Bill Taylor
Special to The Star
15 February 2004
The Toronto Star

Copyright (c) 2004 The Toronto Star

The streets ooze tradition

Funky isn't the first adjective you might apply to one of Toronto's three most expensive neighbourhoods. And yet there is something just a little ...

No, who are we trying to kid? There's nothing remotely funky about Forest Hill.

Even when the snow is at its grimiest and lesser 'hoods are completely grungy, there's a muted incandescence here, the discreet glow that paper money in abundance gives off. But at least the place has its own identity. You know for sure you're not in Rosedale or Post Road, the city's two other great repositories of private wealth.

There's still a hill here, and there used to be a forest. The name was first applied by John Wickson to his summer home on what was then Spadina Heights. The community that grew up was named after Wickson's place and incorporated as a village in 1823. It remained so until 1967, when the whale of Toronto did a Jonah on it. As part of the deal, Forest Hillbillies retained the right to have their garbage picked up from their doorsteps rather than lugging it to the curb.

By 1993, this "butler service" was costing taxpayers $420,000 a year. Great was the outcry when the city said, "No more." As one letter-writer to the Star put it: "The agreement was not contingent upon the opinions of self-serving future councillors, or the objections of other neighbourhoods. If city council has any integrity ..."

Bounded by Eglinton and St. Clair Aves. to the north and south, Avenue Rd. to the east and Bathurst St. to the west, Forest Hill is not a neighbourhood you're likely to find yourself casually passing through. You have to set out to go there.

It's inward-looking, an enclave, which the Canadian Oxford Dictionary defines as: "A portion of territory of one state surrounded by territory of another or others ... a group of people who are culturally, intellectually or socially distinct from those surrounding them."

That just about says it.

At the same time, it contains one of the great unknown (until now) alternate routes downtown. If you're heading down Yonge St. from north Toronto and traffic's impossible, turn off at the Davisville subway station, head west on Chaplin Cres., south on Oriole Pkwy. and west again on Kilbarry Rd. (passing some imposing real estate) and pressing on when the street begins to look as if it might lead nowhere.

Suddenly, like popping through a Star Trek "wormhole" into a parallel universe, you're on Spadina Rd. It's tempting to pronounce it "Spadeena," so far removed is it from the flamboyant avenue that runs south through Chinatown.

In keeping with the city's habit of tagging neighbourhoods, the street signs at the southern end of the neighbourhood proclaim "Forest Hill Village," an up-and-downmarket strip of cafes and shops centred on Spadina Rd. offering everything from upscale kitchenware to "brand-name lingerie at discount prices" (who knows what lurks beneath all that well-cut urban outerwear?). There's also the Forest Hill Barber Shop, "since 1931." Years in this milieu confer respectability. There's a Forest Hill Rd. And an Old Forest Hill Rd. That's at the northern end, where the street signs are forest-green with white lettering, discreet, simple and classic, with the rust-streaked patina of useful age.

The few commercial blocks, with metal seats on the sidewalks, resemble nothing so much as the core of a small Ontario town, the sort of place you pass en route to someplace else and think about stopping in but usually don't.

There's the Village Restaurant and the Village Idiot (not to be confused with the pub across from the Art Gallery of Ontario). Primi, an Italian restaurant once favoured by those who moved and shook, is now a Baskin-Robbins ice creamery. For finer dining and more stores, go to Eglinton Ave. and Bathurst St. The House of Chan, on Eglinton, is a landmark. Legend has it that it was one of the first Chinese restaurants to open, greatly daring, away from Chinatown. The owners hedged their bets by also offering steak, which is what it became noted for.

Strictly speaking, the restaurant Five61 is on the wrong side of Avenue Rd., across from the western side's protective phalanx of apartment buildings too low to be high-rise, too high to be low. But Five61's ethos is all Forest Hill. Small and housed in yet another apartment building, it bustles at lunch time with people who mostly look as if they've been before and will be coming back. Pearl necklaces and cashmere scarves. As one regular arrives, a staffer says, "I'll be right there, Judge."

Forest Hill contains the country's fanciest school - Upper Canada College - and the consulate of the tiny Mediterranean republic of Montenegro. This is in a big old house. Forest Hill has lots of big old houses, though also a great many of the classic North Toronto square brick jobs; no frills, not too large, good, solid and probably - at one time, anyway - god-fearing dwellings, built to last. The streets ooze tradition, with the snow on the roofs and on the branches of the grand, old fir trees bringing a Christmas-card scene to life. One Mock Tudor place has, perhaps (or perhaps not) in the spirit of satire, a cast-iron jockey in the yard.

If you're looking to relocate and want something deeper-rooted than a condo (those have even appeared here), you're likely to be sailing before a seven-figure wind. Location, location, location, remember.

Don't expect outrageous opulence. You can almost hear the Toronto the Goodies of yesteryear urging their architects not to go overboard on ostentation. If you've got it, you don't have to flaunt it.

You can even take your chance on eBay, which recently listed "an architectural masterpiece ... landmark Art Deco home," on Forest Hill Rd. A "gorgeous professionally landscaped ravine property ... lovingly restored to exacting standards ... up-to-the-minute luxury ... exquisite, authentic ... perfect for family living, with wonderful flow and space for formal or informal entertaining ... a superb showcase for an avid art collector ..." Well, you get the picture. But eBay or not, it didn't seem to be up for auction. No suggested starting bid, just a price tag of $3,698,000. Bring your own artworks.

A recent real-estate study put Forest Hill as one of the neighbourhoods with the top increase in price appreciation from 2002 to 2003. Prices on average rose 15 per cent, to $734,000. The average house sold for 98 per cent of its asking price.

But on garbage collection day, the cans lie willy-nilly on the sidewalk in the snow.

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