Portugal Village (Toronto)

Portugal Village is a colourful inner city neighbourhood in Toronto, Ontario, that is bounded by Bathurst, Dundas, and Queen Streets, and the Trinity Bellwoods Park, around which the community is centred. The majority of the local businesses are laid out along Dundas Street West. Trinity Bellwoods Park was the original site of Trinity College, one of the colleges that make up the University of Toronto. The college building, which was completed in 1852, stood roughly at the centre of the park, and remained there for just over 100 years. (Today, however, the only remaining artifacts are the gates at the south end of the park.)

By 1900, the college, as well as its picturesque surroundings, attracted residential development, and most of the surrounding streets were filled in with tall, narrow houses, which were popular at the time. Many of the former residents of the area were middle- to upper-class, but as they moved on to more distant suburbs, the area's population was replaced by a burgeoning Portuguese population, many of whom arrived in the 1950s. Men would generally arrive first, obtain work, and would later bring their wives and children once they had established themselves. People were attracted to the area because of its abundance of affordable homes and its proximity to public transport and jobs.