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 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 ...

, Canada. It is on Toronto's outer harbour just east of the Eastern Gap. It was once connected with

Toronto Islands The Toronto Islands are a chain of 15 small islands in Lake Ontario, south of mainland Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Comprising the only group of islands in the western part of Lake Ontario, the Toronto Islands are located just offshore from the ...

as part of the former peninsula before 1852 and later was referred to as ''Fisherman's Island''. Despite its location at the tip of Toronto's formerly heavily industrial

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 ...

area, Cherry Beach has still been a popular gathering place for years. There is no boardwalk or proper picnic area, and much of the surrounding areas is marshland or leftover grounds from what was once commercial industry and factory grounds. Recently the park has undergone improvements which includes a paved entranceway and a renovated washroom and swimming change room facilities. In summer, the beach water is generally calm, and slightly warmer than other Toronto beaches along the lake shore, as its shallow water is sheltered by the Leslie Street Spit from direct surges of

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 ...

. However, there are extensive growths of seaweed underwater that degrade the swimming experience.

History

Bathers at Cherry Beach prior to the construction of the Leslie Street spit -a

It was originally named Clarke Beach Park after Harry Clarke, a Toronto

alderman An alderman is a member of a municipal assembly or council in many jurisdictions founded upon English law. The term may be titular, denoting a high-ranking member of a borough or county council, a council member chosen by the elected members t ...

who was responsible for creating the park in the early 1930s. In 2003, the city changed it to Cherry Beach which is the local common name. For many years it was one of the few Toronto beaches that was clean enough for

swimming Swimming is the self-propulsion of a person through water, or other liquid, usually for recreation, sport, exercise, or survival. Locomotion is achieved through coordinated movement of the limbs and the body to achieve hydrodynamic thrust that r ...

windsurfing Windsurfing is a wind propelled water sport that is a combination of sailing and surfing. It is also referred to as "sailboarding" and "boardsailing", and emerged in the late 1960s from the aerospace and surf culture of California. Windsurfing ga ...

and

kitesurfing Kiteboarding or kitesurfing is a sport that involves using wind power with a large power kite to pull a rider across a water, land, or snow surface. It combines aspects of paragliding, surfing, windsurfing, skateboarding, snowboarding, and wak ...

. It has change rooms for bathers and barbecue areas for picnickers. It also has an off-leash area for

dog The dog (''Canis familiaris'' or ''Canis lupus familiaris'') is a domesticated descendant of the wolf. Also called the domestic dog, it is derived from the extinct Pleistocene wolf, and the modern wolf is the dog's nearest living relative. Do ...

walkers. The Martin Goodman Trail passes through the park.

Cherry Beach Sports Fields

A wooded area by the beach has been turned into soccer fields, children's play structure and a metered parking area. In 2006 a pair of soccer fields were completed on land that had formerly been part of the greenbelt, at 275 Unwin Avenue. The fields were surfaced in astroturf and built to FIFA standards, and games of the 2007 FIFA Jr championship were to be played there. During the environmental assessment the site was found to be heavily contaminated by heavy metals, hydrocarbons and

PCBs Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) are highly carcinogenic chemical compounds, formerly used in industrial and consumer products, whose production was banned in the United States by the Toxic Substances Control Act in 1979 and internationally by t ...

. The soccer field was described as a "transitional" facility, as most of the land on either side of Unwin was underutilized city land that could be repurposed to sport facilities even though it was contaminated.

Toronto FC Toronto Football Club (commonly known as Toronto FC or TFC) is a Canadian professional soccer club based in Toronto. The club competes in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the Eastern Conference. The team plays its home matches at BM ...

used the soccer pitches for practice while their own dedicated training facilities were being constructed at

Downsview Park Downsview Park is a large urban park located in the Downsview neighbourhood of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The park's name is officially bilingual due to it being federally owned and managed, and was first home to de Havilland Canada, an aircraf ...

In popular culture

Pukka Orchestra had a local radio hit in 1984 with the song "Cherry Beach Express". The song is about local lore of how the

Toronto police The Toronto Police Service (TPS) is a municipal police force in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and the primary agency responsible for providing law enforcement and policing services in Toronto. Established in 1834, it was the first local police ser ...

used Cherry Beach as a location to beat suspects."Toronto Urban Legends: Cherry Beach Express"
''

Torontoist ''Daily Hive'', formerly known as ''Vancity Buzz'', is a Canadian online newspaper based in Vancouver, British Columbia. It began digital publishing in 2008 and became Western Canada's largest online-only publication by 2016. In September 202 ...

'', October 3, 2012. The police tried to have the song banned. Hardcore punk band Career Suicide also references the slang phrase "Cherry Beach express" (referring to the supposed police practice) in their song "Cherry Beach". ''

The Kids in the Hall The Kids in the Hall is a Canadian sketch comedy troupe formed in 1984, consisting of comedians Dave Foley, Bruce McCulloch, Kevin McDonald, Mark McKinney and Scott Thompson. Their eponymous television show ran from 1989 to 1995, on CBC, ...

'' shot several segments at Cherry Beach, including installments of their recurring "Cops" sketches. Parts of the music video for the

Alessia Cara Alessia Caracciolo (born July 11, 1996), known professionally as Alessia Cara (), is a Canadian singer-songwriter. Born in Mississauga, Ontario, to Italian Canadian parents, she began posting covers of songs on YouTube at age 13. After uploadi ...

song " Wild Things" were filmed at Cherry Beach.Archived a
Ghostarchive
and th
Wayback Machine
Parts of the film '' Silent Hill: Revelation 3D'' were filmed at Cherry Beach. Toronto punk band Career Suicide named a 2008 EP after Cherry Beach.

References

External links

*
Cherry Beach location and current swimming conditions
{{Parks and squares in Toronto Beaches of Toronto Parks in Toronto

History

Cherry Beach Sports Fields

In popular culture

See also

References

External links