Centre-Sud

For the region of Burkina Faso, see Centre-Sud Region.
Centre-Sud
Neighbourhood
The Centre-Sud neighbourhood around the Jacques Cartier Bridge
The Centre-Sud neighbourhood around the Jacques Cartier Bridge
Nicknames: 
  • Bas de la Ville
  • Bas de la Côte
Centre-Sud is located in Montreal
Centre-Sud
Centre-Sud
Location of Centre-Sud in Montreal
Coordinates: 45°31′25″N 73°33′07″W / 45.523565°N 73.55187°W / 45.523565; -73.55187
CountryCanada
ProvinceQuebec
CityMontreal
BoroughVille-Marie
Postal code(s)
H2K, H2L
Area code(s)514 and 438

The Centre-Sud (French pronunciation: [sɑ̃tʁ syd]) is a neighbourhood located in the easternmost edge of the Ville-Marie borough of the city of Montreal.

Home to Montreal's Gay Village and to the Sainte-Marie area, the Centre-Sud has long been seen as one of the city's most complex and troubled neighbourhoods.[1]

Having held a notorious reputation for poverty and prostitution for decades, particularly on Rue Ontario and Rue Dufresne, gentrification has changed the neighbourhood considerably in recent years.[1][2][3][4]

History

Early history

During the era of New France, when the city was fortified, the populated area east of the walls came to be known as Faubourg Québec, a name that would live on as Faubourg à m'lasse.[5]

In 1782, the Molson family settled the area, purchasing a small brasserie from Irishman Thomas Loyd, which eventually developed into the brewery of the same name.[5]

Following the Lower Canada Rebellion, several patriots were hanged at the Pied-du-Courant Prison, a prison by the water. It ceased to be a prison in 1912, and the historic building was acquired by the SAQ in 1921, serving as its head office for a time.[5][6]

Construction of the Jacques Cartier Bridge began in 1925, and was opened to traffic on May 14, 1930, becoming a prominent landmark in the neighbourhood.[7]

A large section of the neighbourhood known as Faubourg à m'lasse was torn down in 1963 to build the Maison Radio-Canada.[8]

Contemporary

Rue Dufresne, was notorious for prostitution and drug houses from the 1990s to 2010s[1][9]
Mural on Rue Ontario, acknowledging the Centre-Sud's long held reputation for prostitution

An impoverished working class neighbourhood, the Centre-Sud began attracting members of the gay and lesbian community in the 1980s, due in part to affordability, after the migration of many gay businesses from other parts of the city. The area between St-Hubert and De Lorimier developed into the Gay Village by the 1990s as a result.

During the Quebec Biker War, the Rock Machine had their bunker in the Centre-Sud from 1992 to 1997,[10] which contributed to a bad reputation for poverty,[11][12] organized crime and prostitution.[1][2][3][9][13][14]

In 2001, a section of the neighbourhood known as l'îlot Huron, where the bunker and other illicit businesses thrived, was demolished to build a ramp to the Jacques Cartier Bridge and a large park, Parc des Faubourgs.[10][15]

Parc des Faubourgs, former site of the Rock Machine bunker

In recent years the neighbourhood has experienced significant gentrification and social change.[4][16]

Features

The Jacques Cartier Bridge and the Maison Radio-Canada are prominent in the skyline, as well as the Sûreté du Québec's headquarters, known as the Prison Parthenais.[17]

Notable features include the Molson Brewery, Gay Village, Hopital Notre-Dame, JTI MacDonald tobacco company and the historic Pied-du-Courant prison.

The Cente-Sud is well known for its street art and murals, notably of Québécois singers and actors, including Paul Buissonneau, Raymond Lévesque, Marjo, Robert Gravel, Pauline Julien, Plume Latraverse and Yvon Deschamps.[18]

Due to its poverty and proximity to downtown, a significant number of shelters, supervised injection sites[19] and resources for the homeless are located in the neighbourhood. This includes Dans la Rue for homeless youth,[20] and the Old Brewery Mission's Patricia Mackenzie Pavilion for homeless women.[21] Another shelter, Refuge des Jeunes, for young men 18-25, is also in the Centre-Sud.[22]

Public services

The city of Montreal operates the Bibliothèque Frontenac and Bibliothèque Père-Ambroise libraries respectively.[23][24]

The city also operates several indoor pools and arenas including the Aréna Camillien-Houde, Centre Jean-Claude-Malépart and Piscine Quintal.[25][26][27]

The borough hall of Ville-Marie, is also located in the Centre-Sud, in the Place Dupuis shopping mall.[28]

Geography

The neighbourhood is bordered by the Saint Lawrence River to the south, Saint Hubert Street to the west, the Canadian Pacific rail line to the east and Sherbrooke Street to the north.

