Victoria Park Avenue

Victoria Park Avenue
;
	Victoria Park Avenue within Toronto
Maintained by	City of Toronto government, York Region
Location	Toronto; Markham
South end	Queen Street East; (In the City of Toronto)
Major; junctions	Kingston Road; Danforth Avenue; St. Clair Avenue; O'Connor Drive; Eglinton Avenue; Lawrence Avenue; Parkwoods Village Drive/Ellesmere Road; Sheppard Avenue; Finch Avenue; Steeles Avenue;
North end	Denison St ; (In the City of Markham)
	Nearby arterial roads in Toronto

Victoria Park Avenue is a major north-south route in eastern Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is the western border of Scarborough, separating it from Old Toronto, East York, and North York. The common nickname for it is VP or Vic Park.

History

Victoria Park is a narrow residential street as it climbs the western edge of the Scarborough Bluffs in the Beaches

Victoria Park Avenue at Victoria Village

Victoria Park Avenue was originally a pioneer road for settlement of Scarborough. Except for its very southernmost section (south of Bracken Avenue), the road once formed the boundary for the former township, borough, and city of Scarborough with the former municipalities of East York, North York, and the former city of Toronto. Road was also called. Scarborough-York Town Line.

The road took its name from the Victoria Park amusement park that operated south of Queen Street from 1878 until 1906.^[1]

Route description

Victoria Park Avenue begins as a two-lane residential street near Lake Ontario at Queen Street at the east end of The Beaches community. It takes a sharp jog west just before Bracken Avenue, and then continues in a straight line northward.

It remains a two-lane residential street past Bracken Avenue north to Gerrard Street, albeit one with a heavy traffic load; at Gerrard Street it becomes a four-lane major arterial road. It reduces to two lanes again from a point north of Danforth Avenue to Dawes Road, then returns to four lanes for rest of its length.^[2] North of Dawes it shifts from being a residential street to being a suburban arterial, with mostly stores and low rise apartment buildings along the rest of its length. North of McNicoll Avenue the route is a mixed commercial and light industrial street.

Victoria Park Avenue ends a short distance north of Steeles Avenue at Denison Street in Markham, Ontario.

Public transit

Victoria Park remains one of the busiest north-south streets in Scarborough, along with Markham Road and Kennedy Road. It is served by the Toronto subway at Victoria Park station.

Historically the first bus to service the street were private routes that operated along Dawes Road, and then north along Victoria Park. This route was taken over by the TTC in 1954, and offered service as far north as Victoria Park and Lawrence.^[3] The opening of Victoria Park subway station in 1968 led to the creation of the 24 Victoria Park, replacing the Dawes Road bus on Victoria Park. It first ran to Victoria Park and Old Sheppard Avenue, but has steadily been extended northwards. With the opening of Sheppard subway in 2002, the 224 Victoria Park North ran from Don Mills station into Markham. The 224 went back to the older alignment with the 24D Victoria Park branch in 2016, then was replaced by the 24 Woodbine bus operated by York Region Transit later in 2016.

Also beginning in 1968, the portion of Victoria Park south of Victoria Park station began to be served by the 12 Kingston Road bus. This bus travels south of the station until Kingston Road and then turns east along Kingston to travel into Scarborough. It stops at Bingham Loop to meet up with the termini of the 503 Kingston Rd.^[4]

Landmarks

Landmark	Cross street	Notes
R. C. Harris Water Treatment Plant	Queen St	Former site of Victoria Park amusement park
Neil McNeil Catholic Secondary School	Bracken Ave
Shoppers World Danforth	Danforth Ave	Former auto plant
Victoria Park subway station	Denton Ave
Dentonia Park	Denton Ave	Also has a golf course which along with Crescent Town were once part of Walter Massey’s Dentonia Park dairy farm that supplied milk to his City Dairy Company Limited.
Eglinton Square Shopping Centre	Eglinton Ave
Church of St. Jude (Wexford)	Sloane Ave
Senator O'Connor College School	Rowena Dr
Victoria Park Collegiate Institute	Cassandra Blvd
Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary Roman Catholic Church	Combermere Dr
Parkway Mall	Ellesmere Rd
St. Andrew Anglican Church	Terraview Blvd
Johnny's Charcoal Broiled Hamburgers	Sheppard Ave

External links

Victoria Park Avenue at Google Maps

References

^ Filey, Mike (2008). Toronto: The Way We Were. Dundurn Press. p. 44. ISBN 9781770703506.
^ Mutrie, Eric (2010-11-18). "Street Stories: Victoria Park Avenue". Spacing Toronto. Retrieved 2023-07-16.
^ Peter Coulman "23 Dawes" Transit Toronto.
^ Peter Coulman "12 Kingston Road" Transit Toronto.

[1] Filey, Mike (2008). Toronto: The Way We Were. Dundurn Press. p. 44. ISBN 9781770703506.

[2] Mutrie, Eric (2010-11-18). "Street Stories: Victoria Park Avenue". Spacing Toronto. Retrieved 2023-07-16.

[3] Peter Coulman "23 Dawes" Transit Toronto.

[4] Peter Coulman "12 Kingston Road" Transit Toronto.

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