In terms of urban grit, though, you are right about St-Henri and in fact the whole south-west of Montreal, including Verdun and Ville-Emard (which is not that much smaller than South Philly). Le Plateau has generally a more elaborate vernacular.
Last edited by Martin Mtl; Aug 11, 2020 at 2:24 PM.
They're few and far between, and most are small stubs of a street, but there are a few extremely narrow residential streets in Toronto that almost give that hemmed in look (different architecture of course, and more similar to the Mtl version):
A friend of mine also lives in what is essentially a late 1800s cottage terrace on a private laneway in the middle of Parkdale which is an interesting experience to be sure.
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Though some of the newer rowhouse areas in Montreal have a bit of that fringe Brooklyn feel. Lower middle class neighborhoods built on the leftover scraps of land in the postwar years:
Though some of the newer rowhouse areas in Montreal have a bit of that fringe Brooklyn feel. Lower middle class neighborhoods built on the leftover scraps of land in the postwar years:
I think we're all aware of the prewar density of NYC and Philly enough in this forum. It's a well established fact that needs not to be stressed
But seeing Montreal's density, I would say that it is truly Canada's urban masterpiece. More comparable to New York, Philly, and San Francisco than to Chicago in terms of dense cohesiveness.
The best way to describe what I mean is this: ultra dense cities look almost endless in building stock. There are barely any gaps; the cityscape envelopes one into it with pedestrian and structural intensity without end. Essentially cities like Paris, Naples, Cairo, Tokyo, etc.
Chicago looks dense too in those photos, but it's a denser version of the detached/ street car suburb style that makes up LA's cityscape.
But honestly, we should talk more about Montreal here in this forum. I still can't get over why it's not as well known in this forum as Toronto. It's clearly the most urban of the two.
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I haven't been to Montreal in 10 years, but every time I was there I walked my ass off on endless walks. Most of what I saw looked like the above picture in scale. It's more uniformly intact than Chicago, but the street widths, the tree canopies, and the massing of buildings made me feel at home.
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