Hungarian Toronto History: 1956 Refugees and Bloor Street

Hungarians were settled in Toronto by the 1920s, and the community grew sharply after the Second World War and again after the failed revolution of October 1956. Canada admitted 37,565 Hungarians in 1956 and 1957, and Toronto became a major centre. Many lived in the Annex, where Hungarian cafés, delicatessens and restaurants lined Bloor Street west of Spadina Avenue until the 1980s and 1990s.

Before 1939: workers, churches and clubs

The Ontario Heritage Trust, which published a background paper for a provincial plaque on the 1956 refugees, describes three main waves of Hungarians into Ontario: the 1920s, the years after the Second World War, and the aftermath of the 1956 revolution. Earlier arrivals were few. The paper says about 1,500 Hungarians lived in Canada in 1901 and about 15,000 in 1914. Between 1924 and 1930, Canada admitted over 29,000 Hungarians as agricultural workers, and many soon moved to cities. By 1931, three-quarters of Ontario’s Hungarian-born residents lived in urban areas.

By the early 1930s Toronto, Hamilton, Welland and Windsor each had more than 1,000 Hungarians, according to the same paper. In Toronto the community built its institutions around churches. The paper says Roman Catholic churches were founded in Toronto and Welland in 1928, and Presbyterian congregations in Welland and Hamilton in 1926. The Canadian Encyclopedia’s music entry adds that the Toronto Hungarian Presbyterian Church, St. Elizabeth of Hungary Roman Catholic Church and the Hungarian Baptist Church sponsored choirs, string ensembles and silver bands in the 1920s and 1930s.

For the wider context of the pre-war years, see the article on Toronto’s immigration history.

After 1945: displaced persons

The Second World War and the Communist takeover in Hungary created a new group of refugees. The Heritage Trust paper says Canada admitted 10,151 Hungarian displaced persons between 1948 and 1952. Jesuit priests who came after the war took over Roman Catholic congregations, mainly in Toronto and Hamilton. In 1947 a central, non-sectarian organization called Hungarian House Inc. was founded in Toronto, according to The Canadian Encyclopedia’s music entry. It supported sports and cultural activities, including music, and was renamed the Hungarian Canadian Cultural Centre in 1974.

These postwar arrivals were part of a larger movement described in the article on postwar immigration to Toronto. They also prepared the ground for the larger group that came in 1956.

The 1956 revolution and the refugees

In October 1956 Hungarians rose against Soviet-backed rule, and Soviet troops crushed the revolution within weeks. According to the Heritage Trust, more than 200,000 Hungarians fled, mostly to Austria. Canada responded quickly. Parks Canada, which has designated the refugees’ arrival a national historic event, says Canada received more than 37,500 of them in 1956 and 1957, working with non-profit organizations to select, transport and resettle them. The Heritage Trust gives a more exact count of 37,565 admitted to Canada, of whom 19,541 settled in Ontario. A music encyclopedia entry gives about 35,000, so the total depends on the source and the definition used.

The refugees were mainly young, urban and well educated, with many technical and university backgrounds. Toronto was a major destination. The Heritage Trust paper says St. Elizabeth of Hungary Church and the first Hungarian Presbyterian church in Toronto received so many requests for weddings that up to twelve couples were married at one time. The same paper credits the arrivals with new cultural institutions, including the Toronto Art Theatre, founded by Sándor Kertész within a year of his arrival and described in 1963 as the only permanent Hungarian-language theatre outside Hungary, and the Kodály Ensemble, founded in 1960 by George Zadubán as a male choir.

Bloor Street and the Annex

The Annex became the centre of Hungarian life in the years after 1956. A history published in the Annex Gleaner, a local paper, when the last Hungarian restaurant on the strip closed in 2023 says that most of the refugees who came to Toronto settled there, and that by 1960 about 8,700 Hungarians lived in the city, mostly in the Annex. Hungarians opened businesses on Bloor Street west of Spadina Avenue, including barbershops, bookstores, delicatessens and many cafés, bars and restaurants. The strip earned the nickname Goulash Archipelago. The district’s earlier history is covered in the article on the Annex. The Bloor line of the subway, which opened in 1966, runs under the same street (see Bloor-Danforth subway, 1966).

