Gerrard Street, Toronto
| Gerrard Street Bridge | |
|---|---|
| Carries | 4 lanes vehicular traffic including double streetcar tracks and pedestrian sidewalk on north and south sides |
| Crosses | Don River |
| Maintained by | Toronto Transportation Services, Toronto Transit Commission |
| Characteristics | |
| Material | Steel and concrete |
| Total length | ~430 feet (130 m) |
| No. of spans | 1 |
| Clearance below | Don River and Don Valley Parkway |
| History | |
| Construction start | 1922 |
| Construction end | 1923 |
| Opened | 1923 |
Gerrard Street is a street in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It consists of two separate parts, historically referred to as Lower Gerrard and Upper Gerrard. The former stretches between University Avenue and Coxwell Avenue for 6 km, across Old Toronto. The latter portion starts 300 m north of Lower Gerrard's eastern terminus and runs between Coxwell Avenue and Clonmore Drive, between Victoria Park Avenue and Warden Avenue, in Scarborough for another 4 km.
Gerrard Street travels through a few important districts and neighbourhoods of Toronto, most notably Discovery District and Gerrard India Bazaar, Toronto's prime South Asian ethnic enclave.
Gerrard is named for Samuel Gerrard (1767-1857), an Anglo-Irish businessman in Lower Canada and a personal friend of the Honourable John McGill, member of the Legislative Council of Upper Canada.
Upper Gerrard was originally a separate street called "Lake View Avenue", which was in the town of East Toronto. The name was changed after East Toronto was annexed by Toronto in 1908.
A short stretch of Gerrard Street West from Bay Street to LaPlante Avenue was referred to as Gerrard Village, a Bohemian-Greenwich Village like area emerged in late 19th Century to 1920s and disappeared towards the end of the 1960s. A few buildings from the former neighbourhood still exists, but the residents and remaining business no longer hold ties to the past.
People who lived or are associated to it included famous writers, artists:
As is typical in Toronto, the street is divided into East and West addresses at Yonge Street. Atypically, the West portion of the street is very short — only four blocks long. Its western terminus at University Avenue lies within the heart of Downtown Toronto's "Hospital Row", which consists of Toronto General Hospital, Mount Sinai Hospital, Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, Toronto Rehab, and The Hospital for Sick Children. The bulk of Gerrard Street is actually known as Gerrard Street East. Ryerson University is located on Gerrard Street East just east of Yonge Street. Further to the east, at Parliament Street, Gerrard Street separates Cabbagetown from Regent Park.
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