Beaches of Toronto

Question

This piglix contains articles or sub-piglix about Beaches of Toronto

Answer 1

The Beaches

The Beaches

The Beaches (also known as "The Beach") is a neighbourhood in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is so named because of its four beaches situated on Lake Ontario. It is located east of downtown within the "Old" City of Toronto. The approximate boundaries of the neighbourhood are from Victoria Park Avenue on the east to Kingston Road on the north, to Coxwell Avenue on the west, south to Lake Ontario. The Beaches is part of the east-central district of Toronto.

The commercial district of Queen Street East lies at the heart of The Beaches community. It is characterized by a large number of independent speciality stores. The stores along Queen are known to change tenants quite often causing the streetscape to change from year to year, sometimes drastically. The side streets are mostly lined with semi-detached and large-scale Victorian, Edwardian and new-style houses. There are also low-rise apartment buildings and a few row-houses. Controversy has risen in recent years over new development in the neighbourhood that is changing the traditional aesthetic, with denser housing causing some residents to protect the traditional cottage-like appearance of the homes with heritage designations for some streets. There is an extensive park system along the Waterfront (with Kew Gardens being the only one that extends up to Queen Street) as well as a parks that follow a ravine (partially buried) that bisects the neighbourhood from North to South at Glen Manor Road. Kingston Road is a four-lane road along the northern section of the neighbourhood. Woodbine Avenue is a five-lane road originating from Lake Shore 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) to the east and Woodbine Park (a small peninsula in Lake Ontario) to the west. A long boardwalk runs along most of its length with a portion of the Martin Goodman Trail bike path running parallel. 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. Woodbine Beach and Kew-Balmy Beach are Blue Flag certified for cleanliness and are suitable for swimming.

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Answer 2

Cherry Beach

Cherry Beach

Cherry Beach is a lakeside beach park located at the foot of Cherry Street just south of Unwin Avenue in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is on Toronto's outer harbour just east of the Eastern Gap. It was once connected with Toronto Islands as part of the former peninsula before 1852 and later was referred to as Fisherman's Island.

It was originally named Clarke Beach Park after Harry Clarke, a Toronto alderman who was responsible for creating the park in the early 1930s. In 2003, the city changed it to Cherry Beach which is the local common name.

Despite its location at the tip of Toronto's formerly heavily industrial Port Lands area, Cherry Beach has still been a popular gathering place for years. There is no boardwalk or proper picnic area, and much of the surrounding areas is marshland or leftover grounds from what was once commercial industry and factory grounds. Recently the park has undergone improvements which includes a paved entranceway and a renovated washroom and swimming change room facilities.

For many years it was one of the few Toronto beaches that was clean enough for swimming, windsurfing and kitesurfing. It has change rooms for bathers and barbecue areas for picnickers. It also has an off-leash area for dog walkers. The Martin Goodman Trail passes through the park.

In summer, the beach water is generally calm and slightly warmer than other Toronto beaches along the lake shore, as its shallow water is sheltered by the Leslie Street Split from direct surges of the Lake Ontario, However, there are extensive growth of seaweeds underwater that degrades the swimming experience.

A wooded area by the beach has been turned into soccer fields, children's play structure and a metered parking area.

In 2006 a pair of soccer fields were completed on land that had formerly been part of the greenbelt, at 275 Unwin Avenue. The fields were surfaced in astroturf and built to FIFA standards, and games of the 2007 FIFA jr championship were to be played there. During the environmental assessment the site was found to be heavily contaminated by heavy metals, hydrocarbons and PCBs. The soccer field was described as a "transitional" facility, as most of the land on either side of Unwin was underutilized city land that could be repurposed to sport facilities even though it was contaminated.

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Answer 3

Hanlan's Point Beach

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Answer 4

HTO Park

HTO Park

HTO Park (stylized as H_TO) is an urban beach in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, that opened in 2007. It is located west of Harbourfront Centre, on Lake Ontario.

The park is built on quays that was once used by ships berthing in Toronto's Inner Harbour.

The park consists of two sections:

The two quays are concrete man made infill from the early 20th Century. The eastern portion was home to Maple Leaf Mills Silos until 1983. The western half was home to a smaller industrial business with a small office structure and tanks During the 1980s, a condo project was built on part of Maple Leaf Quay while the rest stood empty as a parking lot. The eastern portion lay empty in the 1980s and 1990s.

