Keele Street is a north–south road in

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 ...

Vaughan Vaughan () (2021 population 323,103) is a city in Ontario, Canada. It is located in the Regional Municipality of York, just north of Toronto. Vaughan was the fastest-growing municipality in Canada between 1996 and 2006 with its population increas ...

and

King King is the title given to a male monarch in a variety of contexts. The female equivalent is queen, which title is also given to the consort of a king. *In the context of prehistory, antiquity and contemporary indigenous peoples, the tit ...

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 stretches , running from

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 ...

in Toronto to the

Holland Marsh The Holland Marsh is a wetland and agricultural area in Ontario, Canada, about north of Toronto. It lies entirely within the valley of the Holland River, stretching from the northern edge of the Oak Ridges Moraine near Schomberg to the river mo ...

. South of

, the roadway is today known as Parkside Drive, but was originally part of Keele Street. It was renamed in 1921 by the City of Toronto. Most of Keele Street runs directly along a former concession road (Third Line West of

Yonge Street Yonge Street (; pronounced "young") is a major arterial route in the Canadian province of Ontario connecting the shores of Lake Ontario in Toronto to Lake Simcoe, a gateway to the Upper Great Lakes. Once the southernmost leg of provincial Hi ...

) allowance. Keele Street was named for local businessman and farmer William Conway Keele, who lived in what is West Toronto Junction or Lambton Mills area.

Route

Parkside Drive begins at

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 ...

near Sunnyside Beach, site of the former

Sunnyside Amusement Park Sunnyside Amusement Park (also known as Sunnyside Beach Park) was a popular amusement park in Toronto, Ontario, Canada that ran from 1922 to 1955, demolished in 1955 to facilitate the building of the Metro Toronto Gardiner Expressway project. It w ...

. It runs north forming the eastern boundary to

High Park High Park is a municipal park in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. High Park is a mixed recreational and natural park, with sporting facilities, cultural facilities, educational facilities, gardens, playgrounds and a zoo. One-third of the park remains ...

until Bloor Street. To the east is the

Roncesvalles Roncesvalles ( , ; eu, Orreaga ; an, Ronzesbals ; french: Roncevaux ) is a small village and municipality in Navarre, northern Spain. It is situated on the small river Urrobi at an altitude of some in the Pyrenees, about from the French bor ...

neighbourhood. North of Bloor Street, it becomes Keele Street. It runs through the residential

High Park North High Park North, or often simply High Park, after the park, is a neighbourhood in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is bounded on the south by Bloor Street, on the west by Runnymede Road, on the north by Annette Street, Quebec Avenue and Humberside Av ...

neighbourhood and into

the Junction The Junction is a neighbourhood in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, that is near the West Toronto Diamond, a junction of four railway lines in the area. The neighbourhood was previously an independent city called West Toronto, that was also its own fe ...

, which contains a mix of residential and industrial areas around the railway tracks. It passes near the once important

CPR West Toronto Yard West Toronto Yard is a small marshalling yard for Canadian Pacific Railway on the Galt Subdivision in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The yard was built in 1882 to relieve stress at the Parkdale Yard and is located near Keele Street and Dundas Street W ...

. While Keele originally ran straight north, today there is a brief cut-off to deviate around the

Canadian National The Canadian National Railway Company (french: Compagnie des chemins de fer nationaux du Canada) is a Canadian Class I railroad, Class I freight railway headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, which serves Canada and the Midwestern United States, M ...

and

Canadian Pacific Railway The Canadian Pacific Railway (french: Chemin de fer Canadien Pacifique) , also known simply as CPR or Canadian Pacific and formerly as CP Rail (1968–1996), is a Canadian Class I railway incorporated in 1881. The railway is owned by Canadi ...

corridors, near the former

Canada Packers Maple Leaf Foods Inc. is a Canadian consumer packaged meats company. Its head office is in Mississauga, Ontario. History Maple Leaf Foods is the result of the 1991 merger between Canada Packers and Maple Leaf Mills. Canada Packers was f ...

stock yards. It resumes south of

Eglinton Avenue Eglinton Avenue is a major east–west arterial thoroughfare in Toronto and Mississauga in the Canadian province of Ontario. The street begins at Highway 407 (but does not interchange with the tollway) at the western limits of Mississauga, as a ...

