User:Floydian/List of roads in Toronto

The following is a list of arterial thoroughfares in the Canadian city of Toronto. The city is organized in a grid pattern dating back to the plan laid out by Augustus Jones between 1793 and 1797. Most streets are aligned in the north-south or east-west direction, based on the shoreline of Lake Ontario. In other words, major north–south roads are generally perpendicular to the Lake Ontario shoreline and major east–west roads are generally parallel to the lake's shoreline. The Toronto road system is also influenced by its topography as some roads are aligned with the old Lake Iroquois shoreline, or the deep valleys. Minor streets with documented history or etymology are listed in a seperate section.

East – west roads
Listed south to north

Queen's Quay
Queen's Quay is built entirely on infill, and is the closest road to Lake Ontario throughout the downtown core. Though once abutted by warehouses from end to end, much of its length has seen rapid gentrification in the past two decades, with dozens of condominium towers rising.

Queen's Quay begins west of Bathurst Street at Stadium Road and ends at Lakeshore Boulevard East, where it continues north as Parliament Street.

Lakeshore Boulevard
Lakeshore Boulevard, often misspelt as Lake Shore Boulevard, is so named because of its position along the Lake Ontario shoreline. Although the route west of the humber has existed since ancient times, much of the remainder of the route was created during massive shoreline reclaimation projects carried out by the Harbour Commission between 1900 and 1915. Lakeshore Road travelled as far east as Roncesvalles, where it connected to Queen Street. Incorporating various side streets such as Laburnam Avenue, Starr Avenue and Dominion Street, the route was pushed east to Bathurst Street on January 28, 1924. . From there it continued as Fleet Street to Cherry Street. Keating Street continued east from a point just south of that intersection to Woodbine Avenue. These two streets were reconstructed to form a continous roadway, and renamed as part of Lakeshore Road on August 25, 1959.

Gardiner Expressway
The Frederick G. Gardiner Expressway, known locally as "the Gardiner", is an expressway connecting downtown with the western suburbs. Running close to the shore of Lake Ontario, it now extends from the junction of Highway 427 and the Queen Elizabeth Way in the west to the foot of the Don Valley Parkway in the east, just past the mouth of the Don River. East of Dufferin Street, the roadway is elevated, running above Lake Shore Boulevard east of Bathurst Street. Elevated sections east of the Don were demolished and integrated into Lake Shore Boulevard.

The highway is named for the first chair of the now-defunct Metro Council, Frederick G. Gardiner, who championed it, the Don Valley Parkway and Spadina Expressway projects. The six-lane section east of the Humber River was built in segments from 1955 until 1964 by the Metropolitan Toronto government with provincial highway funds. The ten-lane section west of the Humber was formerly part of the QEW. The Gardiner Expressway is now wholly owned and operated by the City of Toronto.

When the Gardiner was built, it passed through industrial lands, now mostly converted to residential lands. Extensive repairs became necessary in the early 1990s, and since then the Gardiner has been the subject of several proposals to demolish it or move it underground as part of downtown waterfront revitalization efforts. One elevated section east of the Don River was demolished in 2001, and a current study is underway to demolish that part of the elevated section east of Jarvis Street to the Don.

Front Street
Front Street is so named because it fronted the Lake Ontario shoreline at the time of the original layout of York. In the early years of the twentieth century, the Toronto Harbour Commission revitilized the stagnant industrial waterfront. Largely as a result of this process, the shoreline was filled several hundred metres south to Queen's Quay.

Front Street begins at Bathurst Street and crosses through downtown Toronto north of the rail viaduct. The road passes the Rogers Centre, CN Tower and Union Station before eventually forcing drivers onto Eastern Avenue. A short side street continues east to the Bayview Avenue alignment with the name Front Street.d

Eastern Avenue
Eastern Avenue, formerly South Park Street, was named on November 27, 1876. It was connected with Kingston Road in 1998 following the removal of the old Woodbine Racetrack. Eastern Avenue begins at a curve along Front Street east of Parliament Street; eastbound traffic on Front is defaulted onto Eastern Avenue, vice-versa for westbound traffic on Eastern. The road crosses the Don River, merging with Richmond Street and Adelaide Street and providing access to the Don Valley Parkway. East of Broadview Avenue, it travels parallel to and three blocks south of Queen Street East along the King Street alignment to east of Coxwell Avenue, where it curves northward and meets Queen Street. North of Queen Street, the road becomes Kingston Road.

King Street
King Street was named in honour of King George III by John Graves Simcoe when it was laid out in the original plan of York in 1793. It existed by various names over the years. The street travels east from The Queensway, splitting off to the south-east at Queen Street West and Roncesvalles Avenue, to the Don River where it ends at Queen Street. King Street once crossed the Don River on an abandoned steel and concrete bridge. On the west side the roadway is now Eastern Avenue and Cypress Street. East of the Don, a short stretch begins as Sunlight Park Road and then as Eastern Avenue to Kingston Road.