H_TO is a play on H
2O, the chemical formula for water, since "TO" is commonly used to refer to Toronto and it is a waterfront park.

H_TO Park was designed by Janet Rosenberg + Associates Landscape Architects, Claude Cormier Architectes Paysagistes Inc. and Hariri Pontarini Architects. The park incorporates elements of a park, beach, and golf course. The park's standout feature is a sandpit that holds Muskoka chairs and enormous fixed yellow metal umbrellas. The umbrellas were designed to evoke the Georges Seurat painting A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte. At night, the park knolls are illuminated by LED lights.

H_TO Park East is also home the Toronto Fire Services Station (Marine Unit) 334, Toronto EMS Station 36.

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Answer 5

Humber Bay Park

Humber Bay Park

Humber Bay Park is a waterfront park located in Etobicoke, part of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The park consists of two landspits situated at the mouth of Mimico Creek. The park is south of Lake Shore Boulevard West, near Park Lawn Road. Humber Bay Park East is 19 hectares (47 acres), while Humber Bay Park West is 120 hectares (300 acres).

The park maintains a recreational focus for residents and visitors established during the mid-19th century when a number of motels were built in the Humber Bay area. Watersports were enjoyed here during the summer and town council meetings were often held in the Humber Bay motels. Boat building was the earliest trade practiced in what would become the community of Humber Bay.

Humber Bay Park was developed by the former Metropolitan Toronto and Region Conservation Authority with 5.1 million cubic metres of lakefill, at a cost of $6.56 million. Lieutenant-Governor John Black Aird opened the park on June 11, 1984. Several habitat restoration projects have been initiated at Humber Bay Park, including the planting of Carolinian trees and shrubs, the establishment of wildflower meadows and the creation of a warm-water fish habitat and wetland on the east peninsula. The park is also a popular destination to view migrating birds.

The Eastern Gap Lighthouses were built in 1895 and located along waterway. The larger of two lighthouses is a four storey structure and the smaller two storey building. Removed in 1973 during the widening of the Eastern Gap, both the large and small lighthouses were relocated to Marine Terminal 51 and offered to the Etobicoke Yacht Club. They were relocated to Humber Bay Park in 1981 and restored for use by the Mimico Cruising Club in 1982.

The park has a number of amenities such as picnic tables, trails, and a beach front. There are fly casting and model boating ponds and a fully accessible fishing pier. The Humber Bay Park Boating Federation and historic old Eastern Gap Lighthouse (c. 1895) are located at Humber Bay West, along with public boat launch ramps and moorings. Humber Bay Park East is home to Toronto's memorial to the victims of the bombing of Air India Flight 182.

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Answer 6

Kew Beach

Kew Beach

Kew Gardens is a large park in The Beaches neighbourhood of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The park stretches from Queen Street East to Lake Ontario at Kew Beach.

The park began as a private 20.7-acre (8.4 ha) farm owned by Joseph Williams in the 1850s. As more visitors from the city began to visit the lake front he transformed his holdings into a tourist destination. He set up a large park and built several recreation facilities on the site beginning in 1879, naming it after Kew Gardens in London.

Williams built a substantial house for himself on the site, which still stands and is home to the park's caretaker. On the lakeshore Williams built facilities for swimming and boating. Inland there were picnic areas, trails, tennis courts and lawn bowling. A substantial clubhouse, as well as guest cottages were also constructed. Described by Williams as "A Place of Innocent Amusements," the park was much more genteel than others in the area with no noisy rides or liquor being served. It soon became a popular destination, easily reached from the city via the Queen streetcar.

The park was purchased by the City of Toronto in 1907 for $43,700 and turned into a municipal park. Over the years, the marshland in the south was filled in and the waterfront beach area was redeveloped. Most of the buildings were demolished, as the amusement industry shifted to the much larger Scarboro Beach Amusement Park nearby.

Today the park is one of the main public venues in the Beaches neighbourhood. It is home to a number of facilities including tennis courts, a baseball diamond, a wading pool, and in winter, a skating rink. A number of historic buildings survive, including Williams' cottage, the bandstand, and the Leuty Lifeguard Station. In the northeast corner of the park is the historic Beaches branch of the Toronto Public Library. A number of monuments and memorials are also now located in the park, including the Dr. William D. Young Memorial. It is also the main venue for the Beaches International Jazz Festival each summer.

