Montréal

Neighborhoods

Montréal grew up in the area between the St. Lawrence River and Mount Royal. Older industries are on low lands to the west. Old Montréal, the area of initial settlement, is a historic area with cafes and restaurants. The contemporary downtown is nearby, between Boulevard René Lévesque and Sherbrooke. Urban renewal projects under Mayor Jean Drapeau (1916–1999) replaced many low-rise buildings with modernistic high rises and a network of underground passages connecting shopping and office complexes.

The modern city surrounds Mount Royal, a large glacial formation in the middle of Montréal island. Residential neighborhoods have distinctive complexions. North of Sherbrooke Street, mansions line streets running up to Mount Royal and extend into West-mount, an English-speaking area to the west of the downtown core. Westmount has been a center for Montréal's English-speaking population. The east end of Montréal is a poorer and predominantly French. Housing stock here consists primarily of three-story walk-up apartment buildings, with wrought-iron exterior stairways. Further west is Notre Dame du Grace, home to middle classes and immigrant communities. The Jewish and many other immigrant communities originally settled in the heart of the city, along St. Lawrence (St. Laurent) Blvd., a north-south artery dividing the eastern and western portions of the city. Italian areas are located further north, around the Jean-Talon metro. Mount Royal, to the north of the mountain of the same name, is primarily an Anglophone area. Outremont, in contrast, is predominantly French speaking. Laval, on Jesus Island, is a French-speaking suburb. Longeuil on the southern shore of the St. Lawrence is mixed.