Adelaide Street
Adelaide Street was named for Princess Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen (wife of William IV) by Peter Russell, second Lieutenant Governor of Upper Canada, in his 1797 plan of Toronto. The original section of Adelaide was only a portion of the present street. In 1844, Little Adelaide Street, Adelaide Street and Newgate Street were amalgamated to form Adelaide Street. The street was split into east and west sections in 1884. In 1926, at the request of property owners, Adelaide Street West was extended from Bathurst Street to Shaw Street, incorporating the entirety of Defoe Street and McDonnell Square. The most recent extension came in 1965, when Adelaide Street East was routed onto Duke Street, which crossed between Jarvis Street and Parliament Street. This was done in advance of the opening of the lower section of the Don Valley Parkway and eastern section of the Gardiner Expressway. Newgate and Duke Streets were amalgamated into Adelaide Street East.

Richmond Street
Richmond Street remembers Charles Lennox, 4th Duke of Richmond. Lennox came to Canada in 1818 as Governor-in-Chief of British North America, only to die a year later after being bitten by a rabid fox while touring the countryside. Richmond street absorbed Duke Street and became a one-way road in 1958 as part of a process to build ramps to Eastern Avenue and the Don Valley Parkway. Richmond Street is a westbound one-way street east of Bathurst Street. Between its western terminus at Strachan Avenue and Bathurst Street, the street is one-way, alternating directions twice.

Queen Street
Queen Street, known as Lot Street until 1844, was named in honour of Queen Victoria, who reigned from 1837 until her death in 1901. For a time, Lot Street served as the northern limit of York. On the north side of the street, large 0.8 sqkm were granted to loyalists and government officials, many of whom never visted Upper Canada during their lives. The central portion of Lot Street was constructed as the baseline for surveys along Yonge Street by the Queen's Rangers in 1793. It was later extended west to Ossington Street as part of the Governor's Road (Dundas Street).

Queen Street begins at an intersection with The Queensway, Roncesvalles Avenue and King Street and crosses through Parkdale, the Fashion District, downtown Toronto, Riverdale, East Toronto and The Beaches, ending east of Victoria Park Avenue at a residential street named Fallingbrook Road. The entirety of the street is served by the 501 Queen streetcar route.

Dundas Street
Dundas Street was named by John Graves Simcoe in honour of the Right Honourable Henry Dundas, Viscount Melville. Like Yonge Street, named in a similar example of cronyism, Dundas Street was created as a defense road. Simcoe feared the impending invasion of the Americans following the Revolutionary War, an event which would occur in 1812. Dundas Street was to connect York with Detroit, then a British settlement; it reached as far as London, Simcoe's proposed new capital. The street was initially contructed by the Queen's Rangers between Dundas and the Thames River in 1794, but later extended east to York by pioneer road builder Asa Danforth in 1797.

Dundas Street originally began at the present-day intersection of Queen Street West and Ossington Avenue. It travelled north along Ossington, then turned west at Garrison Creek along the current Dundas Street. By the 1920s, Dundas was extended east through downtown Toronto to Broadview Avenue along several existing but discontinous streets, comprising Arthur Street (Ossington to Bathurst), St. Patrick (Bathurst to McCaul), Anderson (McCaul to University), Agnes (University to Yonge), Crookshank (Yonge to Victoria, now seperated and known as Dundas Square) and Wilton Avenue (Victoria to Broadview). This was done by correcting several irregularities, or "jogs", between the streets. These jogs are evident east of Bathurst Street and Yonge Street.

Gerrard Street
Gerrard Street was established on January 6, 1875 by incorporating Don Street and Lake View Avenue. It is named after Irish businessman Samuel Gerrard, a personal friend of the Honourable John McGill. The bridge over the Don River was completed and opened December 16, 1923.

Gerrard Street begins at University Avenue in the Discovery District, surrounded by Princess Margaret Hospital, Mount Sinai Hospital, Toronto General Hospital and Hospital for Sick Children. It travels west through downtown Toronto, past Ryerson University and Regent Park before crossing the Don River on the Gerrard Street Viaduct, constructed between 1922 and 1924. The road continues through Chinatown East and Little India. At Coxwell Avenue, the road deviates one block to the north; this split has led to the distinct parts being labelled as Upper and Lower Gerrard. Gerrard Street ends at Clonmore Avenue, west of Warden Avenue; traffic is forced onto Clonmore Avenue where it can travel as far as Birchmount Road.

College Street
College Street shares its origins with University Avenue as one of the two private entrances to King's College opened in 1829. King's College was the first college in Canada when it was chartered by Henry, 3rd Earl of Bathurst two years earlier. The road began at a gatehouse at Yonge Street and progressed eastward to present-day University Avenue. Like University, College was surrounded by gates in an attempt to create an elegant driveway like those in Oxford and Cambridge.

Carlton Street
Ann Wood, wife of both Andrew McGill and then John Strachan, named Carlton Street after her brother, Guy Carleton Wood, who was in turn named after Guy Carleton; it is unknown when the "e" was dropped from the spelling. In 1930, as part of a depression relief program, Carlton Street was realigned east of Yonge Street in order to meet with College Street. Prior to that, it met Yonge Street south of the present intersection by several dozen metres. The completed intersection was opened in early June 1931.

Carlton Street is home to Maple Leaf Gardens. It extends from Yonge Street east to Parliament Street as a major thoroughfare. Carleton continues east of Parliament as a residential street, ending at the edge of Riverdale Park.

Wellesley Street
Wellesley Street is named after Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, who is best known for his victory over Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815, and for a short but unpopular tenure as Prime Minister of Britain between 1828 and 1830.

