Brick duplexes with exterior metal staircases sit near converted garment lofts, and Brooklyn used real Mile End interiors for its 1950s New York scenes.
What Mile End looks like
The side streets carry rows of two- and three-storey brick duplexes and triplexes, most of them built between 1890 and the 1920s. Exterior metal staircases zigzag up to the second- and third-floor doors, straight runs on some blocks and tight spirals on others. Small front yards sit behind low iron fences, and the sidewalks run narrow under rows of street trees.
Along Rue de Gaspé and Casgrain Avenue, four- to six-storey brick loft buildings stand with loading docks and rows of multi-pane windows. Several have been converted into apartments and studios, with workshops and galleries at street level. Saint-Viateur Street's ground-floor storefronts here are red and tan brick under painted signs and striped awnings.
A bagel bakery on Saint-Viateur Street still bakes out of a wood-burning oven behind its front counter, in view of the sidewalk through the window. A few doors down on Bernard Street, a run of similar brick storefronts includes a bookshop with a narrow street-facing entrance.
The stands on Saint-Urbain Street, its tower Byzantine in style with shamrock motifs carved into the stone. , a few blocks west on Avenue Querbes, gives the duplex streets around it a stretch of open lawn and mature trees.
Shot in Mile End
For Brooklyn (2015), the production used real Mile End buildings for its 1950s New York interiors. A disused 1920s library stood in for a department store, and a Catholic church basement became a parish hall.
Brooklyn, 2015
Played Bartocci's Department Store, Brooklyn, New York, early 1950s
A disused 1920s library building was dressed as Bartocci's Department Store, and the basement of a Catholic church became the parish hall where Eilis volunteers. A bar nearby was redressed too, standing in for the diner where Eilis and Tony have their first date. No address for any of these buildings is published beyond the neighbourhood.
What Mile End can double for
Limoilou in Quebec City, Quebec
Limoilou's own duplex and triplex rows carry the same exterior metal staircases and brick facades as Mile End's side streets, built in roughly the same decades. The narrow lot widths and block scale match closely too. Quebec City's street signage and license plates read differently in a wide shot, so a production needs local dressing in any frame that includes a sign or a parked car. Try searching duplex row exterior staircases now.
King-Spadina in Toronto, Ontario
King-Spadina kept its own run of red brick garment factories with loading docks and multi-pane windows, close in scale to the loft buildings along Rue de Gaspé. Both areas have converted most of the stock into apartments and studios above ground-floor workshops. King-Spadina's factory windows run larger and more uniform and the streets are wider, so a tight frame on the brick and window grid holds the match better than a wide one. Try searching converted garment factory lofts now.
Chicago's brick two-flats share Mile End's two- and three-storey scale and similar corner storefronts, built across the same decades. The fastest way to tell Mile End and Wicker Park apart in a wide shot is the stairs. Chicago's two-flats use raised stoops rather than exterior metal staircases, so keep the staircases out of frame or work close on a doorway instead. Try searching brick two-flat corner storefront now.
