Lawrence Park South
Blythwood Ravine Park
1200 Mt. Pleasant Road
Toronto is home to a number of forested ravines found throughout the city. These ravines provide a beautiful escape from our urban environment and provide homes for local wildlife. Blythwood Ravine Park is bordered by Alexander Muir Gardens to the west and Sherwood Park on the east. The park is a beautiful stretch of forested trail that is part of the Northern Ravines and Gardens Discovery Walk. Follow the trail from the beautiful Alexander Muir Gardens, along the creek and under Mount Pleasant Road to Sherwood Park. There you will find a wading pool, playground, dog off-leash area and a baseball diamond. It's a beautiful shaded walk on a hot and sunny day in the city.
Lawrence Park Ravine
51 Alexander Muir Road
This 4.6 hectare park features a children's playground, three lit outdoor tennis courts and two lawn bowling greens. It lies beside the Alexander Muir Memorial Gardens and is home to the Lawrence Park Tennis Club and the Lawrence Park Lawn Bowling and Croquet Club.
Alexander Muir Memorial Gardens
2901 Yonge Street
These formal gardens are named after the famed composer Alexander Muir, the man who wrote the patriotic song 'The Maple Leaf Forever' in 1867. The maple leaf appears throughout the gardens in various decorative and natural forms. The multi-level Alexander Muir Memorial Gardens act as a gateway into the peaceful ravine system that features walking trails which are open year-round. Stroll among the herbs and flowers that bloom in Alexander Muir's magnificent setting, located along the Northern Ravines and Gardens Discovery Walk Route. Alexander Muir Memorial Gardens are a beautiful spot to spend a quiet summer afternoon. The gardens are also the western gateway to a long trail that eventually leads to Sunnybrook Park. Walking trails are open all year.
Glengrove Substation
2833 Yonge Street
*Note: Private property. Please observe the building from the street only. The exterior view of this gorgeous building is now softened by mature trees and creeping ivy on the limestone walls. Its function as a hydro substation is not at all obvious to those passing by, who may even mistake it for a library. In order to provide well-regulated service to its customers, the Toronto Hydro-Electric System (THES) had to have a sufficient number of substations, properly located from an engineering standpoint. While everyone wants to have excellent and uninterrupted electrical service, not all people welcome having a substation in the vicinity of their home. In order to make their buildings more acceptable to the neighbours, the THES sometimes designed them to look like something other than a sub-station. In the case of the Glengrove Substation (known by locals as The Castle) the THES built this grand building in 1930, with oak doors, glass windows and stone walls. Later in the 1940s, the THES moved away from the grandeur designs and started to build some of its substations to look exactly like the small bungalows that were popping up all over newly developing areas in Toronto.
Toronto Public Library: Locke Branch
3083 Yonge Street
This heritage designated library branch which opened in 1949 is named after George Locke, who was the second chief librarian of the Toronto Public Library, serving from November 1908 until his death on January 28, 1937. He is credited with having transformed a small institution into one of the most respected library systems on the continent. During his 29 years in the position, Locke established children's services, introduced books in many languages, and opened a new central library and 16 branches. As a mark of respect, all of the libraries in Toronto were closed on the day of Locke's funeral and hundreds attended a memorial service at the Central Library. The library branch itself was the first public building to be opened in Lawrence Park with many notable architectural features (a plaque on the side of the building notes some of them).
Otter Creek Centre
140 Cheritan Avenue
This 3006 square meter site is located near the main intersections of Avenue Road and Lawrence Avenue West. It contains two outdoor artificial ice rinks, change room building and parking. Inside the facility, there is a leisure skate change room, men's and women's change rooms and men's and women's washrooms.
Havergal College
1451 Avenue Road
Havergal College, currently the largest girls' school in Toronto, has been in operation since 1894, when it first opened a campus at 354 Jarvis Street (which is now part of the National Ballet School of Canada). The school then moved to its current location at Avenue Road and Lawrence Avenue West. The campus includes a heritage-designated building dating to 1926, designed in the gothic style by architectural firm Chapman and Oxley. Notable alumni of Havergal include Dr. Eileen de Villa, Toronto's current medical officer of health, Emmy-winning actress Margot Kidder, and Paula Cox, who was elected premier of Bermuda in 2010.
Lytton Park & Sunken Gardens
195 Lytton Boulevard
Lytton Park is a 1.7 hectare park that features three lit outdoor tennis courts with a club house, two lit lawn bowling greens with a clubhouse and a children's playground. The park is home to the North Toronto Tennis Club and the North Toronto Lawn Bowling & Croquet Club.