Wellesley Street begins at the entrance to the University of Toronto at Queen's Park Crescent. The road passes immediately north of the Ontario Legislative Building (Queen's Park)

Bloor Street
Bloor Street was named by 1855 after Joseph Bloore. Originally surveyed as the first concession road north of the baseline (now Queen Street), it was known by many names, including the Tollgate Road (as the first tollgate On Yonge north of Lot Street was constructed there in 1820), then St. Paul's Road (after the nearby church, constructed 1842), and possibly Sydenham Road (after Lord Sydenham, Governor General 1839-1841). Although Bloore had an "e" at the end of his surname, Bloor Street was never spelt with it, as evidenced on numerous maps produced before his death.

Danforth Avenue
Danforth Avenue, known as the Don and Danforth Road until 1871, takes its name from pioneer road builder Asa Danforth, who built the Governors Road and Danforth Road by the end of the 1700s, under the direction of surveryor general Augustus Jones. Danforth Avenue, however, was constructed in 1851 by the The Don and Danforth Plank Road Company, connecting the Don Mills Road (now Broadview Avenue) with the Danforth Road. The road was extended east to Kingston Road (formerly Highway 2) in 1935, which included the construction of the present interchange.

Annette Street
Wife of developer Columbus Greene

Dupont Street
Dupont Street is named for George Dupont Wells, son of Colonel Joseph Wells. George was one of the first students of Upper Canada College, and several other streets are named after him. These include Wells and Wells Hill Dupont begins at Keele Street as a continuation of Annette Street. It runs parallel to and south of the CPR Midtown tracks east to Avenue Road.

Davenport Road
Davenport Road takes its name from the Davenport House, the first estate atop the Lake Iroquois shoreline and home of Colonel Joseph Wells, father of of George Dupont Wells. The estate stood northeast of the modern Bathurst Street and Davenport Road intersection. Wells purchased the property from Adjutant John McGill in 1821 and rebuilt the house that occupied it. McGill built the original house in 1797 and supposedly named it after Major Davenport, who was stationed at Fort York at that time.

Burnhamthorpe Road
After a village in Mississaga.

O'Connor Drive
O'Connor Drive takes its name from Senator Frank Patrick O'Connor, who owned Maryvale farm in Scarborough Township. In 1913, Frank opened the Laura Secord Candy Shop on Yonge Street, which has since become a national franchise. O'Connor Drive begins at the northern terminus of Broadview Avenue and progresses east to Woodbine Avenue, where it turns to the northeast and continues to Eglinton Avenue. The first several kilometres were originally part of the Don Mills Road until the 1922.

St. Clair Avenue
St. Clair Avenue, once the Second Concession, crosses through a majority of the city. The road is seperated into two sections by the Don Valley. The western segment begins east of the Humber River at Scarlett Road, where it is angled and does not follow the concession line as a result of road realignments for the construction of the Canadian Pacific railway crossing in 1912. It proceeds east to near Mount Pleasant Road, but stops short of the Don valley. On the opposite side, it begins near O'Connor and continues along the same alignment to Kingston Road.

Davisville Avenue
Davisville Avenue is named after John Davis, who opened Davis Pottery at Yonge and Davisville in 1845. Davis Pottery became nationally renowned; John used the newfound fortune to build schools and churches, and became the first postmaster of the growing village.

Davisville Avenue was built in the early 1900s as one of several roads connecting Yonge Street with the planned town of Leaside. It begins as a continuation of Chaplin Crescent at Yonge Street and procceds east 2 km to Bayview Avenue.

Rogers Road
Rogers Road is named for Stephen Rogers, who built one of the first houses in the Oakwood area in 1876 at the present corners of Rogers Road and Oakwood Avenue. It was constructed in the 1920s to serve Prospect Cemetary. The road crosses between Weston Road (incorporating a former section of Old Weston Road) and Oakwood Avenue.

Eglinton Avenue
Eglinton Avenue takes its name from the village that was established at its intersection with Yonge Street. There are several possible originations of the name, all of which lead back to the Earl of Eglinton. Several Scottish veterans of the War of 1812 settled in the area, possibly naming it after their Earl of Eglinton, Hugh Montgomerie. Hugh's successor, Archibald William Montgomerie, was famous for a lavish tournament held at his Eglinton Castle in 1839. For two years prior to the formation of Metropolitan Toronto, the section of Eglinton Avenue through Scarborough was known as Highway 109

Eglinton Avenue holds the distinction as the only road in Toronto to cross all six former municipalities. It begins at the Toronto–Mississauga boundary and travels east through Richview, Weston, North Toronto, Leaside, the Golden Mile, Brimley and Scarborough Village before ending at Kingston Road. The majority of Eglinton Avenue is abbuted by commercial strip plazas, auto dealerships, and dense apartment blocks, though almost every zoning condition presents itself along the road. The route is a likely candidate for a new transit line, to be known as the Eglinton Crosstown Line.

Blythwood Road
Blythwood is a minor collector road which connects Yonge Street with Bayview Avenue and the Sunnybrook Health Science Centre.

Lawrence Avenue
Lawrence Avenue recognizes the Lawrence family, who immigrated from Yorkshire in 1829 and bought property on the east side of Yonge Street north of the Fourth Concession Road. Peter Lawrence, who served as Justice of the Peace for the village of Eglinton beginning in 1836, purchased the farm. Jacob Lawrence established a mill at Bayview Avenue in 1845. The property was sold in 1907 to Wilfred Dinnick, who developed a garden suburb that he named Lawrence Park in honour of the family. The road remained a sod road until the 1920s before being developed as part of the development.

