The Annex - Character

Character

The Annex is mainly residential, with tree-lined one-way streets lined with Victorian and Edwardian homes and mansions, most of them built between 1880 and the early 1900s. The 1950s and 1960s saw the replacement of some homes and mansions with mid-rise and a handful of high-rise apartment buildings in the International style. These were surrounded with landscaped green spaces in an attempt to better fit into the neighbourhood. Some of architect Uno Prii's most expressive, sculptural apartment buildings are located in the Annex. Because of its proximity to the university, the Annex has a high rate of seasonal tenant turnover, and its residents range from university students to older long-time residents.

The Annex has a population density of 8,500 people/km², ten times that of the sprawling GTA.

The stretch of Bloor Street between St. George and Bathurst is a vibrant social and mixed-use area, offering Toronto a wide range of services from moderate-priced dining to independent discount retailers, in buildings which often include residential space in upper floors. Just west of the Annex proper, between Bathurst and Christie, street signs on that stretch of Bloor call it Koreatown, although the neighbourhood north of Bloor Street is usually called Seaton Village or the "West Annex". During the 1950s and 1960s, an influx of Hungarian immigrants moved into the neighbourhood after the 1956 Hungarian Revolution was suppressed, and some of the businesses and properties along Bloor may still be owned by Hungarian-Canadian families.