The Annex is Toronto's most heterogeneous community. Its residents include business professionals, prominent artists, University of Toronto students and faculty and people from all walks of life.

This is a vibrant neighbourhood that draws its energy from the University of Toronto, as well as from the bars, restaurants and nightclubs that crowd together along Bloor Street.

Many of the rooming houses and multi-unit homes in the Annex have recently been converted back to single family houses reflecting the return to prominence of this historic Toronto neighbourhood.

The Neighbourhood was born in the 1870's and 1880’s and it immediately became one of Toronto's elite neighbourhoods. The Annex's first residents included the likes of Timothy Eaton, the patriarch of Eaton’s department store, and George Gooderham, president of the Gooderham and Worts Distillery.

The Annex houses, built between 1880 and 1910 are fine examples of Victorian, Queen Anne and Richardsonian Romanesque architectural styles. Plum and pink colored Credit River sandstone, rich red brick, and terra cotta clay tiles make up the exterior facades of many of these homes. The architectural detail is among the finest in the city, ranging from pyramidal roofs and turrets to recessed grand archways and wooden spindled porches. A second wave of Annex homes are fine examples of English Cottage, Georgian and Tudor style architecture. 

The Annex's main shopping district is on Bloor Street. The Mirvish Village shopping district offers a quaint collection of bookstores, art galleries, antique stores and one-of-a-kind specialty stores. The Annex is well served by public transit. Motorists are within minutes of Toronto's business and entertainment districts and close to the commuter highways.