Leslie Street, Toronto

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For the portion of Leslie Street in York Region, Ontario, see York Regional Road 12.

Looking south along the third segment of Leslie Street, in North York

Leslie Street is a north-south route in Toronto and York Region, Ontario, Canada. It is distinctive because of its four unconnected segments. In the early 20th century, however, it existed as a continuous street from the lake to Eglinton Avenue.

Leslie Street was named for nursery owner George Leslie, who owned a store on Queen Street in Leslieville.[1]

In Toronto, it begins at Lake Ontario at the foot of the Leslie Street Spit, so named because this is the most southerly point of Leslie Street. Just north at Lake Shore Blvd. East was the former eastern terminus of the Gardiner Expressway. Leslie Street continues north to the railway tracks north of Gerrard Street East, where the first segment ends. Donlands Avenue, which runs from the north side of the railway tracks to north of O'Connor Drive, was originally another segment of Leslie Street.

The second segment is represented by a one-block stretch of road between Wicksteed Avenue and Vanderhoof Avenue in the Leaside Industrial land area. It is separated from the third segment by the Ernest Thompson Seton parklands.

The third segment begins as a principal arterial road at Eglinton Avenue at the E.T. Seton/Wilket Creek Park area and continues north through residential neighbourhoods in Don Mills and the Don Valley. A proposed extension from Eglinton Avenue south to Bayview Avenue (north of Pottery Road) never came to fruition.[2] The street numbers change erratically near Highway 401, going from the 4400 block at Sheppard Avenue to the 2000 block under the Canadian National Railway tracks in a short distance. It exits Toronto and enters York Region at Steeles Avenue, west of Don Mills Road. Leslie is reduced to a local road at Steeles Avenue and ends shortly thereafter in Wycliffe Park.

The fourth segment continues as an arterial road north of John Street when Don Mills Road turns into Leslie Street. This segment follows the same direction and alignment as the Toronto section. There is a small jog in the road at Stouffville Road in Richmond Hill, and two sets of lights were installed in the summer of 2006 to ease the morning traffic congestion. Leslie extends many kilometres northward to the town of Keswick where it is renamed The Queensway South.

The stretch in York Region is also designated as York Regional Road 12.

On February 1, 2008 an abandoned baby girl was named Angelica-Leslie by the Toronto Children's Aid Society; her name was chosen because of her cherubic face, and to reflect the circumstance of her being found the previous day in the outdoor stairwell of Finch-Leslie Square, a Leslie Street and Finch Avenue shopping mall.[3][4]

Attractions

Leslie Street Spit

References

  1. [1]
  2. McCormick Rankin (July 1990). "Leslie Street Extension and Bayview Avenue Widening Environmental and Needs Assessment Study". Metropolitan Toronto Transportation Department. 
  3. "Mystery 8-month-old thriving in foster care". Toronto Star. 2008-02-01. Archived from the original on 2008-04-03. https://web.archive.org/web/20080403171326/http://www.thestar.com/News/GTA/article/299623. Retrieved 2014-10-12. "Doctors will continue to run tests on the little girl, who was left face down, and bleeding from the nose, in a stairwell at Finch Ave. E. and Leslie St. for two hours before being rescued by a passerby." 
  4. "Baby Angelica-Leslie named ward of the Crown". Globe and Mail. 2008-07-14. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080714.wbaby0714/BNStory/National/?page=rss&id=RTGAM.20080714.wbaby0714. Retrieved 2014-10-12. 

External links