The Plateau is located to the north, Mercier-Hochelaga-Maisonneuve to the east and the Quartier Latin to the west.

Its main arteries running east to west are Rue Ontario, Boulevard De Maisonneuve, Rue Saint Catherine Est and Boulevard René Lévesque.

Major streets and avenues running north to south include Saint-Hubert, Papineau, De Lorimier, D'Iberville and Frontenac.

Transportation

The neighbourhood is accessible by the following Montreal Metro stations, Frontenac, Papineau, Beaudry and Berri-UQAM (partly).

The following STM bus routes pass through the Centre-Sud;

Société de transport de Montréal
No. & Route Name
10 De Lorimier
14 Atateken
15 Sainte-Catherine
30 Saint-Denis/Saint-Hubert
34 Sainte-Catherine
45 Papineau
85 Hochelaga
94 D'Iberville
125 Ontario
185 Sherbrooke
355 Papineau
358 Sainte-Catherine
445 Express Papineau

Education

The Commission scolaire de Montréal (CSDM) operates French-language public schools.[29]

Elementary

  • École Marguerite-Bourgeoys
  • École Garneau
  • École Champlain
  • École Jean-Baptiste-Meilleur
  • École Saint-Anselme

Secondary

  • École Pierre-Dupuy

Specialized

  • École des métiers des Faubourgs-de-Montréal
  • École Éducation pour Adultes Centre Lartigue
  • École Éducation pour Adultes Centre Gédéon-Ouimet

Politics

The neighbourhood is part of the Montreal City Council district of Sainte-Marie and the federal riding of Laurier—Sainte-Marie. Provincially it’s part of Sainte-Marie–Saint-Jacques, with a small eastern corner in the Hochelaga-Maisonneuve riding, despite not being part of that neighbourhood.

Notable people

The neighbourhood is the subject of Richard Beaulieu’s Chroniques du Centre-Sud, a 2014 graphic novel portraying the neighbourhood in the 1990s.[30]

The novel Ces Spectres Agités by Louis Hamelin is also set in the Centre-Sud.[37]

In 2013, a group of collaborative authors and photographers, released Hôtel Jolicoeur. A novel, in a scrapbook format, about a former motel and brothel located in the heart of the Centre-Sud, on the corner of Ontario and Papineau.[13][38][39]

Other novels set in the Centre-Sud include the autobiographies Pute de Rue (2003) by Roxanne Nadeau[9] and L’Enfer d’une fille de rue (2020) by Isa-Belle St-Sauveur.[14]

The 2003 documentary, Sexe de rue, focuses on prostitution in the neighbourhood.

Atach Tatuq released a song about the Centre-Sud in 2005 entitled Australie in their final album Deluxxx.[40]

It's also featured in Rue Ontario, a 2010 single by Bernard Adamus.[41]

  • Sainte-Marie, looking south towards the Jacques Cartier bridge
    Sainte-Marie, looking south towards the Jacques Cartier bridge
  • The Maison Radio-Canada
    The Maison Radio-Canada
  • The historic JTI MacDonald factory on Ontario Street
    The historic JTI MacDonald factory on Ontario Street
  • The Gay Village
    The Gay Village
  • The area around the Frontenac station
    The area around the Frontenac station