Allenby School
391 St. Clement's Avenue
This site where Allenby School sits is the site of a large ancestral Huron-Wendat Village. It is thought, based on archaeological excavations completed in 1887, that this village was inhabited in the mid-to-late 1400s. The village was located at the highest point in Toronto, and an artesian spring at the site would have been an excellent source of fresh drinking water for the village's inhabitants. Dozens of ancestral Huron-Wendat villages are known to have been established along the Humber, Don, and Rouge Rivers, and show a progressively northern movement from the north shore of Lake Ontario that eventually culminated in the establishment of the Wendat Confederacy at Wendake (also called Huronia), a Wendat homeland located between Lake Simcoe and Georgian Bay during the seventeenth century. This site would have been surrounded by many acres of gardens planted with the Three Sisters (corn, beans, and squash), along with other plants such as sunflower. Former village sites are understood by Huron-Wendat people to be places of ancestral spiritual presence. The Huron-Wendat would periodically visit such sites to acknowledge and maintain ongoing relationships with their ancestors. Unfortunately, since the late 1800s this village has been subjected to looting and unsystematic archaeological investigations and has been destroyed by urban development.
The Eglinton Theatre
400 Eglinton Avenue West
The Eglinton Theatre (presently named The Eglinton Grand) was designed by Toronto architects Kaplan & Sprachman and opened in 1936 during a trend of when luxury movie theatres popped up in suburbs across major Canadian cities. In 1993, it was designated as a National Historic Site of Canada for its Art Deco style, including sleek, uncluttered lines, decorative zigzag patterns and coloured neon sign. Today the building operates as an event venue. An historical plaque can be found outside the main doors on the west wall.
Explore Lawrence Park South
Now is the time for residents to experience all that tourists have been raving about for years. Discover shops, stops, places and spaces on city main streets. Stay curious, Toronto.
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Explore FREE Public Art Across the City. Toronto's Year of Public Art 2021-2022 is a year-long celebration of Toronto's exceptional public art collection and the creative community behind it.
We hope that you enjoyed exploring this Toronto neighbourhood and found many other points of interest along the way. While StrollTO highlights some of the 'hidden gems' in the neighbourhood, there may be others that could be included in a future edition. Would you like to share a point of interest that you discovered in the neighbourhood? Email us at [email protected].
Neighbourhood Stroll
This stroll wanders through Lawrence Park South's tranquil ravines and reveals the hidden stories behind a mysterious castle-like building and a fifteenth century Indigenous site. An exciting selection of local shops and restaurants can be found throughout the stroll in the Eglinton Way, Uptown Yonge, and Yonge Lawrence Village BIAs.
- Blythwood Ravine Park
1200 Mt. Pleasant Road
Toronto is home to a number of forested ravines found throughout the city. These ravines provide a beautiful escape from our urban environment and provide homes for local wildlife. Blythwood Ravine Park is bordered by Alexander Muir Gardens to the west and Sherwood Park on the east. The park is a beautiful stretch of forested trail that is part of the Northern Ravines and Gardens Discovery Walk. Follow the trail from the beautiful Alexander Muir Gardens, along the creek and under Mount Pleasant Road to Sherwood Park. There you will find a wading pool, playground, dog off-leash area and a baseball diamond. It's a beautiful shaded walk on a hot and sunny day in the city.
- Lawrence Park Ravine
51 Alexander Muir Road
This 4.6 hectare park features a children's playground, three lit outdoor tennis courts and two lawn bowling greens. It lies beside the Alexander Muir Memorial Gardens and is home to the Lawrence Park Tennis Club and the Lawrence Park Lawn Bowling and Croquet Club.
- Alexander Muir Memorial Gardens
2901 Yonge Street
These formal gardens are named after the famed composer Alexander Muir, the man who wrote the patriotic song 'The Maple Leaf Forever' in 1867. The maple leaf appears throughout the gardens in various decorative and natural forms. The multi-level Alexander Muir Memorial Gardens act as a gateway into the peaceful ravine system that features walking trails which are open year-round. Stroll among the herbs and flowers that bloom in Alexander Muir's magnificent setting, located along the Northern Ravines and Gardens Discovery Walk Route. Alexander Muir Memorial Gardens are a beautiful spot to spend a quiet summer afternoon. The gardens are also the western gateway to a long trail that eventually leads to Sunnybrook Park. Walking trails are open all year.
- Glengrove Substation
2833 Yonge Street
*Note: Private property. Please observe the building from the street only. The exterior view of this gorgeous building is now softened by mature trees and creeping ivy on the limestone walls. Its function as a hydro substation is not at all obvious to those passing by, who may even mistake it for a library. In order to provide well-regulated service to its customers, the Toronto Hydro-Electric System (THES) had to have a sufficient number of substations, properly located from an engineering standpoint. While everyone wants to have excellent and uninterrupted electrical service, not all people welcome having a substation in the vicinity of their home. In order to make their buildings more acceptable to the neighbours, the THES sometimes designed them to look like something other than a sub-station. In the case of the Glengrove Substation (known by locals as The Castle) the THES built this grand building in 1930, with oak doors, glass windows and stone walls. Later in the 1940s, the THES moved away from the grandeur designs and started to build some of its substations to look exactly like the small bungalows that were popping up all over newly developing areas in Toronto.
