Bay Street

Bay Street

Bay Street is a street in downtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is the centre of Toronto's financial district and is often used by metonymy to refer to Canada's financial industry just as Wall Street is used in the United States and The City in the United Kingdom. This is a rather recent development (1970's), as this position used to be held by St. James Street, in Montreal. Within the legal profession, the term Bay Street is also used colloquially to refer to the large, full-service business law firms of Toronto, particularly the top-tier law firms known as the Seven Sisters. The name of the street originated in 1797 from the fact that it connected (then) Lot Street (now Queen Street West) to a bay in Toronto Harbour.

The intersection of Bay and King Street is often seen as the centre of Canadian banking and finance. Four of Canada's five major banks have office towers at the intersection: the Bank of Montreal at First Canadian Place, Scotiabank at Scotia Plaza, CIBC at Commerce Court, and Toronto-Dominion Bank at the Toronto Dominion Centre. Historically, this was known as the "MINT Corner" (Montreal, Imperial, Nova Scotia, Toronto-Dominion) but since 1962 the Imperial Bank has been part of CIBC and the Bank of Nova Scotia has rebranded itself so this nickname is no longer widely used.

Another prominent intersection is the one nearest Yorkville at Bay and Bloor, the centre of an upscale and expensive shopping district.

Bay Street stretches from Queens Quay (Toronto Harbour) in the south to Davenport Road in the north. The original section of Bay Street ran only as far north as Queen Street West. Sections north of Queen Street were renamed Bay Street as several other streets were consolidated and several gaps filled in to create a new thoroughfare in the 1920s. The largest of these streets, Terauley Street, ran from Queen Street West to Grenville Street. At these two points, there is a curve in Bay Street.

Condominium development on Bay north of the financial district boomed during the 1990s attracting many who work there to live downtown, thereby avoiding the daily commute. The intersection of Bay and Bloor is the location of the Toronto Transit Commission's Bay subway station. Bay Street is served by the 6 Bay bus, one of the few downtown bus routes. The street was originally served by streetcars, however the opening of the north-south Yonge Subway in 1954 caused a number of parallel streetcar routes to be replaced by buses, including Bay.

References

* Wise, Leonard and Gould, Allan, "Toronto Street Names" (Toronto: Firefly Books, 2000) - ISBN 1552093867

External links

* [http://maps.google.ca/maps?f=d&hl=en&geocode=&saddr=Bay+St+%26+Queens+Quay+W+Toronto,+ON&daddr=Bay+St+%4043.659670,+-79.385360+to:Davenport+Rd+%26+Bay+St+Toronto,+ON&sll=43.664891,-79.381199&sspn=0.026077,0.058365&ie=UTF8&z=13&om=1 Bay Street] at Google Maps


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Нужна курсовая?

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Bay Street — Saltar a navegación, búsqueda Bay Street. La Bay Street es una calle localizada en Toronto, Ontario, Canadá. Se la considera el corazón financiero del país (al igual que se considera a Wall Street el corazón financiero de Estados U …   Wikipedia Español

  • Bay Street — Bay′ Street n. 1) can. a street in Toronto, Canada, on which many financial institutions are located 2) the financial interests of Toronto, the major financial center of Canada …   From formal English to slang

  • Bay Street — Bay Street, 1. a street in the financial district of Toronto, Canada. 2. Figurative. the financial interests or financiers of Canada …   Useful english dictionary

  • Bay Street — Straßenschild an der Bay Street Die Kreuzung von Bay Street und King Street ist das Z …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Bay Street — 43° 39′ 26″ N 79° 23′ 03″ W / 43.657291, 79.384302 …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Bay Street — 1.The street in Toronto where the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSE) is located. 2. The collective name for the financial institutions in Toronto including stock exchanges, banks, commodity markets, money markets, etc. Bay Street is the Canadian… …   Investment dictionary

  • Bay Street (Hamilton, Ontario) — Bay Street is a Lower City arterial road in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. It starts at Aberdeen Avenue, as a collector road with only two lanes, then eventually becomes a six lane thoroughfare at its peak. Bay Street also passes through Downtown… …   Wikipedia

  • Bay Street (entertainment complex) — Bay Street is a hotel and shopping/entertainment complex in St. Julian s, Malta.Bay Street was constructed on November 25, 2000 as part of a Lm30million investment for the Paceville area. [cite news|url=http://business line.com/business… …   Wikipedia

  • Bay Street (disambiguation) — Bay Street may refer to:*Bay Street, Toronto, Ontario, Canada *Bay Street (entertainment complex), a shopping and entertainment centre in St. Julian s, Malta *International Plaza and Bay Street, a shopping mall in Tampa, Florida, USA *Bay Street… …   Wikipedia

  • Bay Street (Victoria) — Bay Street is an east west arterial road in Victoria, British Columbia. On the east side the road starts at Richmond Rd. in front of the Royal Jubilee Hospital and on the west side at Catherine St. The Point Ellice Bridge is the bridge that Bay… …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”