The McGill Ghetto: greystone and the student quarter
Victorian greystone rows, the co-op houses that beat the wreckers, and the cafés below the campus. This is a Claude-drafted route awaiting the editor's walk.

1. Roddick Gates, McGill
Start at the campus gates on Sherbrooke, the clock above them, the lawns climbing to the mountain behind. Walk in a little if you like — nobody minds — then back out and turn east. The quarter below McGill is where the students actually live, and that's the walk.

2. Rue Prince-Arthur
The pedestrian street, car-free since the 1980s, lined with the restaurants and terraces that have anchored student nights for decades. Quieter by day. Walk its length east toward Saint-Louis Square; the brick mall underfoot is part of the old experiment in giving streets back to people.

3. The greystone rows of Rue Sainte-Famille / Rue Hutchison
The heart of the matter — terraced houses in grey Montreal limestone, bay windows and outdoor staircases, built for the Victorian middle class and now full of students. Look up at the cornices; this is the densest surviving greystone in the city. Walk slowly and read the doorways.

4. Milton-Parc co-op houses
The blocks that organised against demolition in the 1970s and won — saved from a tower scheme and turned into Canada's largest housing co-operative. They look like ordinary greystone, which is the victory. The plaques tell the story; it's one of the city's great civic wins.

5. Café cluster on Avenue du Parc / Rue Milton
The corner where the quarter does its coffee and its arguing — cheap eats, long tables, dog-eared paperbacks. This is the literary end of the Ghetto, the place a thesis gets stalled over a second cup. Pick a table; you'll be in good company.

6. Carré Saint-Louis
End at the square of grand Victorian houses around a fountain, where Montreal's French-language poets and singers once lived — Émile Nelligan among them. The most elegant green room in the city. Cut south down Rue Saint-Denis or back to Place-des-Arts for the metro.

The McGill Ghetto: greystone and the student quarter