Marche Atwater
A 1933 Art Deco Public Market With A Landmark Clock Tower, Standing On The Bank Of The Lachine Canal In The Southwest Of The City · Montreal, Quebec
Marche Atwater opened in 1933 as a Depression-era public works project and it is the handsomest market building in Montreal - a long ART DECO HALL with a CLOCK TOWER that is a landmark for the whole southwest of the city, standing directly on the bank of the LACHINE CANAL. Inside, the upper floor is butchers and cheesemongers and the sort of specialist counters that have been squeezed out of most North American cities; outside, the colonnades fill with produce growers from spring to autumn and with Christmas trees in December. IT IS SMALLER AND MORE WORKING THAN JEAN-TALON, the city's other great market, and locals tend to have a firm preference. What makes Atwater particularly good is where it is: you can buy lunch here and eat it twenty metres away on the canal bank, or take it onto the bike path that runs from the Old Port out to Lachine.
138 avenue Atwater, Saint-Henri, Montreal, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
OPEN DAILY THROUGH THE YEAR on published market hours - broadly mornings into the early evening, with SHORTER HOURS ON SUNDAYS and some variation between the indoor counters and the outdoor stalls. THE OUTDOOR PRODUCE COLONNADES ARE SEASONAL, running roughly from spring through to late autumn, and DECEMBER TURNS THE OUTSIDE OVER TO CHRISTMAS TREES, which is when the market is at its most atmospheric. THE INDOOR HALL - butchers, cheesemongers, bakers, fishmongers - RUNS ALL YEAR and is what makes this a genuine food market rather than a summer farmers market. Lionel-Groulx metro is a short walk and is a major interchange. The Lachine Canal bike path passes directly outside, which is the best way to arrive between May and October.