Westminster-Branson is a neighbourhood in the city 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 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 in the northernmost part of the city within the area of North York. Branson is located along

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 ...

, west of Bathurst Street and east of the west branch of the

Don River The Don ( rus, Дон, p=don) is the fifth-longest river in Europe. Flowing from Central Russia to the Sea of Azov in Southern Russia, it is one of Russia's largest rivers and played an important role for traders from the Byzantine Empire. Its ...

. Westminster is located just to the north, across the Westminster Cemetery. It is also known as Fisherville, after the former town on the site. It stretches north to

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

, and the northern border of Toronto. The neighbourhood is home to

North York General Hospital North York General Hospital (NYGH) is a teaching hospital in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Primarily serving the North York district, as well as southern York Region, it offers acute care, ambulatory and long-term services at multiple sites. It is one ...

- Branson Site.

Demographic

This area is overwhelmingly populated by the

Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...

-speaking and, to a lesser extent,

Ukrainian Ukrainian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Ukraine * Something relating to Ukrainians, an East Slavic people from Eastern Europe * Something relating to demographics of Ukraine in terms of demography and population of Ukraine * So ...

-speaking segments of Toronto, especially immigrants from the former Soviet Union's Jewish minority, many of whom immigrated to Canada by way of Israel. The dominant ethnicities of the area are

Jew Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""T ...

ish,

, and

Filipino Filipino may refer to: * Something from or related to the Philippines ** Filipino language, standardized variety of 'Tagalog', the national language and one of the official languages of the Philippines. ** Filipinos, people who are citizens of th ...

Education

One

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 ...

operates schools in the neighbourhood, 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). The TDSB operates one elementary school: Rockford Public School. The school board also operates one secondary school,

Northview Heights Secondary School Northview Heights Secondary School (also known as Northview Heights SS, NHSS, Northview Secondary or Northview); originally known as Northview Heights Collegiate Institute is a secondary school for grades 9 to 12 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It i ...

. In addition to TDSB, there are also three other public school boards that operate in the City of Toronto that also offer schooling to residents of the neighbourhood. They include the 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 ...

(CSV), and two separate school boards, the

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 ...

(CSCM), and the

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). CSCM, CSV, and TCDSB do not operate a school in Westminster–Branson, with their students attending schools situated in other neighbourhoods in Toronto.

Recreation

G Ross Lord Park - Toronto, Canada - panoramio

Esther Shiner Stadium Esther Shiner Stadium is a multi-purpose outdoor sports facility in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is located in the former city of North York, on the north-west corner of Bathurst Street and Finch Avenue West. Its capacity is 3,00and is currently ...

is a multi-purpose outdoor sports facility situated in the neighbourhood. Located behind Northview Heights Secondary School, it is managed by the

City of Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most pop ...

. The stadium is used by the secondary school and several recreational clubs based in the neighbourhood. 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 ...

also maintains a branch, Centennial, in the neighbourhood. The neighbourhood is home to a number of municipal parks, including G. Ross Lord Park, the Finch Avenue Hydro Corridor, and the West Don Parklands. Parks such as G. Ross Lord Park and West Don Parklands form a part of the

Toronto ravine system The Toronto ravine system is a distinctive feature of the city's geography, consisting of a network of deep ravines, which forms a large urban forest that runs through most of Toronto. The ravine system is the largest in any city in the world, w ...

. Municipal parks in Westminster–Branson 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 ...

Transport

Westminster-Branson has three major arterial roadways running through the neighbourhood. Bathurst Street runs north-south, with Steeles Avenue and Finch Avenue as east-west thoroughfares. 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 larges ...

provides local and express services to this neighbourhood.

References

External links

Westminster-Branson
neighbourhood profile at Toronto.ca {{DEFAULTSORT:Westminster-Branson Neighbourhoods in Toronto North York Jewish communities in Canada