Montreal City Weblog

Kate 09:56 on 2020-05-19 Permalink Reply  

• DeWolf 11:39 on 2020-05-19 Permalink

  There were always kids playing in my alley during the summer, but it’s crazy this year. I assume there aren’t more kids on the block than there were in years past, so those who had been busy with extra-curriculars must now be joining the alley gang.

• CE 13:55 on 2020-05-19 Permalink

  I live on one of those rare blocks with no alley. My building’s back yard is separated from my neighbours, by a fence. I really feel the difference, the back of my house is so much less active than other places I’ve lived.(although I’ve really gotten to know the family behind my house despite never having spoken to them).

• Kate 14:12 on 2020-05-19 Permalink

  There are parts of town where, for some reason, alleys don’t exist. North of the Met, into Ahuntsic, there are “normal” alleys for a bit, and then in the blocks closest to Chabanel there are none, and the back yards butt up against each other like that. It gives people more room to garden but it feels a bit odd.

• Mark Côté 15:08 on 2020-05-19 Permalink

  Alleys in NDG dry up the further west you go, even where there are still duplexes. I’m guessing that the need for them faded over time.

• CE 15:37 on 2020-05-19 Permalink

  The two westernmost blocks in Parc-Ex are narrower without alleys. I assume they were the last two built and the developers realized there wasn’t enough space for alleys (or decided to put in two blocks instead of one). The houses behind mine are very close. It’s a much different vibe compared to other places I’ve lived that have alleys.

• Kate 16:17 on 2020-05-19 Permalink

  I gather that alleys were used for delivering cumbersome items like coal and ice which, as Mark Côté suggests, stopped being needed after a time. It’s not the only use they would’ve had, but it was a reason to make them part of the urban fabric.

• Kevin 17:13 on 2020-05-19 Permalink

  I’ve been told that at some point NDG decided to give up responsibility for alleys, and held referendums on each block affected. If it was unanimous, owners were allowed to expand their yard to the middle of the alley.

• Michael Black 18:32 on 2020-05-19 Permalink

  I went to a garage sale a few years back and there was a map. It seemed to be an alley, but it was overrun with bushes and grass. So it was more like a narrow path. But it was common space.

  If I remember properly, it was above Monkland, somewhere around Draper.

• Kate 20:14 on 2020-05-19 Permalink

  There’s one transverse alley I found once in NDG where you could cut through a lot of streets on the back sides of houses, almost nobody around. There’s also a good one along the eastern edge of the Decarie trench. It really is a whole parallel set of streets in a lot of the older parts of town.

• Alison Cummins 00:29 on 2020-05-20 Permalink

  Where does “clotheslining” happen? That thing where you catch your neck on a clothesline while you’re booting it from the cops?

  I heard about it first from a guy who grew up in Florida, but I didn’t quiz him about the layout of the built landscape. I don’t see it happening in any of the neighbourhoods I know in Montreal. But maybe I just don’t pay attention because I’m not in a risk group.

• Vazken 05:22 on 2020-05-20 Permalink

  When my parents moved into our current home back in 1972 in Park Ex, it used to have an alleyway. By the time I was born and I could remember things (which would be somewhere in the early ’80s) the alleyway was no more. I always wondered about why other blocks have alleys and we don’t .

• dwgs 07:39 on 2020-05-20 Permalink

  That half wild alley in NDG is bounded by Draper, Monkland, Melrose, and Terrebonne.

• MtlWeb 07:52 on 2020-05-20 Permalink

  So much fun was had in the alley (lane) growing up in Park Ex. From tag, pitch & catch, 3 on 3 touch football in summer and tackle in winter, hide and seek, tomato-throwing over the buildings onto the street timed to perfection via walkie-talkie, ball hockey, learning to ride your first bike, reading your friend’s comics & other magazines, trading collectible cards…..was a safe and mostly car-free area that parents could allow their children to play from morning to night.

• Tee Owe 12:03 on 2020-05-20 Permalink

  @dwgs – thanks for the memories!