Queen Street (Toronto)
Queen Street is a major east–west thoroughfare in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It extends from Roncesvalles Avenue and King Street in the west to Victoria Park Avenue in the east. Queen Street was the cartographic baseline for the original east–west avenues of Toronto's and York County's grid pattern of major roads. The western section of Queen is a centre for Canadian broadcasting, music, fashion, performance, and the visual arts.
History
Since the original survey in 1793 by Sir Alexander Aitkin, commissioned by Lieutenant Governor John Graves Simcoe, Queen Street has had many names. For its first sixty years, many sections were referred to as Lot Street, section west of Spadina was named Egremont Street until about 1837. East of the Don River to near Coxwell Avenue it was part of Kingston Road, and was the westernmost section of that historic route to Kingston, Ontario, whose western terminus today is just east of Coxwell. The first park lots laid out in the new city of York were given to loyal officials who were willing to give up the amenities of modern cities such as Kingston to take up residence in the forests north of Lot Street. These lots were placed along the south side of the first east-west road laid in York, Lot Street. In the 1840s, Lot Street was renamed in honour of Queen Victoria."Queen West" is local vernacular which generally refers to the collection of neighbourhoods that have developed along and around the thoroughfare. Many of these were originally ethnically-based neighbourhoods. The earliest example from the mid-19th century was Claretown, an Irish immigrant enclave in the area of Queen Street West and Bathurst Street. From the 1890s to the 1930s, Jewish immigrants coalesced in the neighbourhood known as "the Ward", for which Queen Street between Yonge and University served as the southern boundary. The intersection of Queen and Bay Streets also served as the southern end of a thriving Chinatown in the 1930s. From the 1920s to the 1950s, the area was also the heart of Toronto's Polish and Ukrainian communities. From the 1950s through the 1970s, many immigrants from Portugal settled in the area. Gentrification over the past twenty years has caused most recent immigrants to gradually move to more affordable areas of the city as desirability of the area drives up prices.
Like other gentrified areas of Toronto, the original "Queen West" —the stretch between University Avenue and Spadina Avenue — is now lined with upscale boutiques, chain stores, restaurants, tattoo parlours and hair salons. Perhaps the best-known landmark on this section of Queen West is the broadcast hub at 299 Queen Street West, formerly the headquarters of Citytv and MuchMusic and earlier the site of the Ryerson Press, now housing the broadcast operations of a number of television outlets owned by Bell Media. Queen Street East, though not as famous as Queen Street West, is known for its shopping, especially in nearby neighbourhoods.
Until the 1940s and 50's Queen Street extended west along what is today The Queensway, with the name changed through the westernmost segment though the former Etobicoke in 1947 to avoid confusion due to the break. The other sections were a stub of the street continuing west of Roncesvalles and ending at Colborne Lodge Drive by High Park, and a short side street in Swansea running west from Ellis Avenue. When The Queensway was extended east in the 1950s, the latter two section where absorbed into it, rather than having the name "Queen Street" restored to the now-continuous street, likely due to the Borough of Etobicoke desiring a counterpart to another street called The Kingsway.
A legacy of The Queensway being formerly part of Queen Street is still evident in a parallel street known as North Queen Street north of Sherway Gardens, which was once a jogged section of Queen St./The Queensway west of Kipling Avenue, later bypassed by a direct extension of the street's southern baseline to connect to The Middle Road, the precursor to the Queen Elizabeth Way, and later still reconnected to the Upper Middle Road, which is today Queensway through Mississauga.
During the 1982 Toronto municipal election candidate Deanne Taylor established headquarters at The Cameron House - performing nightly with the Hummer Sisters west of Spadina.
