Distillery District /

The Distillery District is a historic and entertainment precinct located east of Downtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It contains numerous cafes, restaurants and shops housed within heritage buildings of the former Gooderham and Worts Distillery. The 13-acre (52,000 sq. m) district comprises more than 40 heritage buildings and 10 streets, and is the largest collection of Victorian era industrial architecture in North America. The district was designated a National Historic Site of Canada in 1988. The Gooderham and Worts Distillery was founded in 1832, and by the late 1860s was the largest distillery in the world. Once providing over 2 million gallons of whisky, mostly for export on the world market, the company was bought out in later years by rival Hiram Walker Co., another large Canadian distiller. Its location on the side of the Canadian National Railway mainline and located at the mouth of the original route of the Don River outlet into Lake Ontario which facilitated transport connections to the rest of Canada and indeed the world, and the entire area was once the industrial centre of Toronto and transshipping hub. With the de-industrialization of the surrounding area in the late