Lawrence Avenue travels east from Royal York Road; an extension to the west is known as The Westway. It crosses through the entirety of the city east of that point, interupted only between Bayview Avenue and Leslie Street by the Don Valley. The road ends at Rouge Hills Drive at the entrance to Rouge Park near the mouth of the Rouge River.

Dixon Road
Dixon Road, named after the Dixon family. George and Thomas Dixon constructed sawmills on their properties abbuting the road in 1818 and 1823, respectively. Dixon begins at Highway 427 and travels eastward toward the former borough of York, becoming Scarlett Road. Dixon Road continues west of Highway 427 as Peel Regional Road 7, or Airport Road, continuing to the town of Wasaga Beach on the shores of Georgian Bay. The stretch between Highway 427 and Martin Grove Road is often referred to as the "Airport Strip", due to the abundance of major hotel chains serving the airport, including Westin, Marriott, Holiday Inn, Hilton, DoubleTree, Crowne Plaza, and Sheraton.

York Mills Road
York Mills Road meets Yonge Street, the road to York, in Hogg's Hollow. Between 1804 and 1926, many mills flourished in this valley, lending to both the name of the road and neighbourhood. York Mills is an eastward continuation of Wilson Avenue; this continuity did not exist until the opening of the Yonge Subway extension in 1976. It is primarily residential in nature, except near Yonge Street and between Leslie Street and Don Mills Road, which are mostly commercial. The road ends at Victoria Park Avenue; a connection to Ellesmere Road is provided via Parkwoods Village Drive.

Ellesmere Road
Ellesmere Road is named after the village that once occupied its intersection with Kennedy Road, which was itself named after the birthplace of the original settlers in Shropshire, England. The road travels through Scarborough, where it was laid as the first concession road (Lawrence Avenue being the baseline in the survey of Scarborough). The surrounding land alternates between single-unit homes and commercial strips throughout its length.

Highway 401
King's Highway 401, colloquially referred to as the four-oh-one, opened between December 1947 and August 1956, and was known as the Toronto Bypass at that time. Although it has since been enveloped by suburban development, it still serves as the primary east–west through route in Toronto and the surrounding region. East of the Don Valley Parkway, it is also known as the Highway of Heroes, in reference to the funeral processions travelling between CFB Trenton and the Ontario Coroners Office. Highway 401 crosses the entirety of Toronto and physically divides the city in half.

Sheppard Avenue
Sheppard Avenue, originally the Lansing Sideroad (after the village it encountered at Yonge Street), is named after one of two families that lived adjacent to its intersection with Yonge Street. Tom Shepherd (or Sheppard) opened the Golden Lion Hotel on the southwest corner of the intersection in 1824 and sold it to his son, Charles, in 1856. On the opposing corner, an unrelated pioneer settler named Joseph Shepard built a log cabin in 1802. Joseph and various members of kin played pivotal roles in the establishment of York.

Sheppard Avenue begins at Weston Road, and travels east across North York and Scarborough to Meadowvale Road. Shortly thereafter, it turns southeast. At Kingston Road (formerly Highway 2), it becomes Port Union Road. Twyn Rivers Road continues along the alignment into Pickering; at Altona Road it becomes Sheppard Avenue once again.

Finch Avenue
Finch Avenue is named after John Finch, who purchased the Bird-in-the-Hand inn in 1847. It is residential for most of its length, although portions in North York and Scarborough are heavily industrialized. In the east, within Malvern, Finch Avenue becomes Morningside Avenue. However, Old Finch Avenue continues along the same right-of-way passing north of the Toronto Zoo and ending and Meadowvale Road. Approximately 800 m to the east, another section of Finch Avenue begins and passes into Pickering.

Cummer Avenue
Cummer Avenue is named after Jacob Kummer, a German settler who emigrated to Upper Canada in 1797 and built a mill on the Don River in 1819. The road to this mill became associated with the anglicized variation of the family name. The road travels east from Yonge as a continuation of Drewry Avenue. At its crossing of the Don River, Cummer curves north, retuns to the east and ends at Leslie Street. It continues east as McNicoll Avenue.

Steeles Avenue
Steeles Avenue is a major arterial road in the north end of the city. It is the only road (aside from Highway 401) to pass, uninterrupted, west to east through the entire city; it also continues west to Milton and east into Pickering as Taunton Road. The Steele family resided at Yonge and Steeles beginning in 1856, when Thomas purchased an inn and named it the Steele's Hotel. Thomas' son, John C. Steele, is known for inventing the Steeles Improved Road Machine, an early grader. It serves as the boundary line between Toronto and York Region to the north.

North–south roads
Listed west to east

Kipling Avenue
Kipling Avenue is rumoured to be named after Rudyard Kipling, author of The Jungle Book. Kipling was scheduled to read at the Woodbridge fair in 1907, but was forced to cancel at the last moment for reasons of health; it is said that the road to Woodbridge, thereto referred to as Mimico Street, was named in honour of the anticipated author. The road was named by 1908, but may have been named earlier in honour of a local farmer with that last name.

