![EsplanadeWest1894](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a9/EsplanadeWest1894.jpg)
The Esplanade is an east-west street along the central waterfront 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. Originally conceived as a city beautification project to clean up the city's waterfront in the 1850s, the street was taken over by the coming of the railways to Toronto in 1850. The railway eventually moved to an elevated viaduct, leaving only the eastern section of the street today. The area, east 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 ...
, was dominated by industrial uses until the second half of the 20th century. As the harbour declined as a transfer point, the railway and industrial uses left the area. The Esplanade was redeveloped into a residential area, known as the "St. Lawrence Neighbourhood" in the late 1970s and early 1980s. This neighbourhood consists of generally low-rise and mid-rise housing - condominiums, public housing, cooperatives and some town homes between
Jarvis and Parliament Streets south of Front Street. In the blocks between Jarvis and Parliament, the southern part of the street (and the former rail tracks) were converted to a long strip of park and recreation space for the residents - David Crombie Park. The stretch between Scott Street and Market Street is a popular restaurant area.
Description
The Esplanade now begins as a two-lane street at Yonge Street, south of
Front Street, north of the railway viaduct. To the north is the
Sony Centre for the Arts with the "
L Tower
The L Tower (also known as the Libeskind Tower) is a residential skyscraper in Toronto, Ontario, Canada designed by architect Daniel Libeskind. The project, which broke ground in mid-October 2009, saw many delays. One cause for delay was a stop- ...
" condominium tower wedged in behind. Going east, both sides of the street are lined with late 20th-century or early 21st century mid-rise and high-rise condominium projects. On the ground floors are numerous restaurants and retail stores. The north side of the street has a wide enough sidewalk that the restaurants have patios. Further to the east, along the north side, are older industrial buildings, such as the Greey's Toronto Mill Furnishing Works Factory at #70, which have been repurposed into commercial space. The street continues as a two-lane with wide north-side sidewalk east of
Church Street as far west as Market Lane. Between here and Jarvis Street is the
south building of
St. Lawrence Market
St. Lawrence Market is a major public market in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is located along Front Street East and Jarvis Street in the St. Lawrence neighbourhood of downtown Toronto. The public market is made up of two sites adjacent to one a ...
on the north side and the temporary location of the Market's
farmer's market building.
To the east of Jarvis, The Esplanade is primarily residential, and primarily low-rise. The street is a two-lane road, with most of the old right-of-way dedicated to
David Crombie Park
David Crombie Park is a park in downtown Toronto that is the spine of the St Lawrence Neighbourhood.
While not a destination for visitors from outside the neighbourhood, the park is well used by residents, and by tourists using it as a corrid ...
, a large linear park along the south side. On the south side of the park is the St. Lawrence housing development. Along the north side are various late 20th-century low-rise apartment projects. The St. Lawrence Recreation Centre is located along the north side of the street, east of Sherbourne, next to Market Lane Public School. This street form continues east to Berkeley Street, one block west of
Parliament Street. On the north-west corner is the Berkeley Castle, the former 1871 Toronto Knitting & Yarn Factory, repurposed as commercial space.
TTC route 121 Esplanade-river operates along the full length of the road.
History
![Toronto Wholesale Fruit Market, Yonge Street](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1a/Toronto_Wholesale_Fruit_Market%2C_Yonge_Street.jpg)
In the 1840s, Toronto's waterfront was a combination of wharves and squatter buildings. The area where The Esplanade is today was then part of the harbour, south of the shoreline. The Esplanade, a -wide road, was proposed, just south of Front Street, with new water lots made from cribbing and filling of the shore to the south. The waterfront was extended to a survey line from the point of the Gooderham windmill west to a point due east of the old
Fort Rouillé
Fort Rouillé was a French trading post located in what is now Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Fort Rouillé was constructed by the French in 1751, building upon the success of a trading post they established in the area a year earlier, known as Fort T ...
. The new Esplanade was built in the 1850s at a cost of £150,000. Ostensibly for carriages and carts, the roadway eventually became primarily the route for rail lines in the central core. In exchange for of the Esplanade, the railways underwrote the infilling of the harbour. The Esplanade and infill project was complete by 1865. The project was the start of the railways taking over the entire Esplanade to the west of Yonge Street, and almost all of the harbour area. Gates were added to hold traffic as trains ran past each intersection.
The
Grand Trunk Railway
The Grand Trunk Railway (; french: Grand Tronc) was a railway system that operated in the Canadian provinces of Quebec and Ontario and in the American states of Connecticut, Maine, Michigan, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Vermont. The rai ...
built its first station at Bay Street and The Esplanade before building the first
Union Station
A union station (also known as a union terminal, a joint station in Europe, and a joint-use station in Japan) is a railway station at which the tracks and facilities are shared by two or more separate railway companies, allowing passengers to ...
at York Street and The Esplanade. The Union Station would be replaced by a new
Union Station
A union station (also known as a union terminal, a joint station in Europe, and a joint-use station in Japan) is a railway station at which the tracks and facilities are shared by two or more separate railway companies, allowing passengers to ...
in 1873 at the same location. The current Union Station was built in the 1910s and 1920s, and a new viaduct took over the railway functions of the Esplanade permanently. By then, landfill had extended the waterline further south. The Esplanade once ran west from Yonge Street to Spadina Avenue with rest lost to re-development:
Metro Toronto Convention Centre
Metro Toronto Convention Centre (originally and still colloquially Metro Convention Centre, and sometimes MTCC), is a convention complex located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada along Front Street (Toronto), Front Street West in the former Railway Land ...
from John Street to Lower Simcoe Street;
SkyWalk
A skyway, skybridge, skywalk, or sky walkway is an elevated type of pedway connecting two or more buildings in an urban area, or connecting elevated points within mountainous recreational zones. Urban skyways very often take the form of enclos ...
from Lower Simcoe Street to York Street (former
CNCP Building and Canadian National Express Building and partially by old Union Station);
Union Station
A union station (also known as a union terminal, a joint station in Europe, and a joint-use station in Japan) is a railway station at which the tracks and facilities are shared by two or more separate railway companies, allowing passengers to ...
built over section from Bay Street to York Street;
Union Station Bus Terminal
The Union Station Bus Terminal is the central intercity bus terminal in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is located in Downtown Toronto on the second floor of the south tower of CIBC Square, on the northeast corner of Bay Street and Lake Shore Boul ...
(previous CP Express and Transport Building) covers area from Yonge to Bay and uses old section of road as an internal roadway for buses. A new section of the Esplanade West (west of Bay Street to Spadina) emerged in the 1990s but was renamed as Bremner Boulevard in honour of former Toronto Public Works Commissioner Ray Bremner (died 2004). The portion of Bremner east of York Street was renamed Raptors Way in 2019.
The
Great Western Railway
The Great Western Railway (GWR) was a British railway company that linked London with the southwest, west and West Midlands of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, received its enabling Act of Parliament on 31 August 1835 and ran ...
built its rail station at the intersection of Yonge Street and The Esplanade. After the viaduct was built and passenger rail operations moved to the Union Station to the west, the building was converted to a freight office, then to the Toronto Wholesale Fruit Market.
The location became part of the site for the new O'Keefe Centre for the Performing Arts (now the Sony Centre) in 1960. The Fruit Market and the wholesale market west of the St. Lawrence Market moved out of downtown to the
Ontario Food Terminal
The Ontario Food Terminal is the main produce distribution centre for Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is located at 165 The Queensway at Park Lawn Road, north of the Gardiner Expressway, and west of the Humber River. The U-shaped building occupies o ...
by the
Humber River to the west.
References
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Esplanade
Streets in Toronto