The Beaches
The Beaches (also known as "The Beach") is a neighbourhood and popular tourist destination located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is located on the east side of the "Old" City of Toronto. The boundaries of the neighbourhood are from Victoria Park to the east to Kingston Road on the north, Eastern Avenue to Leslie on the west, south to the lakeshore of Lake Ontario. The Beaches is part of the east-central district of Toronto.
The commercial district of Queen Street East lie at the heart of The Beaches community. It is characterized by a large number of independent speciality stores. The side streets are mostly lined with semis and large-scale Victorian, Edwardian and new-style houses. There are also low-rise apartment buildings and a few row-houses. There are several parks just a few steps south. Kingston Road is a four-lane road along the northern section of the neighbourhood travelling with residences on either side. Woodbine Avenue is a four-lane road originating from Lakeshore Boulevard at the Lake Ontario shoreline, running north. It is primarily residential.
The beach itself is a single uninterrupted stretch of sandy shoreline bounded by the R. C. Harris Water Treatment Plant (locally known as the water works)[citation needed] to the east and Woodbine park (a small peninsula in Lake Ontario) to the west. A long boardwalk runs along most of its length. Although it is continuous, there are four names which correspond each to approximately one quarter of the length of the beach (from east to west): Balmy Beach, Scarboro Beach, Kew Beach and Woodbine Beach.
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Location
The neighbourhood is located to the East of Toronto's downtown, from Coxwell east to Victoria Park. The lakefront is divided into two sections; Woodbine Beach to the west, Kew Beach in the centre, and Balmy Beach to the east. It is these beaches which give the neighbourhood its name and defining principal characteristic. Until Lake Shore Boulevard was extended to Woodbine Avenue in the 1950s, Woodbine Beach was not a bathing beach, but rather a desolate wooded area known as The Cut. And Woodbine Avenue was the western boundary of the neighbourhood. While the official City northern boundary ends at Kingston Road, the area to the north has become known as the Upper Beaches. The area bounded by Queen Street, Woodbine and Kingston Road is nicknamed the Beach Triangle.
Local News Media, Community Websites
Streetcars heading to and from downtown Toronto run east-west along Queen Street East (route 501) as well as along Kingston Road (routes 502and 503) and Gerrard Street East (route 506), and a bus line runs north-south along Woodbine Avenue to Woodbine subway station (route 92). Another north-south bus line snakes its way along several side streets before making its way to the Main Street subway station (route 64). A third bus line runs north-south down Coxwell Avenue from Coxwell subway station and then turns east travelling the entire length of Kingston Road as far as Victoria Park Avenue (only from 7PM-5AM on weekday evenings, and 24hrs on weekends) (route 22A).
Attractions
A notable site in the area is the R. C. Harris Water Treatment Plant, which has been featured in several television programs, as well as in the films "Half Baked", "In the Mouth of Madness", "Four Brothers" and "Undercover Brother", and in Michael Ondaatje's novel In the Skin of a Lion. In the 1920s, the neighbourhood was the site of an amusement park, located at the end of today's Scarboro Beach Boulevard. Kew Gardens is a medium-sized park in the neighbourhood running from Queen Street to Lake Ontario, and includes a bandstand for concerts. Every July, the neighbourhood celebrates the Beaches International Jazz Festival, drawing thousands of tourists to the area.
If you cannot find what you are looking for please visit the Find Your Dream Home section and tell us exactly what type of real estate you are looking for. Homes that match your criteria will be sent to you promptly.
The Beaches neighbourhood profile
Profiles for this neighbourhood (2006):
Profiles for this neighbourhood (2001):
Local News Media, Community Websites
The Beaches community is served by several locally distributed newspapers including Beach Metro Community News and the Beach-Riverdale Mirror.
There are several websites dedicated to the Beaches community, including The Best Of The Beach Online and Beaches Living Magazine. The Upper Beaches is served by the Woodbine and Gerrard web site.
The Business Association that represents the Beaches: Beaches BIA
Grew up in the neighbourhood
- Academy-award winning director Norman Jewison
- Sports magnate Jack Kent Cooke
- World-renowned concert pianist Glenn Gould
- Author Robert Fulford
- Actor/singer Miley Cyrus, while her father was in town for four years filming Doc
Current residents
- Author Peter Robinson
- Actor Jamie Johnston
- Songwriter Dan Hill
- Columnist Margaret Wente
Attended area high schools
- Comedian John Candy - Neil McNeil Catholic Secondary School
- Actor Keanu Reeves
- Actor Kiefer Sutherland - Malvern Collegiate Institute
- Actor Donald Sutherland
- Television host Alex Trebek - Malvern Collegiate Institute
- Soprano Teresa Stratas
