Toronto Real Estate with the Julie Kinnear Team

North Toronto Real Estate

Top rated entertainment & sights »

(1) Wanless Park

Big expansive recreational sport park with baseball, tennis and basketball court. Toddlers summerr pool. Downside - noisy almost all the time.

(1) Sporting Life

Great high end sporting goods and clothing store. Large inventory, lots to choose from - great shoe and hard goods section, trendy ski/running outfits... have their own parking lot, although busy. Also at Sherway Gardens, and Bikes and Boards on Yonge...

SEE BELOW FOR UP-TO-DATE NEIGHBOURHOOD PRICE AND SALES STATS
AND FOR RESTAURANT REVIEW ENTRY FORM.

The town of NORTH TORONTO was incorporated in 1890 as the result of an amalgamation between Davisville Village, Eglinton Village and Bedford Park Village. Despite the amalgamation, the old neighbourhood names remain in common use to distinguish the various pockets. When the Mega City was formed in 1998 the North Toronto neighbourhood became a central location within the new city boundaries, yet its identity endures. It is especially popular with families with young children. It has an excellent selection of public,private and separate schools, many parkettes and playgrounds, a community centre, a library, and convenient access to Toronto's transit system.

Bedford Park Toronto sign

BEDFORD PARK began as a farming hamlet centred around the crossroads of Yonge Street and Lawrence Avenue. It is likely that Bedford Park is named after the Bedford Park Hotel which opened in 1873 at the south west corner of Yonge Street and Fairlawn Avenue.

Bedford Park Toronto house 2

Bedford Park has a good mix of detached and homes and semis. The original housing stock was built between 1890 and 1940. However, many of the bungalows in the neighbourhood have been torn down and replaced with custom designed houses. The award winning Bedford Glen development on Sylvan Valley Way, is a pretty collection of low-rise terraced condominium apartments and townhouses in a private ravine setting.

Bedford Park Toronto house 4

Yonge Lawrence Village is a family oriented shopping district with a good cross-section of stores. It also features a good selection of coffee shops, bakeries and restaurants. The Avenue Road shopping district, north of Lawrence, has a diverse mix of shops and restaurants including national chain stores, home decorating stores, fast food restaurants, gift stores and gourmet food shops.

Bedord Park Toronto house 5

The Eglinton Way along Eglinton Avenue West, from Oriole Parkway to Chaplin Crescent includes a myriad of beautiful shops, restaurants serving food from around the world and all services needed for personal care, fashion, and the household. Residents celebrate the Spring Fair in June and the Harvest Festival in September.

LYTTON PARK, now known as Lawrence Park South, is an enclave filling a partly hidden valley around Strathallan Boulevard; the lawn bowling and tennis courts provide a neighbourhood focus. Here the detached Georgian houses sit on generously sized lots with large trees that provide wonderful shade in summer and a winter wonderland when the snow comes. Part of the area's appeal is its proximity to posh schools and amenities like the Granite club and Sherwood Park, which lies just south of the area.

Known as Waverley Park until 1931, the actual building of homes in the WANLESS PARK district, boundaried by Lawrence to the south, Ronan to the west and the Riverview Drive Ravine to the east, was stalled initially by World War I and then by the Great Depression. In 1931 the City of Toronto expropriated the properties in the centre of Waverley Park for the creation of a public park. The Park itself, and the streets in the community are all named after John Wanless, a former Toronto alderman and educator. The area formed by the former Teddington Park and Wanless Park, now known as Lawrence Park North, is one of the city's most exclusive districts, drawing discerning homeowners with such amenities as the Rosedule Golf Club.

Wanless Park's solid brick detached houses were built mostly in the 1930's and 1940's. Most of the houses are two storey, with a sprinkling of bungalows as well. Overall the property sizes in Wanless Park are very good, with most homes having at least a thirty foot frontage and either a mutual or private driveway, and being constructed in the Tudor and Gothic styles turning to Geordian and Victorian closer to Yonge. The majority of Wanless Park houses either face the park or back onto the Riverview Drive ravine.

Wanless Avenue street sign

The neighbourhood's main attraction is Wanless Park, an island of green space right in the centre of the neighbourhood. This social and recreational hub has five floodlit tennis courts, a basketball court, a baseball diamond, a tots' playground and a wading pool. The award-winning Wanless Park Community Tennis Club offers lessons, certified instruction, social events, clubs, teams, and tournaments for adults and juniors.

Wanless Park - the park

Wanless Park is close to the Bedford Park Community Centre, which is located at the Bedford Park Public School and includes a gym and an indoor pool. Wanless Park residents enjoy the convenience of being able to walk to all the local amenities including the school and community centre, the George Locke Public Library, and the hundreds of stores, restaurants and professional/medical services along Yonge Street. Many of the area stores cater to families with young children, reflecting the demographics of the surroundingneighbourhood.

Wanless Park hobbit house

The Woburn Parkette, west of Yonge street, is a popular destination point for neighbourhood parents with toddlers and preschoolers. It features a tots' playground and a wading pool. A few blocks north of the Woburn Parkette is The Fairlawn Neighbourhood Centre, which operates out of the Fairlawn Heights United Church and includes seasonal programming for residents of all ages.

Wanless Park house 1

Further south, the North Toronto Community Centre on Eglinton Avenue just east of Avenue Road is another popular destination for fitness enthusiasts, as is Sherwood Park which has a lovely walking path highlighted by some of the oldest and largest trees in the city.

Wanless Park house 2

The Lawrence subway station, a stop on the Yonge-University-Spadina subway line, is within walking distance of this neighbourhood (just off Yonge Street). Bus routes on Mount Pleasant Road and on Lawrence Avenue also make connections to the Yonge subway line. There is also bus service on Yonge Street, as well as limited service on both Avenue Road, and Mount Pleasant Road. It is approximately twenty minutes by car to downtown Toronto. The Yonge Street on-ramp to Highway 401 is approximately five minutes fromhere.

Map of North Toronto - Click for Larger Version

Map of North Toronto