Islington Avenue
Islington Avenue is named for the village it passed at Dundas Street. The village of Islington was previously known as Mimico, and grew up around the Montgomery. This resulted in confusion with the nearby Mimico post office, and so the name was changed in 1858 by the wife of innkeeper Thomas Montgomery, Elizabeth Smith. Elizabeth chose the name after her birthplace, now a borough of London, England.

Islington Avenue begins at Lakeshore Boulevard in New Toronto, and progresses north to Steeles Avenue West, where it crosses into Vaughan in York Region. The road is mostly suburban in nature, passing through largely residential sections of Etobicoke.

Scarlett Road
Scarlett Road is named for John Scarlett, who moved to Upper Canada in 1808 and owned several square kilometres of property northwest of Bloor and Keele. "Scarlett's Road" was opened along the route of the Toronto–Carrying Place Trail north of his property. The road begins at Dundas Street West immediately south of the CPR crosstown rail line. It connects with the western terminus of St. Clair Avenue, then progresses north alongside the Humber River to north of Lawrence Avenue West, where it curves to the east and becomes Dixon Road.

Runnymede Road
Runnymede Road is named for the house of John Scarlett, built at the corner of Dundas and Keele in 1838. Runnymede is a field in England, southwest of London, where the Magna Carta was signed in 1215.

Parkside Drive
Parkside Drive was formerly a portion of Keele Street until 1921, when it was renamed by the City of Toronto. John Howard sold his estate to the city in 1873 to use as a public park. The road was renamed on June 13, 1921 by order of Bylaw 8663.

Parkside Drive begins at Lakeshore Boulevard. Passing beneath the Gardiner Expressway and The Queensway, the road travels north alongside High Park, which lay to the west. At Bloor Street West, Parkside Drive becomes Keele Street. The entirety of the road is residential, with houses to the east side of the road.

Keele Street
Keele Street is named for lawyer William Keele. William owned land across the road from John Scarlett at Dundas and Keele, gradually expanding his acreage in the mid-1800s. William opened the Carleton Race Course in 1857, which held the first Queen's Plate in 1860.

Roncesvalles Avenue
Roncesvalles Avenue was named by or in honour of Colonel Walter O'Hara, who fought in the Peninsular War and owned large land grants that were eventually subdivided to form Parkdale. The name originates from a village in northern Spain near the border with France, where O'Hara fought a battle against Napoleon I. Roncesvalles begins at an intersection with The Queensway, Queen Street and King Street and travels north to Dundas Street West.

Jameson Avenue
Jameson Avenue is named for Robert Sympson Jameson, Attourney General for Upper Canada in the late 1830s. Jameson bought land south of Queen Street between the second and third concessions (Dufferin and Parkside today) in the late 1840s. Jameson Avenue was built through his property when it was subdivided by the growing city. The road begins at Lakeshore Boulevard, where access is provided to the Gardiner Expressway. The road crosses the expressway and travels north through Parkdale between rows of apartment buildings. Jameson Avenue ends at Queen Street West; the traffic signal is coordinated with the southern terminus of Lansdowne Avenue, nearby to the east.

Lansdowne Avenue
Lansdowne Avenue was originally known as North Jameson Avenue. It was renamed by the Parkdale village council in 1883 to honour the new Governor General, Henry Petty-Fitzmaurice, 5th Marquess of Lansdowne, who served between 1883 and 1888. Lansdowne Avenue begins at Queen Street West, a short distance east of the northern terminus of Jameson Avenue. It passes beneath the Georgetown GO line, meets Dundas Street West and College Street, then passes Lansdowne Subway Station at Bloor Street West. The road continues north past Dupont Street, then passes beneath the CPR Midtown line before ending at St. Clair Avenue West.

Dufferin Street
Dufferin Street, known as the Side Line until 1876, was renamed in honour of Governor General Frederick Temple Blackwood, Lord Dufferin. Dufferin served as Governor General between 1872 and 1878, and presided over the opening of the first Canadian National Exhibition in 1878. Dufferin Street begins at Exhibition Place and travels north into Vaughan. The road is interupted between Wilson Avenue and Sheppard Avenue East by Downsview Park. Dufferin was disjointed at Queen Steet East by a railway, a detour famously known as the Dufferin Jog. Following decades of negotiation, construction began in 2007 on remedying the jog by excavating a tunnel beneath the active tracks. This tunnel was completed and opened to traffic on November 10, 2010 at a cost of.

Oakwood Avenue
Oakwood Avenue is named for the settlement that grew near its intersection with St. Clair Avenue West.

Marlee Avenue
Marlee Avenue was originally known as Lyon Avenue. The name was changed in 1953 at the request of Bernice Stein, who lived at 184 Woodmount Avenue. It is named for Mrs. Stein's neice. Marlee Avenue connects Eglinton Avenue West with Lawrence Avenue West to the west of Allen Road.

Ossington Avenue
Ossington Avenue is named for the estate of the Denison family in Nottinghamshire. John Denison moved to York and built Brookfield House at a corner on Dundas Street, which is now the intersection of Queen Street West and Ossington Avenue. Dundas Street then followed what is now Queen Street West and then Ossington Avenue, obstructed by the valley of Garrison Creek. Ossington Avenue was later built north from the present corner of Ossington and Dundas to Bloor Street West. The section between Bloor Street and Davenport Road was formerly known as Lancaster Road.

