Cherry Street is a north-south arterial roadway in the eastern downtown of
Toronto
Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...
,
Ontario
Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...
, Canada. It is situated in a former industrial area, that is now the site of redevelopment. It connects
Eastern Avenue south to
Lake Shore Boulevard
Lake Shore Boulevard (often incorrectly compounded as Lakeshore Boulevard) is a major arterial road running along more than half of the Lake Ontario waterfront in the city of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Prior to 1998, two segments of Lake Shore ...
, then to the Toronto Port Lands district, and terminates at
Lake Ontario
Lake Ontario is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. It is bounded on the north, west, and southwest by the Canadian province of Ontario, and on the south and east by the U.S. state of New York. The Canada–United States border sp ...
at
Cherry Beach
Cherry Beach (originally Clarke Beach Park) is a lakeside beach park located at the foot of Cherry Street just south of Unwin Avenue in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is on Toronto's outer harbour just east of the Eastern Gap. It was once connected ...
.
Description
Its northern terminus is at Eastern Avenue. A co-linear street, named Sumach St., continues north. It crosses
Front St. and Mill St. proceeding south to the railway viaduct and Lake Shore Boulevard. The road has a dedicated right-of-way for streetcars beginning at King Street East and Sumach, which continues south on Cherry, to its terminus known as Distillery Loop beside the railway viaduct. The loop is opposite the Distillery District on the west side of Cherry. On the eastern side of the street is the redevelopment site, first built for the
2015 Pan American Games
Fifteen or 15 may refer to:
*15 (number), the natural number following 14 and preceding 16
*one of the years 15 BC, AD 15, 1915, 2015
Music
*Fifteen (band), a punk rock band
Albums
* ''15'' (Buckcherry album), 2005
* ''15'' (Ani Lorak alb ...
athletes' village, now being turned into a residential apartments district known as the Canary District.
The road proceeds south of Lake Shore Boulevard into the
Port Lands
The Port Lands (also known as Portlands) of Toronto, Ontario, Canada are an industrial and recreational neighbourhood located about 5 kilometres south-east of downtown, located on the former Don River delta and most of Ashbridge's Bay.
Approxi ...
district where it intersects with
Commissioners Street
The Port Lands (also known as Portlands) of Toronto, Ontario, Canada are an industrial and recreational neighbourhood located about 5 kilometres south-east of downtown, located on the former Don River delta and most of Ashbridge's Bay.
Approx ...
and Unwin Ave. After crossing Unwin, it continues another south to Cherry Beach, where it ends in a
roundabout
A roundabout is a type of circular intersection or junction in which road traffic is permitted to flow in one direction around a central island, and priority is typically given to traffic already in the junction.''The New Shorter Oxford En ...
.
Cherry Street is carried over the waterways of the Port Lands by Toronto's only two
lift bridges.
A smaller one where it crosses the
Keating Channel
The Keating Channel is a long waterway in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It connects the Don River to inner Toronto Harbour (Toronto Bay) on Lake Ontario. The channel is named after Edward Henry Keating (1844-1912), a city engineer (1892-1898) who pro ...
and
a larger one where it crosses the channel to the
turning basin
A turning basin, winding basin or swinging basin is a wider body of water, either located at the end of a ship canal or in a port to allow cargo ships to turn and reverse their direction of travel, or to enable long narrow barges in a canal to tur ...
.
According to ''
The Canadian Entomologist
''The Canadian Entomologist'' is a bimonthly peer-reviewed scientific journal covering all aspects of entomology. It is published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Entomological Society of Canada and was established in 1868. Volumes ...
'' Cherry Street, between Unwin Ave. and the Keating Channel was the first recorded site of
termite
Termites are small insects that live in colonies and have distinct castes (eusocial) and feed on wood or other dead plant matter. Termites comprise the infraorder Isoptera, or alternatively the epifamily Termitoidae, within the order Blattode ...
infestation in
Ontario
Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...
