Ossington Avenue

Ossington Avenue is a main or arterial street in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, west of downtown. Constructed in 1800 as a segment of a military road, it became an arterial road. Today it is becoming a night-life district with numerous bars and restaurants.

Ossington Avenue is named after the ancestral Nottingham home of the Denison family (see Ossington), early land-owners in the Ossington area. John Denison's 'Brookfield House' used to stand at the northwest corner of Ossington and Queen Street. Area streets Brookfield Street, Denison Avenue, Dovercourt Road, Heydon Park Road and Rusholme Road are all attributed to the Denison family.

The first section of Ossington from Queen Street to Dundas Street was surveyed not long after the establishment of York in 1793. It was part of the original Dundas road, leading to London, Ontario. The final segment of the Dundas Road led from the Humber River to downtown Toronto via contemporary Dundas Street, the Ossington Strip, and Queen Street to Yonge, and was constructed by Asa Danforth. This section was developed as a mixed commercial and residential street beginning in the 1840s. The Ontario Provincial Lunatic Asylum was opened at the foot of Dundas and Queen Street in 1850. From the 1850s to around 1900, the area was a center of Toronto's meatpacking industry, with slaughterhouses and stockyards on the blocks and laneways just to the east.

By 1884, Ossington Avenue ran north from Dundas to Bloor and by 1906 was built as far as St. Clair, as can be seen in the 1906 Canada Atlas. The street north of Dundas was built after the burying of the Garrison Creek which crossed Ossington north of Dundas, and the creek's route can still be seen in a lower area of land between Dundas and College. In the 20th century, Dundas Street was extended east to downtown Toronto, and the section of Dundas north of Queen was renamed Ossington. The section north of Davenport was eventually renamed to Winona Drive, and the street currently ends at Davenport.

As Toronto expanded west and other retail facilities opened, the commercial section of Ossington south of Dundas became an area of industrial uses, including automotive repairs and storage facilities. By 2003, this area became known for crime and the known presence of Vietnamese criminal gangs and street drug peddlers. A double murder in a karaoke bar that year sparked neighbourhood action in concert with the police to cut down on crime.

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