Long celebrated as Toronto’s LGBT neighbourhood, Church and Wellesley Village has a true “village-within-a-city” feel, an atmosphere promoted and maintained by the neighbourhood’s active BIA. A strong sense of community has endured throughout the history of “the Village,” once the estate of Alexander Wood. A Scottish merchant and magistrate in what was “Upper Canada” in the early 1800’s, Wood was forced to leave the country because of his alleged involvement in a supposedly sexually-related scandal in 1810. He returned to the area two years later, and is now remembered as a forefather of Toronto’s gay community. Alexander Street and Wood Street have both been named in his honour, and the Alexander Wood statue at the Alexander and Church intersection was established in 2005 as a tribute to the area’s founder.
Church and Wellesley Village has been central to Toronto’s gay community for several decades. Before the 1970s, an underground “gay scene” centered around various bars and bathhouses in the area, but the 1981 Toronto bathhouse
raids are thought to be largely responsible for truly galvanizing the gay and lesbian community in this area of the city. Several mass protests were held in response to the raids and in support of Toronto’s gay community; these rallies evolved into Toronto’s “Pride Week,” one of the largest and most well-known Pride festivals in the world.
from around the world.
While the majority of those who call Church and Wellesley Village “home” are renters (71%, according to the City of Toronto’s Social Profile), the homes in this neighbourhood are in excellent repair, and newly built condos in this neighbourhood continue to add to the city’s skyline. Whether renting or owning, residents of Church and Wellesley Village have a front-row seat to the multiple festivals and celebrations in the community including Pride Week, “Halloweek” and Fetish Fair.
The Church and Wellesley Village Business Improvement Area (CWVBIA) works “to establish a strong and distinct neighbourhood identity that will help our village compete in an age of shopping malls and big box retail stores. We also seek to strengthen and support our internationally known reputation as the most exciting gay village in the world.” (Church & Wellesley Village BIA)