery and the Green Room.

Without a doubt, The Annex is one of the most affluent neighbourhoods in Toronto. Neighbouring Yorkville in terms of residential accommodation, the area is home to an eclectic mix of property styles from elaborate Victorian and Edwardian three-storey semis to homes in English Cottage, Georgian and Tudor styles. The Annex is also not immune to Toronto’s condo boom including B.streets designed by Hariri Pontarini Architects, Exhibit, a visionary condominium under construction at 200 Bloor Street West and SchoolHouse, which is an exclusive collection of 19 residences in the former Loretto College School building.

In addition to the fantastic mix of local amenities and good quality accommodation in The Annex, the neighbourhood is also excellently placed for Toronto attractions such as Yorkville, the Discovery District and Casa Loma. From a transport perspective, The Annex is well served by public transit facilities including four subway stations and streetcar lines that operate on a number of different routes. The subway stations in and around the neighbourhood include Bathurst, Dupont, St. George, and Spadina.