From Hippie Haven to Canada's Fifth Avenue | The Story of Yorkville

In the 1960s, Yorkville was Canada's hippie capital: coffee houses, folk musicians, drugs, biker gangs, and a scene the city government wanted eradicated. Today it's the most expensive retail corridor in Canada. This is the story of how six blocks of Toronto changed identity three times in under two centuries: from a suburb built to escape disease, to the neighbourhood where Joni Mitchell, Gordon Lightfoot and Neil Young got their start, to a luxury district where a heritage-protected building was demolished in exchange for a plaque. Featuring the Riverboat Coffee House, Ian Wookey's land assembly, York Square, Hazelton Lanes, Holt Renfrew's move from Montreal, and Raymond Moriyama's Toronto Reference Library.