Ledbury Park is a neighbourhood 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 anch ...

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 C ...

, Canada. It is located in the southern part of the North York area, just across the border from

Midtown Toronto Midtown is one of four central business districts outside the city's downtown core of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Located in the north of Old Toronto, its borders are roughly defined by St. Clair Avenue to the south and Eglinton Avenue or Lawr ...

. Its boundaries are

Avenue Road Avenue Road is a major north–south street in Toronto, Ontario. The road is a continuation of University Avenue, linked to it via Queen's Park and Queen's Park Crescent East and West to form a single through route.''Toronto Pocket Street Atla ...

to the east, Lawrence Avenue to the south, Bathurst Street to the West, and

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 Rodr ...

and

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 provinc ...

to the north. The western boundary of Ledbury Park along Bathurst Street is a predominantly Jewish neighbourhood as many moved from downtown Toronto after

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

History

The area was settled by farmers in the 19th century. In 1918, most of the land was owned by real estate developers, who began to sell lots on the site. Lawyer-developer and President of Melrose Realty Company Herbert Abraham Clark (and Melrose co-founder Sir

William Mulock Sir William Mulock (January 19, 1843 – October 1, 1944) was a Canadian lawyer, businessman, educator, farmer, politician, judge, and philanthropist. He served as vice-chancellor of the University of Toronto from 1881 to 1900, negotiating th ...

) named a number of the new streets, such as Marmion, Deloraine, Melrose and Falkirk, after the works of

Sir Walter Scott Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet (15 August 1771 – 21 September 1832), was a Scottish novelist, poet, playwright and historian. Many of his works remain classics of European and Scottish literature, notably the novels '' Ivanhoe'', '' Rob Roy' ...

. It was not until after the Second World War that most of the area was developed. The area was filled with small post-war bungalows and became a middle-class suburban area with easy access to Highway 401. The character of the neighbourhood began to change rapidly beginning in the 1990s. Ledbury Park is adjacent to Lawrence Park, one of Toronto's more upscale neighbourhoods. Ledbury Park began to be redeveloped in its image, as many of the 1950s bungalows were demolished and replaced with much larger based structures."Ledbury Park just went upscale: Replacing bungalows with mini-mansions has changed the complexion of an old North York neighbourhood." Desmond Brown. ''National Post.'' Sep 20, 2000. pg. A.23

Education

Two

public In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociological concept of the ''Öffentlichk ...

school board A board of education, school committee or school board is the board of directors or board of trustees of a school, local school district or an equivalent institution. The elected council determines the educational policy in a small regional are ...

s operate primary education institutions in Ledbury Park, the separate

Toronto Catholic District School Board The Toronto Catholic District School Board (TCDSB, known as English-language Separate District School Board No. 40 prior to 1999) is an English-language public-separate school board for Toronto, Ontario, Canada, headquartered in North York. I ...

(TCDSB), and the

secular Secularity, also the secular or secularness (from Latin ''saeculum'', "worldly" or "of a generation"), is the state of being unrelated or neutral in regards to religion. Anything that does not have an explicit reference to religion, either negativ ...

Toronto District School Board The Toronto District School Board (TDSB), formerly known as English-language Public District School Board No. 12 prior to 1999, is the English-language public-secular school board for Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The minority public-secular franc ...

(TDSB). TCDSB operates St. Margaret Catholic School, whereas TDSB operates Ledbury Park Elementary and Middle School. Neither school board operates a secondary school in the neighbourhood, with TCDSB and TDSB secondary school students residing in Ledbury Park attending institutions in adjacent neighbourhoods. The French

first language A first language, native tongue, native language, mother tongue or L1 is the first language or dialect that a person has been exposed to from birth or within the critical period. In some countries, the term ''native language'' or ''mother tongu ...

public secular school board,

Conseil scolaire Viamonde The Conseil scolaire Viamonde (CSV) is a public-secular French first language school board, and manages elementary and secondary schools in the Ontario Peninsula and the Greater Golden Horseshoe. The school board operates 41 elementary schools an ...

, and it separate counterpart,

Conseil scolaire catholique MonAvenir Conseil scolaire catholique MonAvenir ( en, My Future Catholic School Board) is a Roman Catholic French first language public- separate school board that manages elementary and secondary schools in the Greater Golden Horseshoe. The school board op ...

also offer schooling to applicable residents of Ledbury Park, although they do not operate a school in the neighbourhood. CSCM and CSV students attend schools situated in other neighbourhoods in Toronto.

Recreation

Several municipal parks are located in Ledbury Park including Bathurst-Wilson Parkette, Bedford Parkette, Brookdale Park, Grey Parkette, Ledbury Park, Old Orchard Park, and Woburn Park. Ledbury Park contains a skating rink in winter and a swimming pool in the summer. Municipal parks in the neighbourhood are managed by the

Toronto Parks, Forestry and Recreation Division Toronto Parks, Forestry & Recreation (PFR) is the division of Toronto's municipal government responsible for maintaining the municipal park system and natural spaces, regulation of and provision of urban forestry services, and the delivery of rec ...

. The division also manages one community centre in the northeast of the neighbourhood, Armour Heights Community Centre. The Armour Heights branch of the

Toronto Public Library Toronto Public Library (TPL) (french: Bibliothèque publique de Toronto) is a public library system in Toronto, Ontario. It is the largest public library system in Canada, and in 2008 had averaged a higher circulation per capita than any other pub ...

is also situated in the neighbourhood, next to the community centre.

Transportation

The neighbourhood is bounded by several major roadways,

to the east, Lawrence Avenue to the south, and Bathurst Street to the west. Portions of

, a

controlled access highway A controlled-access highway is a type of highway that has been designed for high-speed vehicular traffic, with all traffic flow—ingress and egress—regulated. Common English terms are freeway, motorway and expressway. Other similar terms i ...

, passes through the northwest portion of the neighbourhood.

Public transportation Public transport (also known as public transportation, public transit, mass transit, or simply transit) is a system of transport for passengers by group travel systems available for use by the general public unlike private transport, typical ...

is provided by several

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 larges ...

bus routes A bus (contracted from omnibus, with variants multibus, motorbus, autobus, etc.) is a road vehicle that carries significantly more passengers than an average car or van. It is most commonly used in public transport, but is also in use for cha ...

References

{{authority control Neighbourhoods in Toronto Jewish communities in Canada