Our Neighbourhood

Urbanist, writer and activist Jane Jacobs once said that if you want to know how the world around you works, "you've got to get out and walk." Walking is the best way to see and experience West Queen West, the 2 kilometer strip of Queen Street that runs from Bathurst Street in the east to Gladstone Avenue in the west.

Queen Street is one of Toronto's oldest, longest, and most varied routes acting as the hub to many different neighbourhoods. The area has been known by various names throughout its history and in 1851 was finally given its present incarnation as Queen Street after Queen Victoria.

The history of our neighbourhood history starts in 1793 when it became the first concession base in a series of future concession roads. In Upper and Lower Canada, concession roads were laid out by the colonial government through undeveloped land to define lots. Concession roads are straight, and follow an approximately square grid, usually oriented to a local lakeshore and Queen was one of the main lines which are at intervals of two kilometres which also include major streets: Bloor, St Clair, Eglinton, Lawrence, and beyond.

A local commentator noted in 1884:

"There is a continuous line of houses and stores from the centre of Toronto, along Queen to the main street of Parkdale ... furnished with stores and hotels on a scale equal to that of the best streets in the city."

Queen Street West runs through the very heart of the city, and is filled with art galleries, boutique stores and unique antique finds brimming from store doors.

Queen Street was the cartographical baseline for the original east-west avenues of Toronto's grid pattern of major streets. The western end of Queen (sometimes simply referred to as "Queen West") is now best known as a centre for Canadian broadcasting, music, performance, fashion, and the visual arts. Over the past twenty-five years, Queen West has become an international arts centre, and a major tourist attraction in Toronto.

One of the reasons it has become such an artistic mecca was due to the increased rent in the neiboring areas that drove the artistic community further west in the 1990s. Today Queen Street West is an animated mixed-use corridor that functions as a local and regional destination drawing people from the residential neighbourhoods nearby to the outskirts of the city of Toronto.

The history of the street, and its place in the collective memory continues to be enhanced by the presence of a vibrant retail and entertainment scene, and the multiple events and venues that make Queen Street West their home.

CLICK HERE for Video Map of West Queen West