.
[
]
2015 Pan American Games
During the 2015 Pan American Games and Parapan American Games thousands of athletes were housed in a temporary
athlete's village just east of the intersection of Cherry and Front streets.
[ Temporary pavilions were built on a large vacant lot on the southwest corner of Cherry and Front which served as the athlete's dining area, as well as a temporary bus marshaling yards for the fleet of rented buses which carried athletes to their venues.
The apartments that housed the athletes were made available only partially complete. Since the athletes dined at central cafeterias completing the apartment's kitchens was postponed. That way the rooms intended to serve as kitchens could be used as an additional bedroom. Other fittings, like hardwood floors that could be damaged by the spikes on sports shoes, were installed after the games were over.
The intersection of Cherry and ]Front
Front may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Films
* ''The Front'' (1943 film), a 1943 Soviet drama film
* ''The Front'', 1976 film
Music
* The Front (band), an American rock band signed to Columbia Records and active in the 1980s and e ...
streets, the gateway to the athletes' village is being described as the future gateway to the Canary District, 200 acres of former light industrial land being redeveloped into a residential area.[
]
Streetcar route
In 2012, the Toronto Transit Commission
The Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) is the public transport agency that operates bus, subway, streetcar, and paratransit services in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, some of which run into the Peel Region and York Region. It is the oldest and largest ...
started to construct the first segment of a new streetcar line beside Cherry Street, from King Street south to just north of Lake Shore Boulevard.[
][
]
This initial segment was projected to cost million. Original plans called for the line to extend further south into redeveloped portlands
The Port Lands (also known as Portlands) of Toronto, Ontario, Canada are an industrial and recreational neighbourhood located about 5 kilometres south-east of downtown, located on the former Don River delta and most of Ashbridge's Bay.
Approxi ...
.
That extension pushed the budget for the line to million.
In early plans, athletes would have ridden a streetcar to Union Station to make connections to the games' scattered venues. However, the streetcar's opening was delayed until after the games were over.[
The TTC began service on Cherry Street in 2016. The route, named the 514 Cherry, ran from the Cherry Loop, along King, to the ]Dufferin Gate Loop
Dufferin Gate Loop, also known as Dufferin Loop, is a Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) bus station and turning loop for streetcars near the southern end of Dufferin Street in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. During the Canadian National Exhibition (CNE) ...
, adjacent to Exhibition Place
Exhibition Place is a publicly owned mixed-use district in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located by the shoreline of Lake Ontario, just west of downtown. The site includes exhibit, trade, and banquet centres, theatre and music buildings, monuments ...
. This route was discontinued in 2018, replaced by a re-routing of the 504 King
504 King (304 King during overnight periods) is an east–west Toronto streetcar route in Ontario, Canada. It serves King Street in Downtown Toronto as well as Broadview Avenue on the east end and Roncesvalles Avenue on the west end of the line ...
streetcar. The route of the 504A begins in the west at Dundas West Station, travels south along Dundas Street, Roncesvalles Avenue, then east on King Street to Cherry Street. In the east, the 504B begins at Broadview Station, travels south along Broadview, west on Queen Street and King Street and terminates at the Dufferin loop by Exhibition Place.
Future development
Lower Cherry Street, south of Lake Shore Boulevard, will be re-aligned west, as part of the development of the Villiers Island
Villiers Island is a area in Toronto's Port Lands being converted to an island. The project is a part of Port Lands Flood Protection Project by Waterfront Toronto. To prevent flooding from the Don River, a channel is being created to extend th ...
.[ Developers plan a dense knot of high-rise and mid-rise development on lower Cherry, as part of the development.][ It will pass under the Gardiner Expressway and cross the Keating Channel over two new bridges, one for vehicles, and the other for streetcars.
]
References
{{Coord, 43.6446, N, 79.3518, W, type:landmark_region:CA-ON, display=title
Roads in Toronto