Allen Road
William R. Allen Road, known more commonly as Allen Road, The Allen Expressway or simply The Allen and formerly as the Spadina Expressway, is a short expressway which travels from Eglinton Avenue West in the south to Kennard Avenue in the north. The portion south of Sheppard Avenue was originally the completed section of the Spadina Expressway. Allen Road is named after late Metro Toronto Chairman William R. Allen and maintained by the City of Toronto. Landmarks along the road include the Yorkdale Shopping Centre and Downsview Park (formerly CFB Downsview).

Bathurst Street
Bathurst Street is named after Henry, 3rd Earl of Bathurst, who was Secretary of War during the reign of George IV. Henry's contributions to Toronto include organizing the successive waves of British settlers following the War of 1812, and granting the charter to the first university in the city, King's College. Bathurst originally only refered to the section south of Queen Street. In 1870, the section north of Queen Street became part of Bathurst Street. It was known until then as Crookshank's Lane, after Honourable George Crookshank. The road acted as a driveway to his 300 acre farm.

Spadina
Spadina Avenue, and its extension north of Bloor Street, Spadina Road, pronounced "spa-dee-nuh", are named after the estate of Dr. William Baldwin. After a fire and two complete reconstructions, this estate has since become the Spadina House. The Baldwin's held numerous important positions in the early government of York, having several streets named after them (including Baldwin Street). William originally planned Spadina Avenue as the driveway to his new estate in 1818, and laid the street in 1836 with the unusual width of two chains (132 feet), double the width of any street laid to that date. It was eventually extended north and over the Nordheimer Ravine to the village of Forest Hill, and thereafter to Eglinton Avenue. Its southern terminus is at the edge of Lake Ontario.

Spadina has been transformed numerous times, once almost to a depressed expressway known as the Spadina Expressway, which was cancelled by premier Bill Davis in 1971 after extensive protesting. Casa Loma was built next to the Spadina House in the early 1900s.

University Avenue
University Avenue shares its origins with College Street as one of the two private entrances to King's College (now the University of Toronto) opened in 1829. King's College was the first college in Canada when it was chartered by Henry, 3rd Earl of Bathurst two years earlier. Both roads were known as College Avenue. In an attempt to create a stately elegant driveway to the college, the road was cut 120 feet wide and lined with chestnut trees and ornamental fences. A gatehouse designed by John Howard sat at the entranceway at present-day Queen and University. The road quickly became an obstacle to the growing city, and the gates surrounding it were torn down in 1859.

As part of a depression relief program, University was extended south of Queen Street to meet York Street at Front beginning in 1929.

Avenue Road
There are several stories relating to the origin of Avenue Road. The most popular legend retells that of an early surveying team travelling west along what is now Bloor Street. Upon reaching the location of the intersection with Avenue Road today, the lead surveyor, a Scottish man, pointed north and proclaimed "Let's 'ave a new road here"

Bay Street
Bay Street was originally known as Bear Street, supposedly a reference to a "noted chase given to a bear" by settlers in that area. It is the centre of Toronto's Financial District and is often used as a metonymy to refer to Canada's financial industry, similar to Wall Street in the United States. 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 street was officially named when the land it occupies was annexed by the first expansion of York. Originally, Bay travelled from Lake Ontario to Lot Street, now Queen Street West. North of Queen Street and travelling to College Street was Teraulay Street. Several disconnected side streets existed north of there to Davenport Road. In 1922, By-Law 9316 joined these streets together as far north as Scollard Street. By-Law 9884, enacted on January 28, 1924, changed the name of Ketchum Avenue to Bay Street, officially extending it to Davenport Road. The bend in Bay Street south of Old City Hall reflects this history.

Church Street
Church Street is so named because where St. James Cathedral sits upon today, at King Street and Church, was the site of the first church in York, a wooden building built in 1807 and refered to simply as "the church". Three incarnations sat on the site of the current cathedral; the dedication to St. James came in 1828, four years prior to the construction of a new stone church. This building burnt shortly after becoming a cathedral. A new cathedral was constructed, only to burn down in the Great Fire of 1849. John Strachan, first Bishop of Toronto after 1839, rebuilt the present cathedral in 1853 (the spire was not completed until 1874) in a gothic revival style. The St. James Cathedral was the tallest structure in Toronto until the Royal York Hotel was completed in 1927.

Jarvis Street
Jarvis Street recognizes the Jarvis family, who lived on land north of Queen Street and centred on Jarvis Street between 1824 and 1846. William Jarvis was Provincial Secretary and Registrar of Records between 1792 and his death in 1817. His son, Samuel Jarvis, won the last duel held in Toronto when he mortally wounded his neighbour and rival John Ridout. He was arrested as a result, but later acquitted, after which he took over his father's position. The increasing debt of the family led Samuel to sell off the property beginning in 1846. His house, Hazel Burn, was demolished to make way for Jarvis Street. Mutual Street was established at the same time on the property line between the former rivals.

Jarvis Street begins at Queen's Quay north of the Lake Ontario shoreline. It travels north to one block south of Bloor Street, where most traffic is siphoned on to Mount Pleasant Road. Jarvis previously extended to Bloor Street, but was truncated On August 26, 2009. The section between Charles Street and Bloor Street was renamed Ted Rogers Way.

