Kensington Market and Chinatown Self-Guided Audio Walk: Bellevue Square, Spadina, the AGO and the Grange

About this experience

Kensington Market's houses never really went away. Look up and you see the old gables; look down and a shop has been built right over the front yard. Once you know the trick, you can read the whole neighbourhood. Start at the twin-domed Kiever Synagogue and Bellevue Square, where actor Al Waxman stands in bronze, then loop through the food streets of Augusta, Baldwin and Kensington Avenue. Walk down wide Spadina to Chinatown's busiest corner and hear how the first Chinatown was cleared for City Hall and a new one grew here. Follow Dundas past Jean Lumb Lane to Frank Gehry's glass and timber front for the Art Gallery of Ontario and OCAD's black-and-white box on stilts, then finish in Grange Park at the Grange, which the City calls its oldest brick house, with Gehry's blue tower rising behind it. Eleven stops, about 2 km and 90 minutes, in English and at your own pace. Start whenever you like and stop to eat on the way.

Experience type

Day tour or activity

Duration

1 hour and 25 minutes

Audio guide

English

Guide

English

Categories

Walking tour · Cultural and theme tours · City tours

What's included

Self-guided audio tour in English: 11 stops, 1.8 km, 85 minutes Stops at domed Kiever Synagogue, Bellevue Square, Spadina Avenue GPS map and walking directions in your phone browser, no app needed Lifetime access: start any day, at any hour, and replay it

What's not included

A live guide: you set the pace and the pauses A fixed start time: begin whenever you arrive Museum and monument tickets, all optional extras Tip or gratuity Food and drinks Entry or admission fee

Please note

To start the tour, enter the ticket code from your confirmation on the Roamer redemption page linked there. Do this before you set off, while you still have signal. The tour then opens in your phone browser, with no app to download. Bring a charged phone and earphones. Mobile data helps; if you have none, open the tour on wifi before you set off. Best time: Daytime, any day except Monday if you want to go into the Art Gallery of Ontario, which the walk passes near the end (it is closed Mondays). Late morning to mid-afternoon is when the market's shops are open and busiest; weekends are the liveliest and the most crowded. The two parks on the route close overnight. On Pedestrian Sundays (the next is Sunday 25 October 2026, noon to 7 p.m.) the market streets are closed to cars and packed. Come hungry: the walk passes Augusta Avenue's and Baldwin Street's food shops early, and Chinatown's restaurants later. Kensington Avenue's vintage shops are on its south block, between St Andrew Street and Dundas, just off the route. The same block holds a row of bay-and-gable houses from 1876 to about 1889 that the City moved to protect in 2025. Pedestrian Sundays keep cars off the market streets on the last Sunday of the month in season; the last 2026 date is Sunday 25 October, noon to 7 p.m. (checked 2 October 2026). The Art Gallery of Ontario is free on the first Wednesday of each month from 6 to 9 p.m. with a timed ticket booked online, and Ontario residents under 25 get in free with a free AGO Annual Pass. Checked 2 October 2026; confirm on ago.ca. From Dundas and Spadina you can walk south down Spadina toward Queen Street West for Graffiti Alley, a long lane of street art south of Queen between Spadina and Portland. It is not part of this walk. Casa Loma is a separate, ticketed visit north of downtown and not on this walk; check its own website for hours. On Sunday 4 October 2026, from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m., 505 Dundas streetcars are diverted for a charity run, with no service on part of Dundas (reported 1 October 2026). The Kiever Synagogue is an active Orthodox synagogue: view it from the opposite pavement, do not photograph worshippers, and expect people on the steps on Saturday mornings and on holidays. Kensington's pavements are narrow and busy, especially at weekends; watch for cars and cyclists on the market streets, where some crossings are unmarked. Cross Spadina, Dundas, Beverley and McCaul (at Dundas) only at the lights. The McCaul Street crossing at Grange Road, by the Sharp Centre's south end, is a zebra crossing with no lights: make sure traffic has stopped before you step out. Bellevue Square and Grange Park are City parks and are closed from 12:01 a.m. to 5:30 a.m. A new Art Gallery of Ontario wing was under construction between the gallery and OCAD in 2026, with fencing visible from Grange Park and McCaul Street. Most buildings on the walk are homes, shops, places of worship or university buildings: stay on the pavement and respect private property. Public transportation nearby

