Trinity Bellwoods Park is a public park located 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, bordered by

Queen Street West Queen Street is a major east-west thoroughfare in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It extends from Roncesvalles Avenue and King Street in the west to Victoria Park Avenue in the east. Queen Street was the cartographic baseline for the original east ...

on the south and

Dundas Street Dundas Street is a major historic arterial road in Ontario, Canada. The road connects the city of Toronto with its western suburbs and several cities in southwestern Ontario. Three provincial highways— 2, 5, and 99—followed long section ...

on the north. The western boundary of the park is Crawford Street, several hundred feet before Crawford intersects with Dundas St. West, the park juts toward Shaw Street, westside of the Crawford Street Bridge. Most of the park's area lies in the original Garrison Creek ravine and this creek, now a buried city storm sewer, still flows beneath the park from the northwest to the southeast corners.

History

The old Garrison Creek emptied into

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at the site of

Fort York Fort York (french: Fort-York) is an early 19th-century military fortification in the Fort York neighbourhood of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The fort was used to house members of the British and Canadian militaries, and to defend the entrance of t ...

, and the land north and west of the fort was set aside as a military reserve. As the town of

York York is a cathedral city with Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. It is the historic county town of Yorkshire. The city has many historic buildings and other structures, such as a ...

grew around the fort, the military reserve was gradually sold off in lots to retiring

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officers and friends of the military command. Samuel Smith was granted of land in 1806, which he called Gore Vale after

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Francis Gore Francis Gore, (1769 – 3 November 1852) was an English military officer and British colonial administrator in Bermuda and Upper Canada. Gore was born in Blackheath, London, England in 1769 the son of Francis Gore and Caroline Beresford. ...

; "

vale A vale is a type of valley. Vale may also refer to: Places Georgia * Vale, Georgia, a town in the Samtskhe-Javakheti region Norway * Våle, a historic municipality Portugal * Vale (Santa Maria da Feira), a former civil parish in the municipa ...

" referred to Garrison Creek

ravine A ravine is a landform that is narrower than a canyon and is often the product of streambank erosion. When the park was first created (after 1900) it was referred to as Bellwoods Park in the 1903 Goad's Map with a nearby street named Bellwoods Avenue. The ''Bellwoods'' name is believed to be associated to former alderman William Bell, who served St. Stephen's Ward from 1881 to 1883 and again from 1888 to 1896. TrinBellwood

Much of the current parkland was originally purchased from Janet Cameron (sister of Lieutenant Colonel Duncan Cameron C.B. whom first lived here) of Gore Vale in 1851 by Scottish-Canadian

Bishop A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or office of bishop is ...

John Strachan, an influential

Anglican Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of t ...

cleric who wanted Toronto to have a private college with strong Anglican ties, partly in opposition to the recently secularized

University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution ...

. Buildings were soon constructed (Gothic Revival structure by architect Kivas Tully) and students began attending

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in 1852. After federation with the University of Toronto in 1904 and completion of the downtown Trinity campus in 1925, the school left this location. The original buildings were then sold to the City of Toronto and most were demolished in the early 1950s. The destruction of the Trinity buildings marked the beginning of two decades of extensive heritage destruction in Toronto. Of the college itself, only the stone gates now remain, at the Queen Street park entrance facing south on Strachan Avenue, although the former St. Hilda's College building from 1899, (the women's residence of Trinity College) still overlooks the northern half of the park on the western edge. It is now a seniors' residence, John Gibson House. The iron gates are replica with original now installed at

Trinity College School Trinity College School (TCS) is a co-educational, independent boarding and day school located in Port Hope, Ontario, Canada. TCS was founded on May 1, 1865, more than two years before Canadian Confederation. It includes a Senior School ...

entrance on Deblaquire Street North in

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. In the 1950s, Garrison Creek was entirely buried and the creek ravine backfilled around the Crawford Street Bridge with displaced soil from the new Bloor-Danforth subway line, raising the surface of the northern end of the park to almost the height of Dundas Street. The steep drop from this upper level to the lower part of the park has become a popular local

toboggan A toboggan is a simple sled traditionally used by children. It is also a traditional form of transport used by the Innu and Cree of northern Canada. In modern times, it is used on snow to carry one or more people (often children) down a hill ...

run in winter. The larger southern part of the 'bowl' is the largest designated dogs 'off-leash' park. Picnic tables are also provided here for summertime use and public washroom facilities. There is a historical plaque the commemorates the bridge buried under this stretch of Crawford, just south of Dundas West. In 2001, the Friends of Trinity Bellwoods Park was formed to coordinate volunteer activities and provide input to the city on park management. It is made up of volunteer community members

Features

The park is . It has a community recreation centre, managed and owned by the City of Toronto, called Trinity CRC, located at 155 Crawford Street on the west side of the park. It has two indoor pools, gymnasium, fitness centre, indoor walking/running track and multi-purpose rooms. Adjacent to the centre, in the park, are a volleyball court, large playground, and children's outdoor wading pool. Also in the park are eight outdoor tennis courts located in the south-east corner and an outdoor ice skating rink at the north-east boundary and volleyball court just north of the Rec Centre. There is also field space for soccer, football, and rugby, as well as three softball fields along the east boundary.

