Bathurst Street

Bathurst Street is a north-south street in Toronto and York Region, Ontario, Canada. In York Region, it is also known as York Regional Road 38.

Bathurst Street begins in the south at the shore of Lake Ontario. Just to the south of it is the Toronto City Centre Airport; a controversial plan to build a bridge extending Bathurst Street to the airport was scrapped by city council following the 2003 municipal elections, as many special interest groups (led by newly elected Mayor David Miller) believed that land link to airport will affect waterfront revitalization. The southernmost part of Bathurst, south of the Gardiner Expressway, was heavily industrialized until the 1970s. These factories are mostly gone; in their place some residential development has occurred, including the extended Queen's Quay. The Omni Television headquarters are located in this area.

North of the Gardiner is Fort York and the beginning of a mix of small commercial and residential buildings on the western fringe of downtown. North of Queen Street, the eastern side of Bathurst is the edge of the Alexandria Park cluster of housing projects, while to the west is Portugal Village. North of Dundas Street, Bathurst is dominated by Toronto Western Hospital. This part of the street continues to be a mix of small commercial establishments and residential housing, generally in the form of rental apartments.

North of College Street, Bathurst becomes more residential, with the exception of certain areas, chiefly around the intersections with Bloor Street, St. Clair Avenue, and Eglinton Avenue. The portion of Bathurst Street north of Bloor Street is the western boundary of The Annex neighbourhood.

Bathurst Street has finished in the top 10 in CAA's Ontario's Worst Roads poll in every year from 2004 to 2007. [cite web
url = http://www.worstroads.ca/inc/db2file.asp?fileid=4
title = Ontario's worst municipal roads – top 20
publisher = Canadian Automobile Association
format = PDF
year = 2007
accessdate = 2007-12-26] [cite web
url = http://www.worstroads.ca/rankings/roadfinal.asp
title = Top 20 Worst Municipal Roads in Ontario for 2007
publisher = Canadian Automobile Association
year = 2007
accessdate = 2007-12-26]

History

The street was named for Henry Bathurst, 3rd Earl Bathurst, who organized migration from the British Isles to Canada after the War of 1812, granted the charter to King's College, and never visited Canada himself.cite book
url = http://www.fireflybooks.com/books/3867F.html
title = Toronto Street Names
author = Allan Gould and Leonard Wise
publisher = Firefly Books
month = September | year = 2000
accessdate = 2007-12-26]

The original Bathurst Street was between Government Wharf and Queen Street, and the section to the north was called Crookshank's Lane, a semi-private lane named after George Crookshank. In 1870, Crookshank's Lane was renamed to Bathurst Street. North of Bloor, Bathurst Street was a muddy trail.

Jewish community

Bathurst Street has been the heart of the Jewish community in Toronto for many decades. From the early part of the twentieth century, many Jews lived around Bathurst Street south of Bloor Street east to Spadina Avenue (and particularly Kensington Market) and west to past Christie Pits. After World War II, as the community became more middle class, it moved north along Bathurst Street, with wealthier members of the community moving to Forest Hill. The poorer members moved to the area around Bathurst and St. Clair Avenue or Bathurst and Eglinton Avenue.

The community continued to move north along Bathurst and today, much of the Jewish community resides along the street from north of St. Clair Avenue and, in higher concentrations just south of Lawrence Avenue to beyond the city limits at Steeles Avenue, and extending further until about Elgin Mills Road in Richmond Hill. Many synagogues are located on Bathurst, as well as many other Jewish community institutions:

* Bathurst Jewish Community Centre
* B'nai Brith Canada
* Castilla Synagogue
* Holy Blossom Temple
* Koffler Centre of the Arts
* Holocaust Education and Memorial Centre of Toronto
* Leah Posluns Theatre
* National Council of Jewish Women
* Beth Tzedec Memorial Park
* Pride Of Israel synagogue
* Just off of Bathurst is Beth Avraham Yoseph of TorontoNorthern stretch of Bathurst (North of Sheppard ave. West) became one of centers of Russophone community in Toronto. Russophone Jewish immigrants started to settle in apartment buildings there (numerous around Bathurst/Sheppard intersection, as well as along stretch of the Bathurst between Finch Ave. West and Steeles Ave. West) starting from early 1970s in order to get easier access to services provided by Jewish Immigrant Aid society. Following breakup of the Soviet Union significant number of Russophone (of various ethnic origin) immigrants to Canada settled there. Electoral district of York Centre (which includes Bathurst from Wilson Ave. West to Steeles Ave. West) has the biggest number of Russophone voters in Canada. Numerous Russian delis, restaurants and book and clothing stores earned unofficial "Little Moscow" moniker for the Bathurst/Steeles intersection.

Public transit

Bathurst Station is a TTC subway station located at Bathurst Street and Bloor Street. The 511 Bathurst streetcar runs from Bloor to Fleet Street, where it turns to connect to Exhibition Place. The short section of Bathurst south from Fleet Street to Queen's Quay is used by the mainly east-west 509 Harbourfront streetcar.

North of Bathurst Station, public transit is provided by the bus routes 7 Bathurst up to Steeles Avenue, and 160 Bathurst North up to New Westminster Drive and Atkinson Avenue. During overnight hours when the subway is closed, the bus route 310 Bathurst Blue Night covers the Bathurst streetcar route.

Although not used in normal service, the streetcar tracks also continue along Bathurst (the southbound track briefly using Vaughan Road) as far as St. Clair Avenue to connect the TTC's Hillcrest Complex and the 512 St. Clair streetcar to the rest of the streetcar network.

Notable attractions

The most notable attraction on Bathurst Street is the legendary bargain goods emporium Honest Ed's, located at Bloor Street. Other attractions along Bathurst include:
* TTC's Hillcrest Complex
* Lawrence Plaza
* Cedarvale Park
* Baycrest Geriatric Centre
* Cineforum
* Lawrence Manor
* Bathurst Street Bridge
* Little Norway Park
* Toronto Western Hospital
* Airport Ferry Docks
* Earl Bales Park
* Holocaust Memorial
* Raoul Wallenberg Road
* Esther Shiner Stadium
* The Promenade Shopping Centre
* Bathurst Bowlerama
* Bathurst Street Theatre
* College Street United Church
* Central Technical School
* St. Michael's College School

References

External links

* [http://maps.google.ca/maps?f=d&hl=en&geocode=&saddr=Bathurst+St+%4043.633830,+-79.397570&daddr=Bathurst+St+%4043.709970,+-79.427550+to:bathurst+and+steeles&sll=43.684508,-79.406433&sspn=0.104276,0.233459&ie=UTF8&z=11&om=1 Bathurst Street] at Google Maps