It's a battered 2001 Ford Taurus that will never again burn rubber.

Yet no matter how immobile this vehicle is, no parking warden will ever fix a ticket to this car for an obvious reason - its entire bonnet and windscreen have been replaced by a patch of turf on which passers-by are encouraged to lie and sunbathe.

And from its sunroof sprouts a communal herb garden of chives, basil and thyme that passers-by are allowed to harvest at any time.

"I can't think of a better symbol for Kensington Market," says James, our tour guide, as he lies back on the garden car. "Less cars, more parks. Less material objects, more human engagement."

Kensington Market, Toronto's funkiest, multicultural heritage district, is a pleasant 20-minute stroll from the city's best-known landmark, the CN Tower. Locals know it as the place to head to for superb produce, a tasty, inexpensive meal, or just somewhere to hang out and people-watch on a sunny Sunday afternoon.

But visitors have to be told about its charms. "You'll never see a tour bus here," explains James, a 30-year-old artist and part-time guide. "The streets are too narrow. The best way of seeing it is on foot or on a cycle."

It has been an oasis of alternative culture since the 1960s when the hippies moved in. Walk around it today and you'll still see shops that seem stuck in a time warp - Roach-o-Rama, selling drug paraphernalia, Hot Box Cafe, and Ganja, where the motto is "Serving potheads since ... uh, I forget" (they don't sell marijuana because that is illegal in Canada, but customers can bring their own - presumably bought with a prescription from a licensed supplier - as long as there is no sharing).

Yet although Kensington Market was the first Toronto neighbourhood to be declared one of Canada's national historic sites in 2006, it is constantly changing. These days, one of the market's drawcards is that it has some of the best street art in the city, with mural-sized work by recognised graffiti artists.

James points out a dozen examples on our two-hour walking tour, explaining the difference in styles and technique; some are New York-style, others are more like figurative frescoes made using aerosol cans instead of traditional paint.

Toronto's Graffiti Management Plan is a curious beast, he says. It's the duty of every building owner to remove any unauthorised graffiti out of their own pocket, even though they are the victim of the crime. However, building owners can commission an artist to decorate their premises and get an exemption provided the work is regarded as being of sufficient artistic merit.

The result is self-evident. Other graffiti artists don't deface such work out of respect for their peers, and Kensington Market gains an interesting visual dimension that reinforces its reputation as being grungy and "out-there".

But then, the area has been a cultural melting pot for its almost entire existence, James explains. It's a compact, cramped area, just a couple of blocks wide, centred on Baldwin Street, Kensington Avenue and Augusta Avenue, and packed with laneways and back alleys.

Most of the buildings date to the late 1880s, Victorian-era terraced rows that were built cheaply for the influx of Scottish and Irish labourers migrating to Toronto.

That set the pattern. Wave after wave of immigrants settled here because it was one of the poorest areas of the city. By the 1900s, it had become a largely Jewish ghetto, overcrowded with newly arrived refugees from Eastern Europe.

"They missed the things they'd had in Europe," James explains. "So they turned the ground floor of their houses into shops, and moved upstairs." Soon the area was known as "the Jewish market", with fruit sellers, furriers, tailors, bakers and importers of foodstuffs you couldn't find anywhere else in Toronto but would now be the staples of any suburb delicatessen.

At its peak, the area was home to 60,000 Jews, worshipping in 60 synagogues. But when they moved on - only two synagogues remain - their place was taken in turn by Italians, Portuguese-speaking exiles from the Azores, West Indians, Koreans, Vietnamese and Latin Americans.

As each nationality became more affluent and moved on, they left behind a layer in the rich patina that coats Kensington Market.

The whole area would have been destroyed, replaced with high-rise buildings, but for the Canadian hippies who made their last stand against development here.

Today, Kensington Market is both a wonderful anachronism and a monument to modern multiculture. James points out the three specialist cheese stores (Global Cheese, Mendel's Creamery and Cheese Magic) within 20 paces of each other: "If you can't find the particular Italian cheese you want in the first, you'll find it in the others."

And then, of course, there are the fusion restaurants. Rasta Pasta, a mix of Italian and Jamaican ("Perfect if you've ever felt your spaghetti really needed some jerk pork," James jokes) and Hungary Thai ("Chicken pad thai and wiener schnitzel, anyone?").

Naturally, the corporate giants try to muscle in. James pauses in front of a corner cafe doing great business. He tells me Second Cup, the ubiquitous Canadian coffee chain, tried to open on this site in 1996. "Each night, stickers would appear on their windows recommending they should try a better, locally owned cafe. Second Cup lasted just a few months."

Hippies still rule, OK?

The writer travelled courtesy of Peregrine Adventures.

TRIP NOTES

MORE INFORMATION

torontourbanadventures.com

GETTING THERE

Qantas flies to Toronto with oneworld partner American Airlines. See qantas.com.au.

STAYING THERE

Intercontinental Toronto Centre, near the CN Tower, is within easy distance of the three walking tours offered by Toronto Urban Adventures. The Kensington Market tour costs $A30 per person.