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 Victoria Park Avenue within Toronto | |||||||
| Maintained by | City of Toronto government,York Region | ||||||
| Location | Toronto Markham | ||||||
| South end | Queen Street in Toronto | ||||||
| Major junctions | |||||||
| North end | Denison Street in Markham | ||||||
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Victoria Park Avenue is a major north-south route in easternToronto, Ontario, Canada. It is the western border ofScarborough, separating it fromOld Toronto,East York, andNorth York. The common nickname for it is VP or Vic Park.
Victoria Park Avenue was originally a pioneer road for settlement of Scarborough. Except for its very southernmost section (south of Bracken Avenue), the road once formed the boundary for the formertownship,borough, and city of Scarborough with the former municipalities of East York, North York, and theformer city of Toronto.
The road took its name from theVictoria Park amusement park that operated south of Queen Street from 1878 until 1906.[1]
Victoria Park Avenue begins as a two-lane residential street near Lake Ontario atQueen Street at the east end ofthe Beaches community. It takes a sharp jog west just before Bracken Avenue and then continues in a straight line northward.
It remains a two-lane residential street past Bracken Avenue north toGerrard Street, albeit one with a heavy traffic load;[citation needed] at Gerrard Street it becomes a four-lane major arterial road. It reduces to two lanes again from a point north ofDanforth Avenue toDawes Road, then returns to four lanes for rest of its length.[2] North of Dawes, it shifts from being a residential street to being a suburban arterial, with mostly stores and low-rise apartment buildings along the rest of its length. North ofMcNicoll Avenue the route is a mixed commercial and light industrial street.
Victoria Park Avenue ends a short distance north ofSteeles Avenue at Denison Street inMarkham, Ontario.
Victoria Park remains one of the busiest north–south streets in Scarborough, along withMarkham Road andKennedy Road. It is served by the Toronto subway atVictoria Park station.[citation needed]
Historically, the first bus to service the street were private routes that operated along Dawes Road, and then north along Victoria Park. This route was taken over by the TTC in 1954 and offered service as far north as Victoria Park andLawrence.[3] The opening of Victoria Park subway station in 1968 led to the creation of the 24 Victoria Park, replacing the Dawes Road bus on Victoria Park. It first ran to Victoria Park and Old Sheppard Avenue but has steadily been extended northwards. With the opening ofSheppard subway in 2002, the 224 Victoria Park North ran fromDon Mills station into Markham. The 224 went back to the older alignment with the 24D Victoria Park branch in 2016, then was replaced by the 24 Woodbine bus operated byYork Region Transit later in 2016.
Also beginning in 1968, the portion of Victoria Park south of Victoria Park station began to be served by the 12 Kingston Road bus. This bus travels south of the station untilKingston Road and then turns east along Kingston to travel into Scarborough. It stops atBingham Loop to meet up with the termini of the503 Kingston Rd.[4]
| Landmark | Cross street | Notes | Image |
|---|---|---|---|
| R. C. Harris Water Treatment Plant | Queen St | Former site of Victoria Park amusement park |  |
| Neil McNeil Catholic Secondary School | Bracken Ave |  | |
| Shoppers World Danforth | Danforth Ave | Former auto plant |  |
| Victoria Park subway station | Denton Ave |  | |
| Dentonia Park | Denton Ave | Also has a golf course which along withCrescent Town were once part of Walter Massey’s Dentonia Park dairy farm that supplied milk to hisCity Dairy Company Limited. |  |
| Eglinton Square Shopping Centre | Eglinton Ave |  | |
| Church of St. Jude (Wexford) | Sloane Ave |  | |
| Senator O'Connor College School | Rowena Dr |  | |
| Victoria Park Collegiate Institute | Cassandra Blvd |  | |
| Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary Roman Catholic Church | Combermere Dr |  | |
| Parkway Mall | Ellesmere Rd |  | |
| St. Andrew Anglican Church | Terraview Blvd |  | |
| Johnny's Charcoal Broiled Hamburgers | Sheppard Ave |  |