- Toronto Public Library: Locke Branch
3083 Yonge Street
This heritage designated library branch which opened in 1949 is named after George Locke, who was the second chief librarian of the Toronto Public Library, serving from November 1908 until his death on January 28, 1937. He is credited with having transformed a small institution into one of the most respected library systems on the continent. During his 29 years in the position, Locke established children's services, introduced books in many languages, and opened a new central library and 16 branches. As a mark of respect, all of the libraries in Toronto were closed on the day of Locke's funeral and hundreds attended a memorial service at the Central Library. The library branch itself was the first public building to be opened in Lawrence Park with many notable architectural features (a plaque on the side of the building notes some of them).
- Otter Creek Centre
140 Cheritan Avenue
This 3006 square meter site is located near the main intersections of Avenue Road and Lawrence Avenue West. It contains two outdoor artificial ice rinks, change room building and parking. Inside the facility, there is a leisure skate change room, men's and women's change rooms and men's and women's washrooms.
- Havergal College
1451 Avenue Road
Havergal College, currently the largest girls' school in Toronto, has been in operation since 1894, when it first opened a campus at 354 Jarvis Street (which is now part of the National Ballet School of Canada). The school then moved to its current location at Avenue Road and Lawrence Avenue West. The campus includes a heritage-designated building dating to 1926, designed in the gothic style by architectural firm Chapman and Oxley. Notable alumni of Havergal include Dr. Eileen de Villa, Toronto's current medical officer of health, Emmy-winning actress Margot Kidder, and Paula Cox, who was elected premier of Bermuda in 2010.
- Lytton Park & Sunken Gardens
195 Lytton Boulevard
Lytton Park is a 1.7 hectare park that features three lit outdoor tennis courts with a club house, two lit lawn bowling greens with a clubhouse and a children's playground. The park is home to the North Toronto Tennis Club and the North Toronto Lawn Bowling & Croquet Club.
- Allenby School
391 St. Clement's Avenue
This site where Allenby School sits is the site of a large ancestral Huron-Wendat Village. It is thought, based on archaeological excavations completed in 1887, that this village was inhabited in the mid-to-late 1400s. The village was located at the highest point in Toronto, and an artesian spring at the site would have been an excellent source of fresh drinking water for the village's inhabitants. Dozens of ancestral Huron-Wendat villages are known to have been established along the Humber, Don, and Rouge Rivers, and show a progressively northern movement from the north shore of Lake Ontario that eventually culminated in the establishment of the Wendat Confederacy at Wendake (also called Huronia), a Wendat homeland located between Lake Simcoe and Georgian Bay during the seventeenth century. This site would have been surrounded by many acres of gardens planted with the Three Sisters (corn, beans, and squash), along with other plants such as sunflower. Former village sites are understood by Huron-Wendat people to be places of ancestral spiritual presence. The Huron-Wendat would periodically visit such sites to acknowledge and maintain ongoing relationships with their ancestors. Unfortunately, since the late 1800s this village has been subjected to looting and unsystematic archaeological investigations and has been destroyed by urban development.
- The Eglinton Theatre
400 Eglinton Avenue West
The Eglinton Theatre (presently named The Eglinton Grand) was designed by Toronto architects Kaplan & Sprachman and opened in 1936 during a trend of when luxury movie theatres popped up in suburbs across major Canadian cities. In 1993, it was designated as a National Historic Site of Canada for its Art Deco style, including sleek, uncluttered lines, decorative zigzag patterns and coloured neon sign. Today the building operates as an event venue. An historical plaque can be found outside the main doors on the west wall.
Accessibility information: All points of interest are viewable from the street except for this stroll's parks, ravines and gardens. The ravine system in this neighbourhood includes steep hills, stairs and unpaved paths at some points. Alexander Muir Memorial Gardens has a staircase leading into the park and has a combination of stone and dirt pathways. The most accessible entry to Lawrence Park Ravine is located off Alexander Muir Boulevard. For Blythwood Park Ravine, a paved trail begins at 152 Strathgowan Avenue. A paved walkway runs through Lytton Park and a paved ramp is available at the entrance of Lytton Park Sunken Garden.
The StrollTO itineraries may follow routes that do not receive winter maintenance. Please review winter safety tips and for more information contact 311.
Soundtracks of the City
From global superstars to local favourites and ones to watch, the Soundtracks of the City playlists all feature artists who have called Toronto home. Whether it’s a lyric about the neighborhood, an artist representing a cultural community, or a tie-in to the StrollTO itinerary itself, all the music reflects connections to an individual ward or the City as a whole.
Music was chosen based on an artist’s Spotify presence and each song’s broad appeal, as well as its associations with the cultures, languages and ethnicities that reflect Toronto’s neighborhoods and diverse music scene. Soundtracks of the City combines 425 songs that feature more than 500 different local artists or acts, showcasing songs in 23 different languages.