Mount Pleasant Road
Mount Pleasant Road was named after the cemetary which it passes through when it was constructed in the late 1910s. The road follows the course of several earlier streets, many of which it assumed, including Kinsman Avenue (1918), Sidmouth Avenue (1920) and Hilda Avenue (1935). In the late 1940s, Mount Pleasant Road was extended south to its current terminus. This was initially referred to as the Clifton Road Extension, and is considered Toronto's first expressway.

Mount Pleasant Road begins at the northern terminus of Jarvis Street, one block south of Bloor Street East. It passes through the communities of Rosedale, Moore Park and Lawrence Park and crosses the Rosedale Ravine, Yellow Creek and Blythwood Ravine. The road ends near the Doncrest bus loop at Glen Echo Drive.

Sherbourne Street
Sherbourne Street was named by Samuel Ridout in 1845 after the town in Dorset, England; the Ridout family emigrated from Sherborne.

Parliament Street
Parliament Street was the site of the original Parliament Buildings of Upper Canada, constructed on Front Street between Berkeley and Parliament by 1797 under the orders of John Graves Simcoe. The buildings, originally planned as one with two wings, were not completed and in 1813 were destroyed by the invading American army. Parliament Street begins at Lakeshore Boulevard, where it continues southwest as Queen's Quay, and travels north along the eastern outskirts of downtown Toronto. The road ends at Bloor Street East between the Rosedale and Sherbourne phases of the Prince Edward Viaduct. Prior to the construction of the viaduct, Parliament Street ended at Hayter Street.

Bayview Avenue
Bayview Avenue, previously known as East York Avenue, was named in 1930 after the estate of Dr. James Stanley McLean, Bay View. The McLean House forms a part of the Sunnybrook Health Science Centre today. Several notable estates were built along Bayview in the early 1900s, many of which still exist, since converted to a variety of public uses.

Don Valley Parkway
The Don Valley Parkway (DVP) is a controlled-access six-lane expressway in Toronto connecting the Gardiner Expressway in downtown Toronto with Highway 401. North of Highway 401, the expressway continues as Highway 404 to Newmarket. The parkway runs through the parklands of the Don River valley, after which it is named. It is patrolled by the Toronto Police Service, has a maximum speed limit of 90 km/h and is 15.0 km in length.

The parkway was the second expressway to be built by Metropolitan Toronto (Metro). Planning for it began in 1954, the year of Metro's formation, the first section opened in 1961 and the entire route was completed by the end of 1966. South of Bloor Street, the expressway was constructed over existing roadways. North of Bloor Street, the expressway was built on a new alignment through the valley, requiring the removal of several hills, the rerouting of the Don River and the clearing of green space. North of Eglinton Avenue, the expressway follows the former Woodbine Avenue right-of-way north to Highway 401.

The parkway operates well beyond its intended capacity of 60,000 vehicles per day and is known for its daily traffic jams; some sections carry an average of 100,000 vehicles a day. Planned as part of a larger expressway network within Toronto, it was one of the few expressways built before the public opposition which cancelled many of the others.

Laird Drive
Laird Drive takes its name from Robert Laird Borden, Prime Minister of Canada between 1911 and 1920. Borden, whose middle name is his mother's maiden name, led the country through the First World War. After leaving office, Borden went on to play an instrumental role in the crafting of the Paris Treaty and the subsequent independence of Canada from the British Crown.

Broadview Avenue
Broadview Avenue, known the Mill Road until 1884, was constructed in 1798 by Timothy Skinner, owner of several mills in Todmorden. The name is a reference to the broad view from the crest overlooking Riverdale Park. The road was extended in 1913 and 1922 by absorbing parts of Don Mills Road as far north as O'Connor Drive.

Leslie Street
George Leslie

Donlands Avenue
Donlands Avenue was renamed from Leslie Street on February 22, 1915, as the two were disconnected. Donlands Avenue begins at Danforth Avenue and ends at the foot of the Leaside Bridge. On the opposite side of the bridge, drivers continue on Millwood Road.

Don Mills Road
Don Mills Road, known by various names over time including The Mill Road and the Don Independent Road, is named for the many saw and grist mills that established near the Forks of the Don in the early 1800s. At the time the road began at Winchester Street and Parliament Street and crossed the Don River at Riverdale Park. The road rose onto the table lands along what is now the entrance to the northbound Don Valley Parkway and followed Broadview north and O'Connor east before joining with the present-day Don Mills Road. The road ended at the Mills for a time, until farmers to the north on the land between the river valleys opened a new road to provide an easier route to carry their yields to the St. Lawrence Market. The new road cut through established parcels of land, and came to be known as the Don Independent Road. This road extended as far north as York Mills Road.

After the formation of Metro Toronto, Don Mills was designated as part of the municipal network of major roads. It was promptly widened to four lanes, then later extended north over Highway 401 to Sheppard in 1964. The "peanut" was constructed shortly thereafter, and Don Mills gradually extended north of Steeles alongside suburban development in the 1970s. In 1987, the road was widened to six lanes alongside a recommendation to extend Leslie Street south of Eglinton to the Bayview Extension, and a proposal to try new high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lane, colloquially referred to in Toronto as a Diamond lane due to the markings on the pavement. While Leslie street was not extended, the HOV lanes were implemented along the route of the 25 - Don Mills bus.

Coxwell Avenue
Coxwell Avenue is named after Charles Coxwell Small, a clerk in the Supreme Court of Upper Canada and a resident of the Berkeley Estate.

