Market
About
Downtown Barrie
Downtown is the one part of Barrie you can live in without driving everywhere. Kempenfelt Bay at the end of the street, a 6 km waterfront trail, the Allandale Waterfront GO station, and the oldest and most varied housing stock in the city.
What Downtown Barrie is actually like.
Downtown is where Barrie is most itself. Dunlop Street runs down to Kempenfelt Bay, and the waterfront is not a distant amenity — it is the end of the street. The Waterfront Heritage Trail runs about six kilometres from White Oaks Road to Penetanguishene Road, paved and wheelchair accessible, with eleven interpretive stations along it.
It is also the one neighbourhood where the housing is genuinely varied. The City maintains a Municipal Heritage Register and a Historic Neighbourhoods Strategy, and specifically names the Allandale Historic Neighbourhood as one of its distinct historic areas. If you want something with a bit of age to it, this is where you look.
The thing to understand before you buy is that downtown is a provincially designated Urban Growth Centre. The Province's target is 150 residents and jobs per hectare by 2031 across roughly 156 hectares. That means intensification is policy, not an accident. Whether that is good news or bad news depends entirely on which side of it your house sits.
Schools in and around Downtown Barrie.
These are the schools in and near the neighbourhood, with the board each one belongs to. They are not a catchment list. Both boards set attendance areas by address and both say plainly that boundaries change, so confirm your specific address with the board before you let a school decide your offer.
- Codrington Public School217 Codrington StreetSCDSB · JK–8
- Johnson Street Public School105 Johnson StreetSCDSB · JK–8
- Barrie North Collegiate Institute110 Grove Street EastSCDSB · 9–12
- St. Monica's Catholic School90 Steel StreetSMCDSB
- St. Joseph's Catholic High School243 Cundles Road EastSMCDSB
Two downtown schools that still turn up in online directories have closed and should be ignored: Prince of Wales Public School on Bradford Street, closed in 2011, and Barrie Central Collegiate on Dunlop Street West, closed in 2016.
The bay is the back garden.
- Waterfront Heritage Trail — about 6 km, White Oaks Road to Penetanguishene Road. Paved, three metres wide, wheelchair accessible, with eleven interpretive stations.
- North Shore Trail — about 3 km from Heritage Park to Penetanguishene Road, running the length of the north shore. Four metres wide and accessible; used for walking, strollers, snowshoeing, skiing and biking.
- Centennial Park & Beach, 61–79 Lakeshore Drive — 10.2 acres, with beach access, playground, barbecues and washrooms. An accessibility mat is laid each summer so wheelchairs and strollers can get closer to the water.
- Heritage Park, 5 Simcoe Street — 7.3 acres, with a gazebo, pond, gardens, splash pad, a winter rink on the pond, and the Heart Barrie sign.
- City of Barrie Marina, 55 Lakeshore Drive — 343 slips, and Blue Flag status since 2015.
- Meridian Place & Memorial Square, 65 Dunlop Street East — opened 2018, with the stage canopy facing the bay and the cenotaph.
Where you'd shop.
- Barrie Farmers' Market — 70 Collier Street — Saturdays 9am–1pm, year round
- Gallipoli Grocery and Café — 408 Dunlop Street West, Unit 4
Be honest with yourself about groceries. The farmers' market has run for 180 years and moves indoors to the City Hall rotunda from October to April, but I could not confirm a full-service supermarket inside the core itself. If a weekly big shop matters to you, factor in a short drive.
Where you'd eat.
- Donaleigh's Irish Public House — 28 Dunlop Street East
- Flying Monkeys Craft Brewery — 107 Dunlop Street East
- Il Buco Ristorante — 31 Dunlop Street East
- Homestead Artisan Bakery + Cafe — 80 Dunlop Street East
- Dunlop Street Diner — 20 Dunlop Street East
- The North Restaurant — 49 Mary Street
- Kenzington Burger Bar — 40 Dunlop Street East
Dunlop Street is the densest run of independent restaurants in the city, and several blocks of it are pedestrianized for events through the summer under Open Air Dunlop.
The highway, and the commute.
Highway 400 access: Dunlop Street, Exit 96 — Dunlop runs straight from the highway into the core.
The best neighbourhood in Barrie for a car-light life, and a reasonable one for the train. Allandale Waterfront GO at 24 Essa Road is the northern end of the Barrie line and a short distance from the core; a new transit terminal opened there in September 2025, bringing local buses, Ontario Northland coaches and GO buses together. The trade-off is that Allandale is one stop further from Union than Barrie South, so the ride is slightly longer.
On drive times
I have deliberately not published minute-by-minute drive times here. They depend on the hour, the season and which end of the neighbourhood you are in, and a number that looks precise on a website is worse than no number at all. Ask me and I will tell you what the drive is actually like from the street you are looking at, at the time you would be doing it.
About Downtown Barrie.
Is there a grocery store in downtown Barrie?
Can you walk everywhere from downtown Barrie?
Which GO station serves downtown Barrie?
What kind of houses are in downtown Barrie?
Thinking about Downtown Barrie?
Tell me which streets you are looking at and I will tell you what is actually selling there, what the drive is like at the hour you would be doing it, and what any work the house needs is likely to cost. A real answer within 24 hours.
Other Barrie neighbourhoods: Ardagh Bluffs · South Barrie · Holly · Painswick · Barrie's East End