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Local Landmarks & Heritage

  • Reggae Lane
  • Eglinton Avenue West

Neighborhood History

Little Jamaica is the stretch of Eglinton Avenue West in York running roughly from Marlee Avenue to Keele Street, crossing parts of four neighbourhoods. Caribbean settlement here began in the late 1950s, in the era of the West Indian Domestic Scheme, and it grew through the 1970s as more Jamaican families arrived in the then City of York. Along Eglinton they opened record shops, barbershops, restaurants and recording studios, making the strip a centre of Toronto's reggae scene.

Reggae Lane, a laneway off Eglinton at Alameda Avenue, honours that history; its 1,200-square-foot mural by Adrian Hayles, painted in 2015, depicts artists including Leroy Sibbles and Jackie Mittoo. Construction of the Eglinton Crosstown line closed or displaced many businesses on the strip. In 2020 City Council directed a planning framework study for the area, a Little Jamaica Cultural District Study followed in 2023, and Council formally recognized the Little Jamaica Cultural District in June 2026. York became part of the amalgamated City of Toronto in 1998.

The Little Jamaica tee is for the neighbours who keep Eglinton West's reggae and Caribbean story going.

MY-NHD

Little Jamaica - York - Unisex Cotton Tee

Little Jamaica - York - Unisex Cotton Tee

Regular price $29.95 CAD
Regular price Sale price $29.95 CAD
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Little Jamaica is the stretch of Eglinton Avenue West in York between Marlee Avenue and Keele Street. Its record shops and studios made it a centre of Toronto's reggae scene from the 1970s.

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