, and connects with Weston Road by Rogers Road. There is a minor jog at Eglinton, via Trethewey Drive and Yore Road. The road servers major arteries for suburban neighbourhoods in York and North York such as

Silverthorn Silverthorn may refer to: * ''Silverthorn'' (album), an album by Kamelot * ''Silverthorn'' (novel), a novel by Raymond E. Feist *Silverthorn, Toronto, a neighbourhood in Toronto *Silverthorn Collegiate Institute *Silverthorn, a character on ''The ...

Amesbury Amesbury () is a town and civil parish in Wiltshire, England. It is known for the prehistoric monument of Stonehenge which is within the parish. The town is claimed to be the oldest occupied settlement in Great Britain, having been first settle ...

, and

Maple Leaf The maple leaf is the characteristic leaf of the maple tree. It is the most widely recognized national symbol of Canada. History of use in Canada By the early 1700s, the maple leaf had been adopted as an emblem by the French Canadians along the ...

. North of

Highway 401 King's Highway 401, commonly referred to as Highway 401 and also known by its official name as the Macdonald–Cartier Freeway or colloquially referred to as the four-oh-one, is a controlled-access 400-series highway in the Canadian provin ...

it passes by Downsview Airport and forms the border between the residential neighbourhoods to the west and the large Keele-Finch industrial area to the east. Keele also forms the eastern border of

York University York University (french: Université York), also known as YorkU or simply YU, is a public university, public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is Canada's fourth-largest university, and it has approximately 55,700 students, 7,0 ...

. At

Steeles Avenue Steeles Avenue is an east–west street that forms the northern city limit of Toronto and the southern limit of Regional Municipality of York, York Region in Ontario, Canada. It stretches across the western and central Greater Toronto Area from ...

, the road allowance between the former

North York North York is one of the six administrative districts of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is located directly north of York, Old Toronto and East York, between Etobicoke to the west and Scarborough to the east. As of the 2016 Census, it had a popu ...

and

Townships was connected in the early 1960s. North of Steeles, in Vaughan, Keele continues to pass through industrial areas. It runs to the west of the

MacMillan Yard The MacMillan Yard is the 2nd largest rail classification yard in Canada, after CN's Symington Yard in Winnipeg. It is operated by Canadian National Railway (CN) and is located in Vaughan, Ontario. It was originally opened in 1965 as Toronto Yard ...

, Canada's largest rail yard. North of Rutherford Road, Keele Street is the main street for

Maple ''Acer'' () is a genus of trees and shrubs commonly known as maples. The genus is placed in the family Sapindaceae.Stevens, P. F. (2001 onwards). Angiosperm Phylogeny Website. Version 9, June 2008 nd more or less continuously updated since http ...

, once a small town, but today a rapidly growing suburb. North of Maple, Keele Street passes through largely rural areas, but also serves as a major street for

Hope Hope is an optimistic state of mind that is based on an expectation of positive outcomes with respect to events and circumstances in one's life or the world at large. As a verb, its definitions include: "expect with confidence" and "to cherish ...

and King City.

Intersections

image:Keele and Dundas Looking North 2008.jpg, 300px, Keele and Dundas in

Major streets in Toronto which intersect with Keele (south to north): *

* Dundas Street * St. Clair Avenue *

* Lawrence Avenue *

Wilson Avenue Wilson may refer to: People *Wilson (name) ** List of people with given name Wilson ** List of people with surname Wilson * Wilson (footballer, 1927–1998), Brazilian manager and defender * Wilson (footballer, born 1984), full name Wilson Rod ...

Sheppard Avenue Sheppard Avenue is an east–west principal arterial road in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The street has two distinct branches near its eastern end, with the original route being a collector road leading to Pickering via a turnoff, and the main ro ...

