Montreal is one of the most dynamic and engaging cities in North America, but sometimes I wish that creativity would be reflected in our urban planning. So many corners of this city brim with potential — but much of that potential is being wasted. Consider the case of two downtown laneways: Mount Royal Place and the ruelle Nick Auf der Mar. Each could be transformed into engaging public spaces but, for the time being, they are little more than urban afterthoughts.
Mount Royal Place is named for the old Mount Royal Hotel, once the largest in Canada, which was converted into the Cours Mont-Royal shopping mall in the late 1980s. (You can tell it was named for the hotel and not the mountain because its official name, place Mount-Royal, maintains the English spelling.) It runs along the south side of the mall, between Peel and Metcalfe, just behind a row of buildings that front Ste. Catherine Street.
What makes this particular lane so interesting is that the Cours Mont-Royal faces it with terraces and retail spaces; when the mall was built, Mount Royal Place was renovated with brick paving, planters and new street furniture. It almost seemed as if the mall intended to line the alley with cafés, restaurants and shops, but this plan must have fallen through, because the terraces are empty and retail spaces are closed, occupied with shops that open only into the mall’s interior.
I’m not sure what happened back in the 80s but it’s not too late to make up for past mistakes: the city could encourage the Cours Mont-Royal and other property owners to open up new shops, install café terraces and make this a real downtown destination.
Nick Auf der Mar Alley is named after the well-known journalist and rabble-rousing politician who was politely known as a “boulevardier,” which is why he was honoured with an alley off Crescent Street when he died in 1998. Sadly, the alley itself is unexceptional, leading straight into a loading dock. Given its location in the heart of the downtown party district, it would only make sense if it was renovated and made more inviting with new street furniture and maybe even a bar terrace.
Converting these two alleyways into vibrant pedestrian spaces wouldn’t be without precedent. In Toronto, many of the lanes in Yorkville are lined with cafés and shops. In Melbourne, lanes throughout the downtown area are filled with fascinating cafés, art galleries, bars and other businesses, along with some very innovative street art. We should learn by example.
Central Lane, Melbourne. Photos by Tony Peric and Bort1974
4 comments
What’s going on there on the south side of Place Mount-Royal? Are those boarded-up retail spots or just the back of American Eagle?
I’d guess the rent for those spaces would be too high versus the intensity of foot traffic (and therefore business) that would be coming by.
The north side, with the planters seems deliberately arranged to be anti-urban (like the strange anti-Park on the corner of du Parc & Prince-Arthur, on the other side of the sign from the heating grate). The sporty stairs are ruining the relationship with the street.
A store or restaurant on the south side there would prevent people from going into the mall. What a nice day, let’s not go downstairs into the air-conditioned, surrealistically chandeliered consumer dungeon.
Running out of Club Monaco to have a cup of coffee competes with Starbucks downstairs. A pint there prevents you from going down there at all, or worse yet for the mall owners, encourages you go down there afterwards. The mall cops would just love to sniff out the “good” drinkers from the hooligans? And then Montreal’s rowdy drunks would find themselves in front of the Cours Mount-Royal’s large, dark windows at 3 am. Not too much surveillance from the surrounding streets there, either.
Malls, because of their centrally-owned nature, probably just make for bad urbanism.
I work in a industry where sadly enough I need access to loading docks to restaurants and hotels et, especially in Montreal, there are already an issue to get to. I can’t send any drivers downtown, they have to know their size of their truck properly because some of these spaces are tight enough.
That said, I would love to see these great example turned into nice little spaces, but you can’t make worker’s life more difficult that they are. Paris is full of these little public alley.
I have often wondered and thought the same about Mount Royal Place. It is perfectly suited to be be one of those unique shopping alleyways. It is very reminiscent of Covent Garden in London.
Here in LA, the fast-developing Melrose Place/Melrose Ave at La Cienega – until very recently home to a handful of dusty old antiques shops and otherwise, empty storefronts is becoming the ultra-chic/young/hip shopping area with Marc Jacobs, Diane Von Furstenberg and Alexander McQueen opening up among others. And the back alleys of Melrose, where the city of LA picks up garbage no less, is where names like A.P.C. and Helmut Lang have opened up shops. It is very quaint as these back alleys back onto quiet residential blocks.
In Taichung, Taiwan, and I assume in the rest of Taiwan, small streets like these abound. They are generally lined with noodles restaurants, tea shops, or perhaps electronics stores in one stretch down the alley on this picture.
I was told that urban configurations as such were strongly influenced by Japan, the colonial power which occupied Taiwan for most of last century.