College Street is a principal
arterial thoroughfare in downtown
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 anch ...
, Canada, connecting former
streetcar suburbs
A streetcar suburb is a residential community whose growth and development was strongly shaped by the use of streetcar lines as a primary means of transportation. Such suburbs developed in the United States in the years before the automobile, when ...
in the west with the
city centre
A city centre is the commercial, cultural and often the historical, political, and geographic heart of a city. The term "city centre" is primarily used in British English, and closely equivalent terms exist in other languages, such as "" in Fren ...
. The street is home to an ethnically diverse population in the western residential reaches, and institutions like the
Ontario Legislature and the
University of Toronto
The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution ...
in the
downtown core. At
Yonge Street, College continues to the east as
Carlton Street
Carlton may refer to:
People
* Carlton (name), a list of those with the given name or surname
* Carlton (singer), English soul singer Carlton McCarthy
* Carlton, a pen name used by Joseph Caldwell (1773–1835), American educator, Presbyterian ...
.
History
College Street takes its name from the
University of Toronto
The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution ...
, originally King's College. Between
Spadina Avenue and Yonge Street, College marks the southern boundary of the original 1827 land grant for the college. The street was immediately proposed as an east-west route along the boundary, although the section was not built until 1859. The first section built was to the west of Spadina Avenue, through the estate of
Robert Baldwin, who laid out the route. This section was built with the that was also used for Spadina. The section through Baldwin's estate was laid out in 1842, and the wide section was extended to Manning Avenue through the Denison and Crookshank estates.
After
John Howard
John Winston Howard (born 26 July 1939) is an Australian former politician who served as the 25th prime minister of Australia from 1996 to 2007, holding office as leader of the Liberal Party. His eleven-year tenure as prime minister is the ...
made the 1873 land grant which would become
High Park, the Denison family proposed that the city extend College Street west as a sort of 'driving park' to access the new public lands. The path to the west of Manning Avenue was blocked by William Wakefield, who owned the land beyond and was holding out for a high sale price. The purchase of Wakefield's land did not take place until 1879. The right-of-way purchased through Wakefield's land was the standard width, rather than the 100 ft width to the east. The cost of the land may have been a factor.
Building the route west of
Clinton Street was a challenge in the 1880s. At the time, a direct line west would have traveled through the ravines of
Garrison and Brewery Creeks as far as
Dufferin Street, the western city limit at the time. Instead, the road was rerouted along a north-western crescent running parallel to the creeks. The route then proceeded straight as far west as Havelock Street, just east of Dufferin.
[Fram(2006), p. 53]
At Havelock Street, the right-of-way intersected the property of Charles Lindsay. The alignment of College Street would have bisected his property, leaving unsaleable lot sizes on the south side of College. Lindsay was able to convince the city to reroute around his property to the north, with a 'kink' that exists to this day.
After the suburb of
Brockton was annexed in the 1880s, the final section of College Street was built to
Lansdowne Avenue
Lansdowne Avenue is an arterial road in Toronto, Ontario. It runs north–south and starts at Queen Street West and proceeds north to St. Clair Avenue West. Lansdowne Avenue is primarily a four-lane arterial road, with two lanes regularly used f ...
in 1886.
It was expected that College would be extended further, but just west of Lansdowne the rail lines created a barrier. A precursor to an extended College Street, called Grenadier Road, was laid out in the Roncesvalles district, and on the west side of High Park in Swansea (now Morningside) as well as a section in Etobicoke (now Berry Road), but connections to those streets were never made.
Streetcar service extended as far west as Dufferin by 1889, and (via Dundas Street) to High Park by 1893. Sunday operation of the line to High Park did not begin until 1897, after a citywide plebiscite was held on the issue of Sunday streetcar operation. The streetcar led to the development of residential sub-divisions on both sides, with street frontages actually empty. The frontages were used for billboards, with development on the street only filling up the lots on both sides by
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...
, although some vacant lots existed into the 1920s.
[Fram(2006), pp. 58-59]
Route description
The intersection at
Yonge Street is dominated by the landmark
College Park complex, which once housed an
Eaton's department store
A department store is a retail establishment offering a wide range of consumer goods in different areas of the store, each area ("department") specializing in a product category. In modern major cities, the department store made a dramatic appe ...
. This historic building is now used for retail, office, and residential purposes.
At
University Avenue, College traverses a major institutional district, with the
Ontario Legislature, the
University of Toronto
The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution ...
, and the
MaRS Discovery District
MaRS Discovery District is a not-for-profit corporation founded in Toronto, Ontario, Canada in 2000. Its stated goal is to commercialize publicly funded medical research and other technologies with the help of local private enterprises and as such ...
marking one of the city's most important and historic intersections. The district also features a concentration of teaching hospitals, including
Toronto General Hospital
The Toronto General Hospital (TGH) is a major teaching hospital in Toronto, Ontario, Canada and the flagship campus of University Health Network (UHN). It is located in the Discovery District of Downtown Toronto along University Avenue's Hospi ...
, the
Hospital for Sick Children,
Princess Margaret Cancer Centre
The Princess Margaret Cancer Centre (previously, ''Princess Margaret Hospital'') is a scientific research centre and a teaching hospital in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, affiliated with the University of Toronto Faculty of Medicine as part of the Univ ...
,
Mount Sinai Hospital, and
Toronto Rehab.
Between University and
Spadina Avenue, the street bounds the
Grange Park neighbourhood to the south, a mixed-residential area with student housing and historic residences such as
George Brown House. The intersection at Spadina Avenue represents the northern boundary of the city's
principal Chinatown, as well as the western boundary of the university. The intersection is marked by the focal point of
1 Spadina Crescent in a
roundabout to the north, and a complex rail interchange where the busy
510 Spadina streetcar route, running on a dedicated
right-of-way
Right of way is the legal right, established by grant from a landowner or long usage (i.e. by prescription), to pass along a specific route through property belonging to another.
A similar ''right of access'' also exists on land held by a gov ...
, meets the
506 Carlton route.
The section of College west of Spadina is home to a variety of computer stores, known as a destination for cheap computer parts. This stretch of College also forms the northern border of
Kensington Market
Kensington Market is a distinctive multicultural neighbourhood in Downtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The Market is an older neighbourhood and one of the city's most well-known. In November 2006, it was designated a National Historic Site of Ca ...
.
West of
Bathurst Street, College is the heart of Toronto's
Little Italy and is dotted with restaurants and trendy bars. Further west, College is primarily residential.
Public transit
The
Toronto Transit Commission's
506 Carlton streetcar route runs along College and Carlton Streets. College is served by
Queen's Park station and
College station on the
University
A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United Stat ...
and
Yonge branches, respectively, of the
Yonge-University-Spadina subway line.
Major intersection
The following is a list of major intersections along College Street
*
Dundas Street
*
Lansdowne Avenue
Lansdowne Avenue is an arterial road in Toronto, Ontario. It runs north–south and starts at Queen Street West and proceeds north to St. Clair Avenue West. Lansdowne Avenue is primarily a four-lane arterial road, with two lanes regularly used f ...
*
Ossington Avenue
*
Bathurst Street
*
Spadina Avenue
*
University Avenue (south) /
Queen's Park Crescent (north)
*
Bay Street
Bay Street is a major thoroughfare in Downtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is the centre of Toronto's Financial District and is often used by metonymy to refer to Canada's financial services industry since succeeding Montreal's St. James ...
*
Yonge Street
References
*
*
{{Streets in Toronto
Roads in Toronto