Toronto became “Hogtown” in the 1890s, when meat packing was one of the city’s principal industries.
Animals of all kinds, including the squealing hogs, were off-loaded at the railway yard to be processed and shipped back out as hams.
The central, upper-class, urban area known as “Cabbagetown” took its name from the gardens of the poor Irish immigrants who settled there and grew potatoes and cabbages to survive.
