Leslieville

Leslieville takes its name from George Leslie, a Scottish-born nurseryman whose Toronto Nurseries, established in the area from the 1820s to the 1850s, grew into the country's largest horticultural business — a small village grew up around it east of the Don River.

Nine brickyards

Brickmaking was the area's other defining industry: local clay deposits supported roughly nine brickyards by 1870. Joseph Russell's yard was producing on the order of a million bricks a year by the 1880s, and in 1905 Albert H. Wagstaff built a large modern plant beside the Grand Trunk Railway line. These brickyards, nurseries and lumber yards employed most residents, giving Leslieville its identity as a working-class industrial suburb.

From vacant warehouses to "Hipsterville East"

The brick industry wound down as clay deposits were exhausted through the mid-20th century, and old brickyards became subdivisions, schools and parks. Small factories and warehouses along Carlaw and Boothe Avenues continued light manufacturing into the later 20th century before that too declined, leaving warehouses underused through the 1980s and 1990s. Change accelerated sharply from around 2005, as new cafés and shops along Queen Street East earned the neighbourhood the nickname "Hipsterville East." Former industrial buildings such as the Wrigley Lofts were converted to live-work lofts, and film and TV production moved into former factory space at studios including Pinewood Toronto Studios in south Leslieville.

Sources

• Heritage Toronto — Leslieville's Industrial History: Made In Toronto
• Leslieville Historical Society — Self-Guided Tour: Bricks, Devils and a Pocket