Itinerary

1. 1
   Day 0

   Kiever Synagogue: Twin Domes on Denison Square

   Kiever Synagogue, 28 Denison Square, Toronto

   A twin-domed synagogue built in 1927. Its round arches, two domes and separate doors for men and women still frame a working Orthodox congregation.

2. 2
   Day 0

   Bellevue Square: An Estate Left as a Park

   Bellevue Square Park, 5 Bellevue Avenue, Toronto

   An estate's leftover lawn became this square. A bronze of Al Waxman, television's King of Kensington, stands between two benches near where you walked in.

3. 3
   Day 0

   Augusta Avenue: Shops Over the Front Yards

   188 Augusta Avenue, Toronto

   Houses that grew shops over their front yards. Look up for the old house, down for the shop, and you can read the whole market.

4. 4
   Day 0

   Baldwin Street: Where the Market Began

   190 Baldwin Street, Toronto

   The market had taken root here by 1918. Small converted houses with shopfronts still line its busiest food block.

5. 5
   Day 0

   Kensington Avenue: Gables Above the Shopfronts

   69 Kensington Avenue, Toronto

   Old gabled houses hide behind the shopfronts. Across the street, Roots Records opened in 1978 as the market's first Caribbean business.

6. 6
   Day 0

   Spadina Avenue: The Double-Width Street

   Spadina Avenue, Toronto

   Laid out on purpose as a double-width road. It was cut so a house on the hill could see ships on the bay, and streetcars returned to its middle in 1997.

7. 7
   Day 0

   Dundas and Spadina: Chinatown's Crossroads

   Dundas Street West, Toronto

   The corner where the second Chinatown grew. It took shape here after most of the first was demolished for City Hall in the 1950s and 1960s.

8. 8
   Day 0

   Dundas Street West: Where Chinatown Ends

   Dundas Street West, Toronto

   Here Chinatown thins out toward the gallery. A lane here is named for Jean Lumb, who helped lead the 1969 fight to save the first Chinatown.

9. 9
   Day 0

   Art Gallery of Ontario: Gehry's Glass on Dundas

   Art Gallery of Ontario, 317 Dundas Street West, Toronto

   Gehry wrapped the gallery in glass and fir. He was born in Toronto in 1929, and his remade gallery reopened in November 2008.

10. 10
    Day 0

    OCAD's Sharp Centre: The Tabletop on Stilts

    77 McCaul Street, Toronto

    A black-and-white box about nine storeys up. Will Alsop's Sharp Centre for Design opened in 2004 on twelve brightly painted steel legs.

11. 11
    Day 0

    Grange Park and the Grange: The Gallery's First Home

    Grange Park, Beverley Street at Stephanie Street, Toronto

    A red-brick house finished by 1820, with Gehry's titanium-and-glass wing rising behind it. It became the art museum's first permanent home in 1913, and an art school shared it too.

Meeting point

Kiever Synagogue, Toronto Kiever Synagogue, 28 Denison Square, Toronto, Ontario, CA

Pick up

Pickup is not provided.

Cancellation policy · Kensington Market and Chinatown Self-Guided Audio Walk: Bellevue Square, Spadina, the AGO and the Grange

Standard Viator policy

• Cancellation 0–24 hours before departure: 100% cancellation fee.
• Cancellation 24–24000 hours before departure: 0% cancellation fee.

Good to know

Operated by Roamer and sold by AGORA. Your voucher and booking reference arrive by email straight after payment.