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Answer 7

Marie Curtis Beach

Marie Curtis Park East Beach is the westernmost of the eleven beaches in Toronto, Ontario, and the one that is most frequently too polluted for swimming. The beach is part of Marie Curtis Park, on the east bank of Etobicoke Creek, Toronto's western boundary.

Unlike the Don River, Mimico Creek and Highland Creek, Etobicoke Creek's mouth has not been extended into the lake through spits of landfill.

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Answer 8

Sugar Beach

Sugar Beach

Sugar Beach is an urban beach park in Toronto, Canada, that opened in 2010. It is located across from Redpath Sugar Refinery in Toronto's eastern East Bayfront. Like HTO Park to the west, the beach is not meant to allow wading or swimming in Lake Ontario, but rather functions as a waterfront public space for relaxation, leisure, and social activities. It cost $14 million.

The park is designed by Claude Cormier + Associés Inc. It features a sandy beach with ornamental lighting, umbrellas, Muskoka chairs, rocky amphitheatre and candy trim, and pedestrian areas paved with granite setts in three colours arranged in a stylized maple leaf motif.

Since 2011, the beach has been the setting for the Toronto Port Authority's Sail-In Cinema event, with an inflatable movie screen mounted on a custom-built barge approximately 50 metres south of the beach.

The park is triangular-shaped and built next to Redpath Sugar's refinery at Lower Jarvis Street and Queens Quay—the park's name references the nearby sugar refinery. It shares space with the new home of Corus Entertainment on Corus Quay (formerly Jarvis Street Slip). The building and beach are separated by a paved area with benches and trees in Silva Cells that provide over 30 cubic meters of uncompacted soil to each tree. Corus Quay has large retractable doors that allow the building to host concerts and events at Sugar Beach. Prior to construction, the entire site was a parking lot for the Jarvis Street Slip and located across from The Guvernment night club.

A list of Toronto's other beaches and waterfront parks:

Coordinates: 43°38′35″N 79°22′03″W / 43.64304°N 79.36741°W / 43.64304; -79.36741

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Answer 9

Woodbine Beach

Woodbine Beach is the largest of the four beaches in the Beaches in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Located along Lake Shore Boulevard at the foot of Woodbine Avenue, it is next to Ashbridge's Bay and Kew-Balmy Beach. Woodbine beach is the westernmost beach in the Beaches, and the series of beaches extend east until the RC Harris Water Treatment Plant. The beach runs parallel to the boardwalk and the Martin Goodman Trail.

The area around Woodbine Beach was once a cottage community in a similar style to the communities on the Toronto Island, today it is a popular beach. Until Lake Shore Boulevard was extended to Woodbine Avenue in the 1950s, Woodbine Beach was not a bathing beach, but rather a wooded area known as 'The Cut'. Woodbine Beach and neighbouring Ashbridge's Bay are a popular place to visit to see the fireworks for Victoria Day. There are over 90 volleyball courts, and next to the beach is the Donald D. Summerville Outdoor Olympic Pool, an outdoor elevated Olympic-sized swimming pool, overlooking the beach. Construction for the pool started in 1961, and it was designed to add temporary scaffolding for the spectator seats in the event Toronto was to ever host the Olympics. The Martin Goodman Trail runs along the boardwalk.

Woodbine Beach and Kew-Balmy Beach are Blue Flag certified for cleanliness and are suitable for swimming., with this distinction being awarded to Woodbine since 2005. The beach is maintained by Toronto Parks, Forestry and Recreation. Since 1990, the quality of the water and sand has improved dramatically. The water quality at the beach is tested daily, and is clean to swim on most days, including after storms. In addition, the sand is machine groomed daily. Besides, the terrain is gentle to far offshore, and there is not much seaweed, which is ideal for swimming. However, water temperature can be highly unpredictable. While warm water can often be experienced from early July to early September, there can be prolonged periods where water temperature drops to around 10C, due to the upward swirl of chilly deep-lake water (thus unrelated to air temperature). Wild fluctuations from around 10C to above 20C can also occur within 24 hours.

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