References

  1. ^ a b c d "Une nuit avec Capone" (in French). Montreal: La Presse. 26 October 2009. Retrieved 4 January 2021.
  2. ^ a b "Prostitution dans le quartier Centre-Sud: les citoyens exigent des solutions" (in French). Montreal: TVA Nouvelles. 18 September 2002. Retrieved 22 November 2020.
  3. ^ a b "Prostitution dans le Centre-Sud de Montréal - Le groupe Stella n'apprécie pas les opérations policières" (in French). Montreal: Le Devoir. 21 May 2002. Retrieved 23 January 2021.
  4. ^ a b "Embourgeoisement : que va devenir le quartier Centre-Sud?" (in French). Montreal: Radio Canada. 15 January 2019. Retrieved 6 December 2020.
  5. ^ a b c https://ocpm.qc.ca/sites/ocpm.qc.ca/files/pdf/P97/4.2_cartes_historiques_ville-marie_2009.pdf Archived 2022-06-27 at the Wayback Machine [bare URL PDF]
  6. ^ "La prison Au-Pied-du-Courant et le monument aux Patriotes". 15 May 2020.
  7. ^ "Jacques Cartier Bridge" (PDF). Jacques Cartier and Champlain Bridges Incorporated (JCCBI). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2020-09-21. Retrieved 2020-08-30.
  8. ^ Corriveau, Jeanne (13 December 2008). "Réinventer le "Faubourg à m'lasse"" (in French). Montreal: Le Devoir. Retrieved 14 December 2008.
  9. ^ a b c Nadeau, Roxanne (24 September 2003). Pute de Rue (in French). Éditions des Intouchables. ISBN 2-89549-119-4.
  10. ^ a b "L'ancien bunker des Rock Machine n'est plus qu'un amas de débris" (in French). Montreal: TVA Nouvelles. 18 October 2001. Retrieved 24 November 2020.
  11. ^ Forget, Dominique (8 May 2013). "Mon quartier me rend malade" (in French). Montreal: L'Actualité. Retrieved 22 November 2020.
  12. ^ cinémaniak (2016-07-06). CONTE DU CENTRE SUD - Bande annonce. Retrieved 2024-06-10 – via YouTube.
  13. ^ a b Collective authors (January 2013). Hôtel Jolicoeur (in French). Self-Publication. ISBN 978-2-9813755-0-6.
  14. ^ a b St-Sauveur, Isa-Belle (2020). L'enfer d'une fille de rue (in French). Béliveau Éditeur. ISBN 978-2-89793-106-3.
  15. ^ "Le parc des Faubourgs | chroniques du bas de la côte". Archived from the original on 2020-10-30. Retrieved 2020-12-06.
  16. ^ "Faced with eviction, tenants in Centre-Sud throw a protest party". Montreal: Radio Canada. 7 July 2019. Retrieved 6 December 2020.
  17. ^ "Registre patrimonial SQI - Édifice Wilfrid-Derome - 1701, rue Parthenais, Montréal". Archived from the original on 2022-03-18. Retrieved 2020-12-19.
  18. ^ "Les murales du quartier Centre-Sud de Montreal".
  19. ^ "Notre mission et nos valeurs – Spectre de rue". Archived from the original on 2020-12-21. Retrieved 2020-12-22.
  20. ^ "Contact us - Organization helping homeless and at-risk youth in Montreal – dans la rue".
  21. ^ "Contact". Archived from the original on 2023-05-11. Retrieved 2020-12-21.
  22. ^ "Le Refuge des Jeunes".
  23. ^ "Bibliothèque Frontenac". 26 January 2025.
  24. ^ "Bibliothèque Père-Ambroise". 21 December 2023.
  25. ^ "Aréna Camillien-Houde". 5 September 2023.
  26. ^ "Centre Jean-Claude-Malépart".
  27. ^ "Piscine Quintal". 21 August 2023.
  28. ^ "Mairie d'arrondissement de Ville-Marie".
  29. ^ "Trouver une école".
  30. ^ a b Suicide, Richard (March 2014). Chroniques du Centre-Sud (in French). Éditions Pow Pow. ISBN 978-2-924049-14-3.
  31. ^ "Advitam - Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec". advitam.banq.qc.ca. Retrieved 2024-06-10.
  32. ^ Fournier, Louis (1992). Louis Laberge : le syndicalisme, c'est ma vie (in French). Québec / Amérique. p. 418. ISBN 2-89037-565-X.
  33. ^ Débats reconstitués de l'assemblée législative : débats de 1923-1924,débats de 1926,débats de 1927. "À partir de cette époque, on le surnomme « le p'tit gars de Sainte-Marie », surnom qui lui restera".
  34. ^ "LATULIPPE, Gilles – ARTUS" (in French). 2024-06-07. Retrieved 2024-06-10.
  35. ^ Paré, Jason (2020-11-17). "Léo Major: un héros de guerre québécois méconnu". Journal Métro (in French). Retrieved 2024-06-10.
  36. ^ "Manon Massé on Facebook". Facebook. Archived from the original on 2022-04-27."J’habite le Centre-Sud de Montréal. Dans ma circonscription, Sainte-Marie–Saint-Jacques, l’itinérance, on la côtoie au quotidien..."[user-generated source]
  37. ^ Hamelin, Louis (1991). Ces Spectres Agités (in French). Boréal. pp. 12, 40, 60–62, 134, 230. ISBN 978-2-7646-2057-1.
  38. ^ "Les vies rêvées d'un bordel disparu". Montreal: Le Devoir. 16 March 2013. Retrieved 24 December 2020.
  39. ^ "Hôtel Jolicoeur, un étrange objet". Montreal: La Presse. 2 April 2013. Retrieved 24 December 2020.
  40. ^ tranceplante (2009-07-28). Dee (Atach Tatuq) - Australie. Retrieved 2024-06-10 – via YouTube.
  41. ^ poskal (2011-01-24). Rue Ontario (MHMHMH) (feat. Bernard Adamus). Retrieved 2024-06-10 – via YouTube.