Leslieville. Locals love it, and peo­ple who don’t live there wish they did. It’s a hip, friendly neigh­bour­hood that’s expe­ri­enced a dra­matic resur­gence in the last few years, becom­ing one of city’s most pop­u­lar des­ti­na­tions for buy­ers look­ing for still-affordable homes with a bit of history.

Leslieville’s charm­ing small-town vibe stems from its his­tory as an actual vil­lage. In the 1850s, the com­mu­nity grew up around Toronto Nurs­eries, a busi­ness owned by George Leslie and his sons. It was a work­ing class neigh­bour­hood, with res­i­dents employed as gar­den­ers and labour­ers in nearby brick-making factories.

In later years, much of the area was taken up by metal pro­cess­ing and tan­ning fac­to­ries. Today, those fac­to­ries have been replaced by film stu­dios, so don’t be sur­prised if you spot a movie star pick­ing up a cof­fee on Queen.

Leslieville’s most famous res­i­dent was Alexan­der Muir, who wrote The Maple Leaf For­ever. He was the first prin­ci­pal at Leslieville Pub­lic School, one of the ini­tial build­ings to go up in the vil­lage. The maple tree that inspired his famous song still stands at the cor­ner of Laing Street and Mem­ory Lane.

These days, Leslieville is home to a won­der­ful mix of stroller-pushing mom­mies, cre­ative pro­fes­sion­als and hip down­town dwellers. Quirky vin­tage shops, cof­fee spots and cafes, local bou­tiques, must-try restau­rants and mom and pop busi­nesses line the main Queen East drag. Beau­ti­ful old homes line the leafy streets, and gen­tri­fi­ca­tion has become the word of the day.

St. Clements Church Lofts in Leslieville

We’re pleased to say that this great old neigh­bour­hood has a new lease on life – and The St. Clements church loft con­ver­sion is the per­fect exam­ple of that remark­able reinvention.

St. Clement’s has been a well-loved Leslieville land­mark for gen­er­a­tions. Designed by the Toronto archi­tec­tural part­ner­ship of Sharp and Brown in the early 1900s, the church served the spir­i­tual needs of its parish­ioners and the social needs of the neigh­bour­hood for almost a century.

Con­struc­tion on the church began in 1913, and despite the finan­cial dif­fi­cul­ties and per­sonal sac­ri­fices brought by the war, all of the fur­nish­ings were in place by 1917 and in 1921 the final elab­o­rate stained glass win­dow was installed.

St. Clement’s is a great exam­ple of the Vic­to­rian Gothic Revival style favoured by Angli­can con­gre­ga­tions in the late 19^th and early 20^th cen­turies. The pitched roof with bel­fry, char­ac­ter­is­tic pointed-arch win­dow open­ings, lancet win­dows and dec­o­ra­tive detail­ing all add up to a beau­ti­ful space that was once the cen­tre of a spir­i­tual and social community.

That com­mu­nity has moved on, and the build­ing that housed them is now enter­ing a new incar­na­tion; inspired multi-level hard loft con­ver­sions carved from the beau­ti­ful frame of this for­mer house of worship.

The church will hold 17 con­verted lofts, and a newly con­structed 4-storey addi­tion will con­tain an addi­tional 22 new soft lofts. All of the church lofts are designed to pro­vide an appeal­ing inter­play between her­itage and mod­ern ele­ments. Imag­ine it… a stained glass win­dow in your liv­ing room. A gor­geous arched door lead­ing into your ultra-modern kitchen. Glanc­ing out your bed­room win­dow and see­ing a 100-year-old bell tower.

St. Clements Church Lofts has brought new life to a his­toric build­ing – and rein­vented lux­ury liv­ing in the heart of the city.

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Con­tact the Jef­frey Team for more infor­ma­tion – 416−388−1960

Lau­rin & Natalie Jef­frey are Toronto Real­tors with Cen­tury 21 Regal Realty.
They did not write these arti­cles, they just repro­duce them here for peo­ple
who are inter­ested in Toronto real estate. They do not work for any builders.
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st clement condo

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