The strip did not last. According to the Gleaner, the Hungarian community moved to the suburbs in the 1970s and 1980s, and by the 1990s many local businesses had closed. Country Style Hungarian Restaurant outlasted the rest. It was one of the first Hungarian restaurants on Bloor, operated for 62 years, and closed on August 1, 2023, after its owner Katalin Koltai announced the closing on June 15. Koltai, who came to Canada in 1971, had bought the restaurant and building in 2000. Sources differ slightly on how long it had operated, with some saying about 60 years.

Institutions: Budapest Park, centres and clubs

A permanent monument to the revolution stands in Budapest Park on Lake Shore Boulevard West, near the shore described in the article on the harbour and waterfront. The Heritage Trust says the Freedom Fighters Federation of Canada erected it in 1966, on the tenth anniversary of the revolution.

The community centre has moved over the years. The Hungarian Canadian Cultural Centre, successor to Hungarian House, now operates from 141 Sunrise Avenue, which is the venue given for the Heritage Trust’s plaque ceremony in October 2025. The Kodály Ensemble, according to The Canadian Encyclopedia, added a mixed choir, orchestra and dance group by 1963 and, by 1979, a chamber choir, and was described as the largest and best-known Hungarian group of its kind outside Hungary. The same source records a large festival of Hungarian arts in Toronto in fall 1991, called Hungary Reborn.

Hungarian Canadians have also been prominent in publishing and media. The Heritage Trust names Performing Arts in Canada, founded in Toronto in 1961, and the companies Key Porter Books and Alliance Communications among businesses started by Hungarian Canadians.

Recognition and numbers today

The Ontario Heritage Trust plaque on the 1956 refugees was unveiled on October 18, 2025, at the Hungarian Canadian Cultural Centre, shown again at Queen’s Park on October 23, and permanently installed at Matt Cohen Park in Toronto on March 6, 2026. The Trust produced it with the Consulate General of Hungary, the cultural centre and the Hungarian Research Institute of Canada. Visitors planning to see it should check the Trust’s current information first.

A reference summary citing Statistics Canada gives 348,085 Canadians of Hungarian ancestry in 2016, of whom 163,500 lived in Ontario. The same summary lists 54,240 Hungarians in Toronto, but it does not say which geographic boundary or census question that figure refers to, so it should be treated as approximate.

Frequently asked questions

How many Hungarian refugees came to Canada in 1956 and 1957?

Parks Canada says more than 37,500, and the Ontario Heritage Trust gives 37,565, of whom 19,541 settled in Ontario. Other sources round the figure differently.

Where was Toronto’s Hungarian strip?

It ran along Bloor Street West in the Annex, west of Spadina Avenue, where Hungarian cafés, delicatessens and restaurants opened in the 1960s and 1970s. Most had closed by the 1990s.

What was the last Hungarian restaurant on Bloor Street?

Country Style Hungarian Restaurant, which closed on August 1, 2023 after about 60 years in business.

Where is the 1956 monument in Toronto?

It stands in Budapest Park on Lake Shore Boulevard West. The Freedom Fighters Federation of Canada erected it in 1966.

Sources

Ontario Heritage Trust, provincial plaque background paper, “Hungarian ’56ers” (accessed October 2026)
Parks Canada, press backgrounder, “The Refugees of the Hungarian Revolution of 1956” (2019)
The Canadian Encyclopedia, “Hungarian Music in Canada” (Encyclopedia of Music in Canada) (accessed October 2026)
Annex Gleaner, history of the Hungarian strip on Bloor Street and the closing of Country Style Hungarian Restaurant (2023)
Wikipedia, “Hungarian Canadians”, citing Statistics Canada census data (accessed October 2026)

Last verified: October 2026

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APA: History of Toronto. (2026, October 31). Hungarian Toronto: Refugees, Bloor Street and Community History. https://historyoftoronto.ca/blog/hungarian-toronto-history

MLA: “Hungarian Toronto: Refugees, Bloor Street and Community History.” History of Toronto, 31 Oct 2026, https://historyoftoronto.ca/blog/hungarian-toronto-history. Accessed .

Chicago: History of Toronto. “Hungarian Toronto: Refugees, Bloor Street and Community History.” Last modified October 31, 2026. https://historyoftoronto.ca/blog/hungarian-toronto-history.

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