The longest street in Montreal, Boulevard Saint Laurent is widely acclaimed as the city’s best for walking. Its constantly changing scene throughout the day makes it an exciting pedestrian environment, and it hosts plenty of eateries, shops, and art galleries that cater to multiple audiences and budgets. The south section of the street is particularly popular for its nightlife, featuring some of  Montreal’s trendiest bars and restaurants. Boulevard Saint Laurent also hosts a number of street fairs and festivals throughout the year - a local favorite is the MURAL festival, a free local art festival celebrating urban art. During such events, which attract over 800,000 visitors each night, the street is closed to vehicles from Sherbrooke Street to Mount Royal Avenue. Along with its vibrant nightlife, Boulevard Saint Laurent has established itself as one of Montreal’s central corridors for art and cultural activity.

Running north-south through the center of the city, Boulevard Saint Laurent is Montreal’s main corridor, and it was once the dividing line between the city’s French-speaking East and English-speaking West. Along with its thriving commercial activity, the 11.25km street is widely-known for its rich cultural heritage, and it his home to some of the city’s oldest ethnic enclaves. In the early 1900s, Jewish immigrants began settling in the area, and since the 1950s, when many of these early settlements began to transform into part of Montreal’s Chinatown, the street has become home to a number of immigrant communities. In 2002, the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada named Boulevard Saint Laurent “The Main National Historic Site of Canada.”

Image credits, from left: Mike Graham via Flickr, Abdallah via Flickr, ecololo via Flickr, Christian Liboiron via Flickr, Intiaz Rahim via Flickr, Intiaz Rahim via Flickr 

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