Route
Fallingbrook to Woodbine: The Beaches
The commercial district of Queen Street East lies at the heart of The Beaches community. It is characterized by a large number of independent specialty stores. The stores along Queen are known to change tenants quite often causing the streetscape to change from year to year, sometimes drastically. East of Woodbine Avenue, Queen street has less traffic and is effectively reduced to one lane each way. The centre lanes are used by the 501 streetcar. The first few blocks from Fallingbrook Rd. to Victoria Park Ave. are located in Scarborough, the easternmost part of Toronto, where Queen is only a minor residential side street, which continues west to the Neville Park streetcar loop, the eastern end of the 501 route, before widening into a thoroughfare. Around the intersection with Victoria Park, the south side of the street is beside the R. C. Harris Water Treatment Plant, a crucial water treatment plant for both Toronto and York Region.Woodbine to Coxwell
From Woodbine to Coxwell, Queen Street is in parts of two neighbourhoods, Upper Beaches and The Beaches. From Woodbine to Kingston Road, there's a mix of newer commercial/residential buildings. The northern half is covered with various modern looking stores, with the southern half covered by a retail development by The Behar Group, consisting of 5 residential condos, with ground floor retail spaces. The section of Kingston to Coxwell is similar in design, but without the retail development on the southern side, including the Alliance Cinemas The Beach location. A little to east of the Queen/Eastern/Kingston intersection there is the northern border of Woodbine Park, used for outdoor events.Coxwell to Jones: Leslieville
The area from Greenwood to Logan is known as Leslieville. Queen passes underneath the elevated CN railway tracks, and this marks the border of Leslieville. Queen Street East is the commercial hub of Leslieville. In Leslieville, Queen is home to many small stores and restaurants. From Greenwood to Woodfield, the northern side of the street is beside the Ashbridge Estate, a large historic estate. The Russell Carhouse is also on this stretch of Queen Street.Jones to Don River: Riverdale
The place between Logan and the Don River is called Riverdale. Since its amendment to the City of Toronto in 1884, the area has developed a stature as a neighbourhood of independent arts, with several independent galleries located along Queen Street East. The residential landscape within Riverdale is made up primarily of Victorian and Edwardian style homes, constructed in the 1800s as boarding rooms for the working-class. It is a mixed income and multicultural area, currently experiencing a trend of gentrification along Queen Street East. Queen is home to a number of landmarks in this area, including the New Edwin Hotel, New Broadview House Hotel, The Opera House, and the Ralph Thornton Community Centre.Queen Street Viaduct
The Queen Street Viaduct, along with the surrounding bridges, carry traffic on Queen Street over the Don River. The bridge was originally constructed in 1803 as a wooden bridge. The current bridge was conducted in 1910 and is a steel truss bridge. The surrounding bridge goes east to Davies Avenue and west to River Street, splitting into Queen Street and King Street just west Bayview Avenue.Don River to Yonge
The section for the Don River to Yonge Street is located in Downtown Toronto. East of Parliament Street is the Trefann Court area that was the site of a major debate over development in the 1960s. Until reaching Jarvis Street, the north side is the Moss Park neighbourhood, with the park and Moss Park Armoury along the street. South of Queen is the Corktown neighbourhood. In the east side of downtown it passes St. Michael's Hospital and Metropolitan United Church. At Yonge Street in the downtown core, the street is in the Financial District and at the Eaton Centre.Yonge to University
Since the 19th century, Queen Street West at Yonge Street has been one of Toronto's primary shopping destinations. Originally, the Eaton's and Simpson's department stores faced each other across Queen Street, with the rivalry between the two stores at one time as central to Toronto retailing as the Macy's/Gimbel's competition was to New York City's retail history. The pedestrian crosswalk on Queen Street, just to the west of the intersection with Yonge Street, was for years one of the busiest in Canada, as thousands of shoppers a day comparison shopped between Eaton's and Simpson's.Today, Eaton's is gone, but the Toronto Eaton Centre still remains at the same location, one of Canada's largest office and shopping complexes. Simpson's is also gone, but the historic department store building remains on the south side of Queen Street, occupied by the Hudson's Bay and Saks Fifth Avenue stores.
Further west, this stretch of Queen Street is dominated by institutional and cultural buildings such as Old City Hall, Toronto City Hall, Osgoode Hall and the Four Seasons Centre.
University to Spadina: Queen West
The area between University and Spadina Avenues was a cultural nexus in the 1980s known for its cheap restaurants, clubs, eclectic mix of musicians and artists and was a haven for the punk rock scene with its famous club kids such as Kinga, Seika, Wanda and a host of others. In the 1960s and into the early 1980s, this stretch of Queen Street West was an aging commercial strip, known for "greasy spoon" restaurants and inexpensive housing in the area. In the late 1970s and 1980s, the area was transformed by local students, including those of the nearby Ontario College of Art & Design, and the area developed an active music scene which was one of the dominant centres of Canadian music in its era.The late 1980s saw the relocation of CityTV to 299 Queen Street West which gentrified the area almost overnight. A more mainstream culture soon attracted other artists, wider audiences, and wealthier businesses to the area. Small independent businesses started to move further west on Queen Street West past Spadina Avenue and Bathurst Street for the cheaper rent, an area at the time which was desolate after working hours. The push continued into the mid- and late 2000s and into Parkdale until that area also became associated with trendy businesses, and now condos.
By the mid-1990s with the opening of mainstream stores such as Le Château, probably the first chain store on the strip, the name "Queen Street" became synonymous with terms such as "trendy", "hip", and "cool". While original businesses such as the Cameron, the Horseshoe Tavern and The Rivoli have remained and changed little, the strip is now cluttered with mid- and higher-end international chain stores such as H&M and Zara, the antithesis of what the area was about in the 1970s and 1980s.
The broadcast hub at 299 Queen Street West, housing a number of Bell Media's television operations, is located at the corner of Queen and John Streets in this area. By the mid-1990s MuchMusic become associated with Queen Street's culture; the station's VJs have often broadcast their segments live from outside the building, and programs such as Electric Circus and the MuchMusic Video Awards have regularly taken place on the street.
St. Patrick's Market, at 238 Queen Street West, was founded in the late 1830s. The current building dates from 1912. This property is currently home to a communal food market, currently undergoing renovations the property is slated to re-open in 2018.