Hampstead, Quebec
Hampstead is a town in the southwest of the Canadian province of Quebec. It is located on the Île de Montréal and forms an enclave within Montreal. The city has an area of 1.79 km ² and has 7,153 inhabitants ( 2011).
Geography
Hampstead is located in the central part of the Ile de Montréal. The community is surrounded on three sides by the territory of the city of Montreal, from the borough of Côte -des- Neiges -Notre- Dame-de- Grâce. In the south, there is a short border with Côte -Saint -Luc. The city center of Montreal is approximately eight kilometers away.
History
Hampstead was founded in 1914 as a splinter group of Côte -Saint -Luc. From the beginning, planned as a garden city, the community developed into a posh suburb of Montreal, with mainly English-speaking, Protestant population. As a model of Hampstead, served in London. The opening of a golf course and a bus route led from the 1930s to strong growth. After the Second World War, many Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe settled, so that today nearly three-quarters of the population is Jewish. Hampstead is one of the municipalities with the highest Jewish population outside of Israel. In 1970, the last available land reserves were overbuilt.
On 1 January 2002 27 municipalities were merged on the island of Montreal. Especially in communities with a high proportion of English speakers was stirring resistance, since this measure was ordered by the provincial government of the separatist Parti Québécois. As of 2003, the Parti libéral du Québec, the government and promised to make the municipal mergers reversed. On 20 July 2004 referendums were held in 22 former municipalities. In Hampstead to 90.4 % of eligible participants were in favor of the separation. The community was re-established on 1 January 2006, but was forced to cede to the Association of Municipalities numerous competencies.
Population
According to the 2011 census counted 7,153 residents Hampstead, which corresponds to a population density of 3996.1 inh. / Km ². 59.6 % of the population reported English as the main language, the proportion of French was 18.3 %. As a bilingual ( French and English) is designated 0.9%, to other languages and multiple responses accounted for 21.2%. Among the most important non-official main languages were Hebrew ( 2.7 %), and Yiddish, Russian, Romanian and Spanish ( 1.5% each ). Only 19.9% spoke English, only French 4.3%. In 2001, 74.2 % of the population were Jewish, 10.9 % Roman Catholic, 4.2 % Protestant, 4.0 % Orthodox and 4.3% non-denominational.
Traffic
The two main arteries of the city are the Fleet Road and the Queen Mary Road. Both lead to Autoroute 15, which runs close to the northern suburbs. Hampstead is accessible by several bus lines of the Société de transport de Montréal.