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 ...

maintain a marked Discovery Walk and shared pedestrian/cycling trail above and parallel to Garrison Creek, which runs through the park from the northwest to the southeast. Trinity Bellwoods is a favourite place for local residents to walk their dogs. The ravine, known as the dog bowl, is the designated leash-free area. The park is a destination for many to picnic, play sports, and enjoy nature. The park's baseball diamond is officially named SkyDome in reference to the popular former name of the

Rogers Centre Rogers Centre (originally SkyDome) is a multi-purpose retractable roof stadium in Downtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada, situated at the base of the CN Tower near the northern shore of Lake Ontario. Opened in 1989 on the former Railway Lands, ...

. The park is home to white squirrels, the subject of urban folklore in the city. The Toronto Special news magazine featured White Squirrel hunts in a past issue. The true albino squirrels have pink eyes. It is deemed good luck to have spotted one, or two. As there are families of them. The diverse variety of native and imported trees planted throughout the park, in various stages of growth from young to mature, provide a brilliant display of fall colour against the deep green grass. The Friends of Trinity Bellwoods Park run the volunteer Adopt-a-tree program (originated by the Friends) that helps insure the survival of newly planted trees. The emerald ash borer beetle is slowly infesting the trees and succession planting and Parks, Forestry and Recreation have been aggressively planting every year to replace the many that are designated to be cut down because of this beetle. In winter the night view of the Toronto

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rising above the ravine is extraordinarily beautiful, especially looking east from the Discovery Walk pathway near the western boundary. Tall black Victorian-style iron lamp poles along the main paths provide safe but soft illumination and a charming touch of character.

Events and activities

Trinity Bellwoods has been the site of many recent cultural events, including outdoor movie nights, an

anarchist bookfair An anarchist bookfair is an exhibition for anti-authoritarian literature often combined with anarchist social and cultural events. They have existed since at least 1983, beginning in London, and are held either annually or sporadically. Some ha ...

, live theatre,

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, and informal summer drumming circles. In June 2007 a weekly farmers' market opened in the northwest corner of the park, at Shaw and Dundas. In the northwest corner of the park there is a small reminder of the diverse

Latin American Latin Americans ( es, Latinoamericanos; pt, Latino-americanos; ) are the citizens of Latin American countries (or people with cultural, ancestral or national origins in Latin America). Latin American countries and their diasporas are multi-e ...

character of other nearby neighbourhoods: a bust of

Simón Bolívar Simón José Antonio de la Santísima Trinidad Bolívar y Palacios (24 July 1783 – 17 December 1830) was a Venezuelan military and political leader who led what are currently the countries of Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Peru, Panama and B ...

which was donated to the city. This is where the Trinity Bellwoods Farmers' Market is located. It was originally chosen as the site of the G20 protests on June 26–27, 2010, but Toronto Police announced that they would use the area north of Queen's Park instead after local residents opposed the use of Trinity Bellwoods Park as a protest site.

2021 clearing

In 2021, police cleared between 20 and 25 people who had been camping in the park. Notices had been posted to vacate, but after a

Covid-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. The disease quick ...

outbreak in a shelter hotel.

References in culture

Treble Charger Treble Charger is a Canadian rock band formed in 1992 in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, consisting of vocalist and guitarist Greig Nori, vocalist and guitarist Bill Priddle, bassist Rosie Martin and drummer Richard Mulligan. They began with a melodic ...

wrote a song called Trinity Bellwoods, which was on their debut album NC17. The 2010 film '' Scott Pilgrim vs. the World'' had a scene filmed here. Toronto-based artist organization Humble Empire created the "Live In Bellwoods" series of videos featuring acoustic performances by popular artists living in or visiting Toronto. Each video highlights a different area of the park. Dave Monks from Tokyo Police Club, Luke Lalonde from

Born Ruffians Born Ruffians are a Canadian indie rock band based in Toronto. Officially founded in 2004 in the Georgian Bay town of Midland, Ontario, the band is composed of frontman Luke Lalonde, bassist Mitch DeRosier, and drummer Steve Hamelin. During the ...

, and Chris White of Bellewoods were among the performers to be featured in the series.

References

External links

Friends of Trinity Bellwoods ParkTrinity Bellwoods Farmers Market
* ttp://www.QueenWestArtCrawl.com Queen West Art Crawl {{Parks and squares in Toronto Parks in Toronto