The Dark History Behind Toronto's Trendiest Neighborhood | The Story of Liberty Village

Liberty Village is one of Toronto's most desirable neighborhoods: dense with condos, restaurants, and young professionals. A hundred years ago, the same land held a prison and a reformatory for women. This is the story of how it happened. Before it was Toronto's trendiest neighborhood, Liberty Village was home to the Toronto Central Prison and the Andrew Mercer Reformatory for Women; institutions built to hold the people the city didn't want to see. This video traces Liberty Village's history from the 1850s railway lines that cut the land off from the rest of the city, through decades of confinement and industry, deindustrialization and artist occupation, to the condo boom and gentrification debates shaping the neighborhood today. If you enjoyed this video, subscribe for more deep dives into Toronto's neighbourhoods, history, and urban policy. #LibertyVillage #Toronto #TorontoHistory #Gentrification #UrbanPlanning #TorontoNeighborhoods