A Visit to a Kensington Market Music Store

Last week I was instructing a course in Brampton Ontario.  I stayed an extra day to tour around Toronto since I haven't done that in 20 some years.  One place I've had on my bucket list for many years was to visit was Kensington Market.  So that was my first priority. 

Kensington Market has a long history in Toronto and was first populated by British immigrants so the building architecture reflects that era.  It eventually became populated by Jewish and Italian immigrants who built store fronts along the street.  Actually, on the street.  Now you will see many different cultural backgrounds.   The area became well known across Canada because of a 1970's show on CBC called King of Kensington with Al Waxman.  There's a statue of Mr. Waxman in a park next to to the market street. 

As you walk the street you smell the foods and hear the music of these cultures.  Shops range from soup to nuts, literally.  There's coffee shops, restaurants, bakeries, cheese shops, produce, and clothing.  It's best to walk because the streets are narrow and the storefronts are built out into the side walk.  many of the shops are the old houses with a store front built onto it. 

I spent a couple of hours walking around and checking out the shops, the day was nice and I was enjoying the atmosphere.   It is a great place to people watch. 

As I was walking, I came across a little store front that looked like it was closed up.  There was no name and a stack of unkempt newspapers and other junk was piled in the doorway.  There was no name on the store either.  

What caught my eye though was the odd and strange musical instruments hanging in the window along with Elvis and Duke Ellington statues.   I wandered around Kensington a bit more then as I was walking back to the parking garage, I noticed the front door was open.  I had to take a look. 

The pile of newspapers in the doorway were shoved over the to the side so I walk in.  An elderly oriental man was on the phone and he waved at me to come in.  I'm sure he saw the stunned look on my face.  The little building was absolutely full of musical instruments and other junk.  some instruments were hanging on wall hooks, but most were piled in the middle of the floor.  I could hardly get over to see the stuff on the wall there was so little space.  I could see piles and piles of instruments at the back of the store, some in boxes, some just stacked in disorganized piles.   I instantly thought of the TV show 'the hoarders".  I should have guessed when I saw that pile of newspapers at the door.  

I looked at a few instruments.  He had cheap guitars and none of interest.  There was some mandolins for $50 and a bouzouki for $70.  They looked like that's about what they were worth.  Among all the hand drums and other stuff were some strange looking eastern culture instruments that looked like they needed a lot of fixing.  I came across a charango, a South American instrument.  I couldn't get to it to see what it was priced at.  There were some incredibly cheap looking banjos on the wall.   Everything in the store was under a $100, or it seemed.

Then I came across two gourd banjos.  I checked the price and they were over $400.  Again, I must have had a stunned look on my face.

I didn't get any pictures inside the store, which I regret.  You have to see it to believe it. I took this photo off of google earth of the storefront.   If you look close, you will see an electric guitar in the window shaped like a red maple leaf.  It was still there.   You can also see the owner sitting in the doorway (google brushed of course).