Hampstead, Quebec, an on-island suburb of Montreal, Canada, is an independent municipality that borders the municipality of Côte Saint-Luc and the Côte-des-Neiges–Notre-Dame-de-Grâce borough of Montreal. This article provides a comprehensive overview of the history, demographics, and attractions of Hampstead, Quebec.
Founded in 1914, the Town of Hampstead was designed to be an exclusive garden city. The town's roads were designed with curves to slow down traffic and create an interesting and intimate landscape. Despite its flat topography—much of the territory was once a golf course—the town was named after another garden city, the London suburb of Hampstead Village. Like its namesake, Hampstead, Quebec is home to many affluent citizens and competes with a few other suburbs for first place in the rankings of highest average household incomes in Canada.
On January 1, 2002, as part of the 2002–06 municipal reorganization of Montreal, Hampstead, Quebec was merged with Côte-Saint-Luc and Montreal West and became the Côte-Saint-Luc–Hampstead–Montréal-Ouest borough of the City of Montreal. However, after a change of government and a 2004 referendum, all three were re-constituted as independent cities on January 1, 2006.
According to the Office québécois de la langue française, Hampstead, Quebec has been officially recognized as a bilingual municipality since November 2, 2005. In the 2021 Census of Population conducted by Statistics Canada, Hampstead had a population of 7,037 living in 2,493 of its 2,622 total private dwellings, a change of 0.9% from its 2016 population of 6,973. With a land area of 1.79 km2 (0.69 sq mi), it had a population density of 3,931.3/km2 (10,182.0/sq mi) in 2021.
In terms of mother tongue, the 2006 census found that, including multiple responses, almost 63% of residents spoke English, and about 16% of residents spoke French. The next most commonly reported first languages learned were Hebrew, Yiddish, Polish, and Romanian. The town is noted for having the highest percentage of Jewish residents of any city in Canada, and the third highest worldwide outside Israel.
Two major thoroughfares exist in Hampstead, Quebec: Queen Mary Road and Fleet Road. While it is difficult to drive quickly down Queen Mary due to the numerous stop signs, Fleet Road is geared for automobile traffic, with synchronized traffic lights. Hampstead is accessible by the following STM bus lines: 51 Édouard-Montpetit (Queen-Mary), 66 The Boulevard (Côte-Saint-Luc), 161 Van Horne (Fleet), 166 Queen Mary (Macdonald).
Hampstead, Quebec is almost completely composed of single-family residences, except for the apartment buildings on Côte-Saint-Luc Road, and the duplexes and triplexes along MacDonald, Cleve, Dufferin, Heath, Holtham, Harrow, and Aldred Roads. There are no commercial properties in the city. There is only one school in the city, the Hampstead Elementary School, which is public. At the beginning of each summer, Hampstead Day features a small carnival and fireworks, curated by the staff of the Hampstead Pool and of the Hampstead Day Camp.
Hampstead, Quebec is twinned with Kiryat Shmona, Israel since 1978, fostering international relations and cultural exchange.
