Leslieville Neighbourhood
Leslieville is located in the south-east of Toronto, within the Riverdale neighbourhood, and runs south from the Canadian National Railway south to Eastern Avenue, and from Empire Avenue east to Coxwell Avenue.
The village of Leslieville dates back to the 1850’s when it grew up around the nursery owned by George Leslie, and the original homes were modest in nature, housing the many gardeners employed by the nurseries. Styles include Ontario Cottage, Second Empire row houses, and Victorians. In the early decades of the 20th century, Edwardian detached and semi-detached homes were built, along with a large number of bungalows.
Always a working-class neighbourhood, Leslieville has recently experienced a move towards trendy ‘gentrification’, as a continuation of the process that began earlier in the general Riverdale area. Cafes, boutiques, and specialty shops are springing up, and although prices are quickly rising and renovations abound, they are still fairly accessible for first-time homebuyers with young families. The building of several condominium and loft projects is also drawing the young, hip buyer into the area, with its proximity to the clubs and nightlife of downtown Toronto. An influx of film studios, such as the Pinewood Toronto Studios, Canada’s largest, has also re-invigorated the neighbourhood.
However, Leslieville has not yet reached the limits of gentrification and is still fundamentally a quiet family neighbourhood. Tree-lined streets lend themselves to strolling, having a quiet coffee, or reading in a park. Greenwood Park, on Greenwood near Dundas, has skating, hockey, day camp, and biking programs, along with an off-leash dog area, wading pool and three baseball diamonds. At Coxwell, the large Ashbridge’s Bay Park offers beach volleyball, a boardwalk for strolling or jogging, paved trails for roller-blading or biking, and one of Toronto’s best fireworks displays every Canada Day.
Shopping in Leslieville is eclectic, mostly small shops and services with few of the large big-box retailers represented yet. Along Gerrard between Greenwood and Coxwell Avenues is the area known as “India Bazaar," where the East Indian shop owners offer all the magnificent colours, sounds, scents and textures of India.
As well as public and Catholic elementary and secondary schools, there are many alternative schools in Leslieville, such as Equinox Holistic Alternative School on Hiawatha Avenue, EAST Alternative School of Toronto on Boultbee, School of Life Experience (SOLE) on Mountjoy, SEED Altrnative on Dundas, and the Subway Academy One on Phin Avenue. Although there are no local private schools, many excellent options such as Upper Canada College, Bishop Strachan, Branksome Hall and De La Salle are all easily accessible.
There is good public transit service to the Leslieville area, with streetcars along Queen Street, various bus routes, several of which feed into the Broadview station of the Bloor-Danforth subway line. The Don Valley Parkway, Lakeshore Boulevard and the Gardiner are minutes away, and Bloor Street via Danforth gives residents almost immediate access to downtown Toronto.
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Schools in Leslieville
