Islington-City Centre West (also known as Islington Village, Six Points or Etobicoke City Centre) is a commercial and residential neighbourhood in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. One of four

central business district A central business district (CBD) is the commercial and business centre of a city. It contains commercial space and offices, and in larger cities will often be described as a financial district. Geographically, it often coincides with the " city ...

s outside Downtown Toronto, it is bounded by Rathburn Road to the north,

Islington Avenue Islington () is a district in the north of Greater London, England, and part of the London Borough of Islington. It is a mainly residential district of Inner London, extending from Islington's Islington#Islington High Street, High Street to Hig ...

to the east,

Bloor Street Bloor Street is a major east–west residential and commercial thoroughfare in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Bloor Street runs from the Prince Edward Viaduct, which spans the Don River Valley, westward into Mississauga where it ends at Central Parkw ...

to the south,

Mimico Creek Mimico Creek is a stream that flows through Brampton, Mississauga and Toronto in the Greater Toronto Area of Ontario, Canada. It is long, is in the Great Lakes Basin, and is a tributary of Lake Ontario. The creek's name is derived from the comm ...

to the west.

History

Islington centres on a commercial strip along Dundas Street West (originally The Governor's Road, the first highway connecting Toronto to London, Ontario) which runs along an escarpment (the Lake Iroquois Shoreline, ancient shore of Lake Iroquois) across the width of Etobicoke. To the west where Kipling Avenue crosses Dundas Street West (and Bloor Street West) is the Six Points intersection, the central point in Etobicoke's grid. To the east, Dundas Street crosses the Mimico Creek. The original community called Mimico grew west of Montgomery's Inn, which was built in 1832 at Dundas Street West and Islington Avenue (beside the Mimico Creek) to serve travellers coming or going from Toronto to western Ontario along Dundas St. Unlike the better-known

Montgomery's Tavern The Battle of Montgomery's Tavern was an incident during the Upper Canada Rebellion in December 1837. The abortive revolutionary insurrection, inspired by William Lyon Mackenzie, was crushed by British authorities and Canadian volunteer units ne ...

in Toronto, Montgomery's Inn was used by soldiers remaining loyal to the government during the 1837 rebellion. Etobicoke was officially incorporated as a township in 1850, first using

Montgomery's Inn Montgomery's Inn is a museum in Etobicoke, Toronto, Ontario. Built in 1830 as a Georgian-style inn, it was named for its innkeeper, Thomas Montgomery (1790-1877). The inn ceased operations in 1856 and continued as a private farm house that was ...

for its meetings until the nearby original Methodist Church was purchased. EtobicokeFormerCouncilOffices

Etobicoke's first cemetery began with the burial of a traveller on Dundas who died on his way to Toronto just before reaching Montgomery's Inn. Despite the dying man's request to be buried in Toronto, he was buried beside the Methodist Church (later the Etobicoke Council Offices) in Islington. This cemetery remains a prominent historic site in the heart of Etobicoke where many of Etobicoke's early families are buried. With the building of the first railway to Toronto from the west in 1855,

Mimico Mimico is a neighbourhood (and a former municipality) in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, being located in the south-west area of Toronto on Lake Ontario. It is in the south-east corner of the former Township (and later, City) of Etobicoke, and was an ...

, near Lake Ontario, petitioned the government for a post office to be called Mimico in 1858. In 1860, the original northern Mimico petitioned for its own post office, using the name Islington, which was suggested by the wife of Montgomery's Innkeeper who was born in

Islington Islington () is a district in the north of Greater London, England, and part of the London Borough of Islington. It is a mainly residential district of Inner London, extending from Islington's High Street to Highbury Fields, encompassing the a ...

, England (now a part of London). A second railway was built at the bottom of the escarpment (just south of Dundas) preventing the collapse of Islington during the railway age. This neighbourhood was also the site of Etobicoke's annual rural fair. In the early 20th century, Etobicoke's urbanizing lakeshore communities separated to become independent municipalities while Islington remained a postal village, the administrative centre of rural Etobicoke Township. The Etobicoke municipal offices were greatly enlarged at this time. Islington TTC bus platforms 18820356430