Finch Avenue Finch Avenue is an arterial thoroughfare that travels east–west in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The road continues west into the Regional Municipality of Peel as Regional Road 2 and east into the Regional Municipality of Durham as Regional ...

Public transit

A portion of Keele was once a major streetcar route. The

Toronto Suburban Railway The Toronto Suburban Railway was a Canadian electric railway operator with local routes in west Toronto, and a radial (interurban) route to Guelph. History Corporate Timeline The Weston, High Park and Toronto Street Railway Company was incor ...

ran streetcars along Keele from Dundas West to Weston Rd to connect to Lambton,

Weston Weston may refer to: Places Australia * Weston, Australian Capital Territory, a suburb of Canberra * Weston, New South Wales * Weston Creek, a residential district of Canberra * Weston Park, Canberra, a park Canada * Weston, Nova Scotia * ...

, and

Woodbridge Woodbridge may refer to: Places Australia *Woodbridge, Western Australia formerly called ''West Midland'' *Woodbridge, Tasmania Canada *Woodbridge, Ontario England *Woodbridge, Suffolk, the location of ** Woodbridge (UK Parliament constituency ...

. 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 ...

took over the Toronto Suburban Railway routes in the 1920s, and continued to run the northwestern streetcars on behalf of York Township. The streetcar lines were converted to buses in the late 1940s, and since then Keele has been served by buses.James Bow. " he Township of York Railways. http://transittoronto.ca/streetcar/4119.shtml ''Transit Toronto.'' May 30, 2009. Today Keele is served by the TTC 41 Keele bus route, which runs from

Keele station Keele is a subway station on Line 2 Bloor–Danforth of the Toronto subway in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is located just north of Bloor Street West on the east side of Keele Street. The station opened in 1966, and was the western terminus of th ...

, passing Keelesdale station, to

Pioneer Village station Pioneer Village is a subway station on the Line 1 Yonge–University of the Toronto subway. It is located under the intersection of Northwest Gate and Steeles Avenue, at the city boundaries of Toronto and Vaughan, Ontario, Canada. A Toronto Trans ...

via

, and its counterpart night route, 341, serving almost the same route, but it terminates at

York University station York University is a subway station on Line 1 Yonge–University of the Toronto subway. It is located on the main Keele Campus of York University, near Ian Macdonald and York Boulevards in the former city of North York. History The official g ...

. There is also an express route operating during some periods, the 941 Keele express operating from

Finch West station Finch West is a subway station on the Line 1 Yonge–University of the Toronto subway. It is located under Keele Street, north of Finch Avenue West. When Line 6 Finch West opens in 2023, it will serve as the eastern terminus of that line. Descri ...

. The TTC 107 York University heights operates from

to Canarctic Drive (just south of

). North of

, the

York Region Transit York Region Transit (YRT) is the public transit operator in York Region, Ontario, Canada. Its headquarters are in Richmond Hill, at 50 High Tech Road. YRT operates 65 full-time, rush hour and limited routes, 35 school services, and six Viva bus ...

107 Keele runs from

to Teston Road in

. The Parkside Drive part of the street, which is formally Keele Street, is served by the TTC route 80 Queensway running south from Keele station to Lake Shore Blvd, then turning west to

The Queensway The Queensway (or Queensway) is a major street in the municipalities of Toronto and Mississauga, Ontario, Canada. It is a western continuation of Queen Street, after it crosses Roncesvalles Avenue and King Street in Toronto. The Queensway is ...

. It is also served on weekdays and Saturdays by the YRT 96 Keele-Yonge Route which runs north from Pioneer Village to King Road before turning right on King Road to go to

which leads it to the

Newmarket Terminal Newmarket Terminal is a bus terminal in Newmarket, Ontario, Canada operated by York Region Transit (YRT). It is located at 320 Eagle Street West at the intersection of Eagle Street West and Davis Drive. The facility has 447 parking spaces. The Ne ...

Landmarks

References

External links

Google Maps of Keele Street
North sectionSouth of St. Clair Avenue
{{Roads in Vaughan Roads in Toronto Transport in King, Ontario Transport in Vaughan