The West End sits just west of downtown, roughly bounded by Portage Avenue, the Assiniboine River, Sherbrook Street, and the edge of St. James. It is Winnipeg's most ethnically diverse neighbourhood, and that mix shows up in its restaurants, its murals, and a converted century-old church that has been putting on concerts since the 1980s. It rewards a slower visit on foot more than a checklist of stops.

A neighbourhood built on diversity

Census figures for the area show a population that is roughly half Caucasian, about a fifth Filipino, and around 15 percent Indigenous, with Black and other communities making up the rest, one of the most mixed demographic profiles of any Winnipeg neighbourhood. Smaller named areas sit inside the broader West End, including Spence, St. Matthews, Minto, and Sargent Park. Wolseley, sometimes grouped with the West End in older references, has enough character of its own that it gets its own guide on this site rather than a mention here.

The West End Cultural Centre

At the corner of Ellice Avenue and Sherbrook Street stands a blue-painted former church, built in 1908 as St. Matthews Church, that Mitch Podolak and Ava Kobrinsky converted into a music venue in 1987. The first concert in the renovated hall, on October 23, 1987, featured Spirit of the West. Today the West End Cultural Centre, known locally as the WECC, is a non-profit charitable organization that books local, national, and international touring acts, and a 2009 addition at the back of the building expanded the space without changing the original sanctuary's character.

Sherbrook Pool

A few blocks over, Sherbrook Pool at 381 Sherbrook Street is Winnipeg's oldest municipally owned swimming pool, built in 1930 as a Depression-era relief project and opened in March 1931. Designed by R.B. Pratt and D.A. Ross in the Art Deco style, a look rarely used in Winnipeg buildings of that era, it was the largest and finest pool in Western Canada when it opened and hosted competitive swimming for decades. The City of Winnipeg designated it a municipal heritage site in 1991, and it still operates as a public pool today.

Ellice Avenue's food scene

Feast Café Bistro, at 587 Ellice Avenue, is a 100 percent Indigenous-owned restaurant, the first of its kind in Manitoba. Owner Christa, a member of Peguis First Nation who is Saulteaux Cree French Métis, built a menu around traditional Indigenous ingredients: bison, wild rice, pickerel, and bannock made fresh in-house, served in dishes like bannock tipi tacos and fire-roasted buffalo lasagna. The restaurant also makes a point of hiring people who have faced barriers to employment, training them in the kitchen rather than requiring prior experience. A short walk further along Arlington Street is Kalan, one of the city's longtime Filipino restaurants, covered in more detail in our Winnipeg Filipino food guide.

Murals: the West End's diversity is also visible on its walls. Several of the murals featured in our guide to Winnipeg's street art are within a few blocks of Ellice and Sherbrook, worth combining with a stop at the WECC or Feast.

Staying at the Corydon Airbnb: the West End is on the opposite side of downtown from Corydon and Crescentwood, roughly a fifteen-minute drive or a longer bus ride via Portage Avenue. It combines well with a stop at the Exchange District or downtown on the same outing rather than a dedicated trip.