Le Golden Square Mile de Montréal
Quelque chose like a miraculously artsy neighbourhood.
Sometimes the secret to being cool is to have no clue what cool is. For a while in the late 1990s I was staying in a magical neighbourhood that has everything including art and diversity and quirky shops and $0.99 pizza slices and did I mention the art?
I lived there because the rent was cheap and I was broke and it was close to everything. I didn’t know I was hip.
Montreal’s Golden Square Mile is a large area delineated by Avenue des Pins, Côte-des-Neiges, boulevard René-Lévesque (née Dorchester) and rue Robert-Bourassa (once known as University). For a while my home was on Côte-des-Neiges just north of Sherbrooke, before I moved three blocks outside that magic square mile, on Durocher at Milton — around the corner from one of the best used bookstores in the whole wide world.
And while technically not living along the famous party street, I did spend inordinate amounts of time in the bars of Crescent Street, for which I am grateful there are no photos.
The mile also includes the park where federalist forces held that infamous We Love You really ahead of the 1995 referendum. The CBC had a story in 2015 about what had become of the giant Canadian flag and forgive the click-bait-y set up but you absolutely won’t believe where it ended up.
What I like the most about the neighbourhood is the diversity. You have everything form the Ritz-Carleton to dodgy student residences, cheap beer and caviar, boutique hotels to, well, less reputable establishments, the best coffee outside of Mile End (another iconic neighbourhood) and so… much… public art. Plus the Museum of Fine Arts, among other fancy digs.
Most large North American cities have neighbourhoods like this around their main museums. But only in Montreal is it bilingual. It grew kind of funny over the decades, with old stately mansions being demolished or turned into private clubs for the well-to-do. But it always managed to keep its charm.
En sixième année on a fait un voyage de classe à Montréal, juste un aller-retour la même journée, et je me rappelle plusieurs de mes camarades de classe qui avaient peur de prendre le métro. Ils n’avaient jamais vu ça, un métro.
Je les trouvais un peu niais, je l’avoue. Me semble, Montréal, c’est quand même pas si loin de Québec. Sûrement que les gens vont y faire un tour une fois de temps en temps, comme je le faisais, ne serait-ce que pour voir la rue Sainte-Catherine?
Apparemment, non.
Des années plus tard je me suis retrouvée au centre-ville de Montréal pour me faire une vie d’artiste et sans trop le savoir j’ai choisi un endroit magique où vivre, ce qu’on appelle le mile doré, voisinage qui inclut le centre-ville et les universités McGill et Concordia.
Petite, j’avais été voir l’exposition sur Tintin au Musée des beaux-arts, dont j’ai gardé un souvenir indélébile.
Aujourd’hui, le quartier est rempli d’œuvres d’art et de magasins pour les snobs, mais aussi d’étudiants, de pizza cheap et de pubs à ne plus savoir les compter.
C’est un endroit pas trop planifié mais juste assez, que j’adore arpenter aussi souvent que possible.
“I did spend inordinate amounts of time in the bars of Crescent Street, for which I am grateful there are no photos.”
Moi aussi! Thankfully no possibility of embarrassing selfies or instant media shots then. What a fabulous city. I lived there 1978-1980 with a year on Lac Memphramagog. It was still very Québécois. Had my first sculpture exhibition given by Mme. Chirieff’s Les Grandes Ballets Canadiens and then Leon Simard. Heady times in my 20’s for an Alabama girl.
Great photos.