Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Kensington Market


This wonderful sign/bike stand, spelling out Kensington and fabricated as a giant bicycle chain, is located near the northern border of the Kensington Market neighbourhood of Toronto. This distinctive, multi-cultural area of food stores, restaurants, cafes, and discount stores was proclaimed a National Historic Site in 2006. Through the 1920s & 30s this was the "Jewish Market" and after WW2 as the Jewish population moved north the area became at first mostly Portuguese (especially from the Azores), then Caribbean, East Asian, Vietnamese, and then mainly Chinese. Now there are also large numbers of Latin American shops as well as eastern European ones. And so far gentrification has not taken over! It's a super area!
Taking part in Signs, Signs. For more signs click here.

21 comments:

jennyfreckles said...

Clever idea - pity that all bike racks are not so interesting.

LĂșcia said...

Very creative, love it!
I'd love to visit this area. ;-)

VioletSky said...

very clever!

Clytie said...

What a wonderful way to make a sign functional ... and a bike rack fun!

Anonymous said...

what a playful and functional sign.

Sallie (FullTime-Life) said...

Fabulous sign -- I love neighborhoods like that!

Postcardy said...

Besides being a sign/stand, it is also a piece of sculpture. The whole area sounds like fun.

Anonymous said...

wow! i am looking at this closer and realizing the amount of fabrication it took to produce this oversized, very true to life, 'bicycle chain bicycle rack' and it is truly amazing. what a great find, i have never seen this. is it a recent addition to the kensington area? i quite like it. great design. thanks redpat.

Jack said...

This is pretty cool, Redpat. It is also interesting to see the way this area has been transformed demographically over the years. It is the familiar story of immigration and assimilation.

Inger-M said...

Very creative, and well captured!

Alain said...

That's a very clever sign. Great photo!

EG CameraGirl said...

I would love to get into the city to shop there! I KNOW it's a fun place. :)

Birdman said...

Interesting history of this area.

genie said...

C-squared......a Cool and Clever sign and shot. Love it. I think this area would be fabulous to visit. So much to see and to eat. Sounds great to me.

Randy said...

That is really clever and creative.

Anonymous said...

That is a neat sign, someone put a lot of time and effort into that!

Kim, USA said...

That is neat!

Signs

Lesley said...

This is so very playful!

Mo said...

What a great artistic way to chain the bikes. Need to show this to our mayor

Unknown said...

what a unique bike stand! i've never seen anything like it.

Linda said...

Witty!