Highway 404
King's Highway 404, colloquially referred to as the four-oh-four, is a provincially maintained extension to the Don Valley Parkway. It begins at Highway 401 and travels north of the city limits to Newmarket. Highway 404 was opened from Sheppard to Steeles in 1979 and extended north shortly thereafter.

Pharmacy Avenue
Pharmacy Avenue likely takes its name from a local pharmacy, the specifics of which

Warden Avenue
Warden Avenue was previously Wardin Avenue, but the origin of both is unknown. Warden begins south of Kingston Road at the former Toronto Hunt Club and travels north to Steeles Avenue East, where it continues into Markham as York Regional Road 68. Although the section south of Danforth Avenue is mostly detached residential housing, the majority of Warden Avenue north of Danforth is industrial or commercial.

Birchmount Road
Birchmount began as a concession line laid out by the surveyors of Upper Canada. For a long time, it remained a rural and little used route. In the 1920s, it was little more than a dirt path.

The southern part of Birchmount was one of the first parts of Toronto to see suburban development. This development was in the years immediately before and after the Second World War, and was thus not reflective of the car-centred design of much of Scarborough. Birchmount is notable for being the terminus of what has so far been the only TTC streetcar to ever travel into Scarborough. The Birchmount Loop was for several decades the turning loop for the Kingston Road streetcar. The first lines in the region were built by the Toronto and Scarboro' Electric Railway, Light and Power Company. They were taken over by the TTC which ran streetcars to Birchmount until 1954. The loop remained in place until 1985, when a condominium was built on the site.

By the 1960s, Birchmount had been transformed into its current role as one of the main arterial roads for Scarborough.

Kennedy Road
Kennedy Road is named after James Kennedy, an early settler of the Agincourt area.

Midland Road
Midland Avenue was known as Church Street until 1882, when it was renamed for the Midland Railway Company in 1882. Only two years later, the Midland Railway would be purchased by the Grand Trunk Railway

Bellamy Road
Bellamy Road, previously Secord Road, is named for author Edward Bellamy, who wrote Looking Backwards 2000–1887, about a utopian society. Settlers approached Scarborough Township for a parcel of land to start their own utopia. Although the request was not granted, the road along which they sought to establish their society came to be known as Bellamy Road. The CN grade-seperation on Eglinton, built in the early 1960s, split Bellamy Road into two unconnected sections. Consequently, the township of Scarborough renamed the sections as North or South on May 29, 1964.

Bellamy Road South begins at Kingston Road and proceeds north to just short of Eglinton Avenue. It is entirely a minor residential street. Bellamy Road North resumes opposite the southern section, just north of the CN tracks. The road becomes Corporate Drive at Progress Avenue, proceeding towards the Scarborough Town Centre. Most of the northern section is residential, though the section between Ellesmere Road and Progress consists solely of multi-unit warehousing, many of which have been converted into minority places of worship.

Markham Road
Originally the Markham and Scarborough Plank Road, the concession line that led to the town of Markham was an early plank road. Existing first between the Danforth Road (now Painted Post) and the town, it was later extended south to Kingston Road and north to Stouffville. Alongside the construction of the Toronto Bypass (now Highway 401), Highway 48 was extended south, from near Beaverton, to where Markham Road would intersect the new "superhighway". It was originally intended to be upgraded to a freeway that would wrap around the eastern side of Lake Simcoe and end in Orillia or north of Sutherland. However, with the construction of the Don Valley Parkway, Woodbine Avenue would be chosen in its place, becoming Highway 404.

Markham Road begins at Hill Crescent, south of Kingston Road. It proceeds through Scarborough to Steeles Avenue East, but continues into York Region where it is also designated as York Regional Road 68. Between Eglinton Avenue and Lawrence Avenue, the road crosses the Highland Creek ravine; one of the only crossings of the ravine not bypassed by a high-level bridge. South of Sheppard Avenue, most of the route is abutted by a mix of apartments and commercial strip plazas. North of Sheppard is occupied entirely by expanses of industrial land.

Scarborough Golf Club Road
Scarborough Gold Club Road was named after the Scarborough Golf Course, which still lay in the Highland Creek valley along the road. Scarborough Golf Club begins at Hill Crescent and travels north to Ellesmere Road.

Centennial Road
Centennial Road, despite travelling through an area that was developed during Canada's centennial, takes its name from the church at its intersection with Kingston Road. The church was named Centennial in honour of the 100 year anniversary. Many of the streets along or near Centennial Road are named after the fathers of confederation.

Diagonals
The following lists roads which do not follow the city grid, often referred to as contour roads. They are listed by the southernmost point of the road, from south to north.

Bermondsey Road
Bermondsey Road is named for the administrative borough in London, England. When the O'Connor business park was constructed, the Peek Frean's Biscuit Company was one of the first occupants. When a road was constructed alongside the new factory, Peek Frean's requested it be named Bermondsey, the location of their head office. Bermondsey begins at O'Connor Drive, where it continues east as Yardley Avenue. It zig-zags through the business park to the northwest, ending at Eglinton Avenue East. North of Eglinton, the road is known as Sloane Avenue.

Other roads
The following lists roads which are not designated as a major arterial, but for which the reason behind the naming of the street or a history of its construction is documented. They are listed in alphabetical order

John Street
John Street is one of several in the area named after the first Lieutenant Governor of Upper Canada, John Graves Simcoe.