Urbanization began in central Etobicoke in the 1950s post war boom with growing residential areas in Islington and to the north and industrial growth to the south. This led to Etobicoke's incorporation which separated from the County of York to form a part of the new Metropolitan Toronto in 1954, reincorporating the lakeshore municipalities into that level of government. With growing traffic along Dundas and increasing traffic fatalities in Islington, the intersections of Royal York Road and Kipling Avenue with Dundas St. W. were redesigned as highway style interchanges with bridges. The new Borough of Etobicoke in 1967 created several plans to raise the level of commercial and residential density in Islington with the aim of creating a western 'downtown' for Metropolitan Toronto. The Toronto Transit Commission's Bloor–Danforth line was extended into Etobicoke as far as Islington in 1968 with the establishment of

station at

and

West. After the station was constructed, there was a boom in high-density office and residential development. In 1980, the Bloor-Danforth line was extended one stop west from Islington to

Kipling Joseph Rudyard Kipling ( ; 30 December 1865 – 18 January 1936)''The Times'', (London) 18 January 1936, p. 12. was an English novelist, short-story writer, poet, and journalist. He was born in British Raj, British India, which inspired much o ...

and

GO Transit GO Transit is a regional public transit system serving the Greater Golden Horseshoe region of Ontario, Canada. With its hub at Union Station in Toronto, GO Transit's green-and-white trains and buses serve a population of more than seven mil ...

's Kipling GO Station, further enhancing the neighbourhood's access to Toronto and the Greater Toronto Area.

Six Points Interchange

The physical segregation of Islington with the redesigning of the surrounding intersections on Dundas Street West (at Kipling Avenue and at Royal York Road) as well as Etobicoke Council's move in 1958 to a new complex beside the new Highway 427, limited the success of plans for the area to be developed as a western downtown. Efforts which began in 1998 by the City of Etobicoke to intensify the Six Points area were carried over to the amalgamated

City of Toronto government The municipal government of Toronto ( incorporated as the City of Toronto) is the local government responsible for administering the city of Toronto in the Canadian province of Ontario. Its structure and powers are set out in the ''City of Toron ...

. Redevelopment of the Six Points Interchange and the Westwood Theatre lands by the Build Toronto agency began in March 2017 to create a mixed-use development. The highway-interchange style of the junction has been replaced by at-grade intersections, restoring pedestrian connectivity to the area. Dundas Street has been re-routed via existing Dunbloor Road (which has been renamed Dundas Street West for continuity) on a new path through the area.

Heritage preservation

A heated debate over the demolition of the Montgomery's home (Briarly) beside

in the 1980s led to a greater emphasis on the historic nature of the area. Montgomery's Inn has been preserved as the Etobicoke Community Museum and is open to the public. There is also a designated business improvement district known as the Historic Village of Islington, which has commissioned a large number of historic wall murals along Dundas St. W.

Education

The neighbourhood is home to schools operated by the public Toronto District School Board (TDSB), and the Toronto Catholic District School Board (TCDSB). * Islington Junior Middle School (IJMS) is a K-8 elementary junior and middle school established since 1832 and it is the second oldest school in Toronto as well as the oldest in the former Etobicoke. * Two of Etobicoke's first Roman Catholic high schools of the Our Lady of Sorrows Roman Catholic Church, St. Joseph's High School was founded in 1949 by the

Sisters of St. Joseph The Sisters of St. Joseph, also known as the Congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph, abbreviated CSJ or SSJ, is a Roman Catholic religious congregation of women founded in Le Puy-en-Velay, France, in 1650. This congregation, named for ...

as an all-girls school and in 1957, the

Basilian Fathers The Congregation of St. Basil ( la, Congregatio a Sancto Basilio), abbreviated CSB, also called the Basilians, is a Roman Catholic clerical religious congregation of Pontifical Right for men (priests, seminarians and lay associates). It is an ap ...

formed an all-boys school, Michael Power High School on the Bloor-Dundas area and Michael Power later became a co-educational school in its later years. In 1982, they were officially amalgamated as one school with the Basilian Father as principal and the Sister of St. Joseph as vice-principal. With the school moved up west and north in 1993,

Bishop Allen Academy Bishop Allen Academy; officially known as Bishop Allen Academy Catholic Secondary School (alternatively as Bishop Allen, Bishop Allen Academy CSS, BAA, BAACSS, BA, Allen), is a high school in Toronto, Ontario, Canada managed by the Toronto Cathol ...

opened in 1989 to fill in the void left by the relocation of Michael Power-St. Joseph.

References

External links