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Neighborhoods
Montreal is laid out in a grid pattern and defined by neighborhoods and districts.
Downtown: This area displays the most striking elements of the dramatic Montréal skyline and contains the main railroad station, as well as most of the city's luxury and first-class hotels, principal museums, corporate headquarters, and largest department stores .It is loosely bounded by rue Sherbrooke to the north, boulevard René-Lévesque to the south, boulevard St-Laurent to the east, and rue Drummond to the west,
Downtown Montréal incorporates the neighborhood formerly known as "The Golden Square Mile," which once held dozens of mansions erected by the wealthy Scottish and English merchants and
industrialists who dominated the city's politics and social life well into the 20th century. Many were torn down and replaced by skyscrapers after World War II. At the northern edge of the downtown area is the urban
campus of prestigious McGill University.
Rue Crescent
One of Montréal's major dining and nightlife districts lies just west of
western shadow of the downtown skyscrapers. It holds hundreds of restaurants, bars, and clubs of all styles between Sherbrooke and René-Lévesque, The party atmosphere is ongoing every evening, especially in warm
weather, as the sidewalk cafes and balconies fill with revelers.
St.-Denis
Rue St-Denis, from rue Ste-Catherine Est to avenue du
Mont-Royal, from the Latin Quarter downtown and continuing north into the Plateau Mont-Royal district is the entertainment center. Cafes, bistros, offbeat shops, and lively nightspots make this area what boulevard
St-Germain is to Paris.
Boulevard St-Laurent
Métro St-Laurent and up Blvd. St-Laurent,
In the 1880s the first of many waves
of Jewish immigrants escaping pogroms in Eastern Europe arrived. They called the street the Main, as in "Main Street." The Jews were followed by Greeks, Eastern Europeans, Portuguese, and Latin Americans.
The 10 blocks north of rue Sherbrooke are filled with boutiques, restaurants, and galleries.
Chinatown
The Chinese first came
to Montréal in large numbers after the transcontinental railroad was completed in 1880. They settled in an 18-block area between boulevard René-Lévesque and avenue Viger to the north and south, and near rues Hôtel
de Ville and de Bleury on the west and east, an area now full of mainly Chinese and Southeast Asian restaurants and shops.
Quartier Latin
The Université de Montréal was established here in 1893, and the students and academics called it the Latin Quarter. The university later moved to a larger campus. The area declined, but revived in the
1970s, after the opening of the Université du Québec à Montréal and the start of the Annual International Jazz Festival.
Vieux-Montréal
Home to the first European settlers, for almost three centuries this was the financial and political heart of the city. Government buildings, office buildings and warehouses, the largest church, the stock
exchange, and the port were here. Vieux-Montréal (Old Montréal), was revitalized over the past 40 years.
Today it is a center of cultural life and municipal government. Most of the summer activities revolve
around Place Jacques-Cartier, which becomes a pedestrian mall with street performers and outdoor cafés, and the Vieux-Port, one of the city's most popular recreation spots.
Place Jacques-Cartier
This two-block-long square at the heart of Vieux-Montréal opened in 1804 as a municipal market; during the summer it becomes a flower market. Rue
St. Amable, a one-block lane southwest of Place Jacques-Cartier, is a marketplace for artists and craftspeople. The fashionable Rue St-Paul runs north-south through Place Jacques-Cartier.
The Underground City
During Montréal's long winters, life slows on the streets of downtown. People move down escalators and stairways into la ville souterraine. In the
controlled climate, there is no worry of disruption of activities by the outdoor elements, It is possible to arrive at the railroad station, check into a hotel, go out for lunch at any of hundreds of fast-food
counters and full-service restaurants, see a movie, attend a concert, conduct business, go shopping, and even take a swim-all without a thought for the weather!
There are now more than 1,600 shops, 40 banks,
200 restaurants, 10 Métro stations, and about 30 cinemas within easy reach of one another, and with no traffic snarls.
The Village
The city's gay and lesbian enclave, one of North America's largest, runs east along rue Ste-Catherine from rue St-Hubert to rue Papineau. This small but vibrant district, is filled with clothing stores,
antique shops, bars, dance clubs, cafés, and the Gay and Lesbian Community Centre, at 1301 rue Ste-Catherine Est. A rainbow marks the Beaudry Métro station, in the heart of the neighborhood. Two major annual
celebrations are the Diver/Cité in August and the Black & Blue Party in October.
Ile Ste-Helene
St. Helen's Island in the
St. Lawrence River was altered extensively to become the site of Expo '67, Montréal's very successful world's fair. In the 4 years before the Expo opened, construction crews reshaped the island and doubled its
surface area with landfill, then went on to create beside it an island that hadn't existed before, Ile Notre-Dame. The city built bridges and 83 pavilions. When Expo closed, the city government preserved the site
and a few of the exhibition buildings. Parts were used for the 1976 Olympics, and today the island is home to Montréal's popular casino and an amusement park, La Ronde.
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