Leonard Cohen's Montreal Home

Leonard Cohen's Montreal home on Vallieres Street in the Plateau-Mont-Royal neighbourhood was where he lived in the final chapter of his life, returning to the city of his birth after decades of wandering between Los Angeles, New York, the Greek island of Hydra, and a Zen monastery on Mount Baldy, California. The Plateau is a working-class bohemian neighbourhood of triplexes and outdoor spiral staircases, quite different from the prosperous Westmount anglophone enclave where he grew up -- and entirely appropriate for the man he had become.

Cohen returned to Montreal in his seventies in part because his manager had defrauded him of most of his life savings, forcing him to resume touring in his mid-70s to rebuild financial security. The tour that began in 2008 and ran for several years became one of the most celebrated in rock history: Cohen at 73, 74, 75, performing three-hour shows of extraordinary depth and warmth, delivering songs that had been written over five decades with a tenderness and gratitude that moved audiences to tears. His final albums, Popular Problems and You Want It Darker, were recorded and released in this period.

Cohen died in Los Angeles on November 7, 2016, aged 82, three days after the release of You Want It Darker. His body was returned to Montreal for burial in the Shaar Hashomayim Cemetery in Westmount, the synagogue his family had attended for generations. The Vallieres Street house is a private residence; a large mural of Cohen by Kevin Ledo was painted on the side of a building nearby following his death, making the neighbourhood around his home a place of informal commemoration.