National Geographic's pick, 2012
St. Lawrence Market
Founded in 1803 on the site of Toronto's original town hall, St. Lawrence Market was named the world's best food market by National Geographic in 2012 — and farmers have been setting up in its North Market building every Saturday for more than 200 years.
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Our Toronto food guide covers the city's wider food scene. St. Lawrence Market gets its own page because it isn't just a market — it's one of the oldest continuously operating pieces of civic infrastructure in the entire city, and internationally recognized as the best of its kind anywhere.
From town hall to public market (1803–1902)
St. Lawrence Market was founded in 1803, and for a period starting in the 1830s, its building doubled as Toronto's actual town hall. The Great Fire of 1849 destroyed the original structure; it was rebuilt in the style of Europe's great market halls, and the current South Market building opened in 1902 — incorporating what remained of the old 1845 city hall directly into its structure.
Named the world's best food market (2012)
In 2012, National Geographic named St. Lawrence Market the best food market in the world, in a feature titled "Food Journeys of a Lifetime" — ranking it above New York's Union Square Greenmarket and St. Lucia's Castries Market. It's a title the market has kept referencing ever since, and one that genuinely changed how the city talked about it.
What's actually there
More than 120 vendors operate across the market's buildings, selling everything from fresh seafood and Italian pasta to cheeses, curries and marmalades. In the North Market building specifically, farmers have set up at dawn every Saturday for more than 200 years — the same basic ritual that's been happening on that spot since well before Canada existed as a country.
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Sources
- BlogTO — Toronto's St. Lawrence Market Named One of the Best Food Markets in the World
- Destination Toronto — St. Lawrence Market
- CTV News — St. Lawrence Market Named World's Best Food Market