Mile End: The Streets Mordecai Richler Wrote
Mordecai Richler grew up on Saint-Urbain Street, wrote four novels about the four blocks around it, and outlived almost everything he wrote about except the institutions. The bagels are the archaeology.
Start
5257 Saint-Urbain: The Protagonist's Anchor
5257 Saint-Urbain: The Protagonist's Anchor
The three-storey row house on the east side of Saint-Urbain Street where Mordecai Richler grew up. The pinkish-beige brick is the canonical childhood address, documented by his biographer Reinhold Kramer.
Baron Byng: The Institutional Record
The 1921 Protestant School Board building at 4251 Saint-Urbain that was the de facto Jewish-segregated English-language secondary school for the corridor. Closed June 1980 for lack of enrollment.
Wilensky's: The 1932 Lunch Counter
Moe Wilensky founded the lunch counter in 1932 on Fairmount West. The current Fairmount-and-Clark storefront dates to 1952. The Wilensky Special and the no-substitutions rule are the Richler-era artifacts that survived.
Saint-Viateur Bagel: The Closer
Myer Lewkowicz, Holocaust survivor, founded Saint-Viateur Bagel on May 21, 1957, nine years after Richler graduated Baron Byng. The wood-fired oven still runs. The bagels are the archaeology.
Best Time to Visit
Weekday late morning. Tuesday through Friday, ten to one. Saint-Urbain Street is residential and quiet in the morning, Baron Byng's red-brick facade reads well in oblique daylight, Wilensky's lunch counter is busiest at noon and closed Sunday and Monday, and Saint-Viateur Bagel is open twenty-four hours but the wood-fired oven is most visible through the window in late morning before the lunch rush. Mile End sidewalks fill from about noon on weekends.
Pro Tips
- •Start at Métro Mont-Royal on the Orange line or Métro Laurier and walk north on Saint-Urbain Street. The five two five seven address is on the east side, between Avenue Fairmount and Avenue Laurier
- •Five two five seven Saint-Urbain is a private residence. Read the building from the sidewalk across the street. Do not approach the door, do not photograph the entrance up close
- •The Baron Byng building at four two five one Saint-Urbain is no longer a school. Current use varies; the tour is a sidewalk-only stop. The carved school name on the lintel is the audio anchor
- •Wilensky's at thirty-four Avenue Fairmount Ouest is closed Sunday and Monday and runs a short ten-to-four schedule Tuesday through Saturday. Verify current hours at the door before planning interior access. The Wilensky Special comes with mustard unless you say otherwise at the counter
- •Saint-Viateur Bagel at two six three Rue Saint-Viateur Ouest is open twenty-four hours. The wood-fired oven is visible through the front window. Cash is faster than card at the counter
- •Fairmount Bagel, four blocks south at seventy-four Avenue Fairmount Ouest, is the other half of the bagel record. The tour names it once at the closer but does not walk past it. Add it as an optional fifth stop if you want to read the rivalry in person
- •Reinhold Kramer's Mordecai Richler: Leaving St. Urbain, McGill-Queen's University Press two thousand and eight, is the canonical biography. Richler's own The Street, McClelland and Stewart nineteen sixty-nine, available in the Penguin Modern Classics reissue, is the most autobiographical Richler text on this block
Safety & Precautions
- Five two five seven Saint-Urbain Street is a private residence. The address is what the documented record holds, not the current occupancy. Stand on the west sidewalk across the street and read the building from there
- Baron Byng High School is no longer operating as a school. The building's current use varies. Do not enter or attempt to access the interior
- Wilensky's lunch counter is small and busy at midday. If you are stopping for the audio rather than for lunch, the sidewalk across Fairmount is the audio position. Closed Sunday and Monday; Tuesday through Saturday only
- Saint-Viateur Street is a working commercial corridor. The bagel shop has a steady stream of foot traffic at the door at all hours. Stand to the side of the entrance to read the wood-fired oven through the window
- Mile End and adjacent Outremont have a present-tense Hasidic Jewish community. This tour does not narrate that community. Be respectful on the sidewalk; photograph public street scenes only, not people
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