Trinity Bellwoods Park
Encyclopedia
Trinity Bellwoods Park is located on the west side of downtown Toronto
, Ontario
Canada
, bordered by Queen Street West
on the south and Dundas Street on the north. The western boundary of the park is Crawford Street, running north to within a short block of Dundas, where the park extends further west several hundred feet past the Crawford Street Bridge
to Shaw Street. Most of the park's area lies in the original Garrison Creek
ravine and this creek, now a buried city storm sewer, still flows beneath the park from the northwest to the southeast corners.
The old Garrison Creek emptied into Lake Ontario
at the site of Fort York
, and the land north and west of the fort was set aside as a military reserve. As the town of York
grew around the fort, the military reserve was gradually sold off in lots to retiring British
officers and friends of the military command. British Army
Lieutenant-Colonel Samuel Smith
is said to have bought 1000 acres (4 km²) of land here in 1801, which he called Gore Vale after Lieutenant Governor Francis Gore
, the Vale
in the name referring to Garrison Creek ravine.
Much of the current park land was originally purchased from a Mrs. Cameron of Gore Vale in 1851 by Scottish
-Canadian Bishop
John Strachan
, an influential Anglican deacon
who wanted Toronto to have a private school with strong Anglican ties, partly in opposition to the recently secularized University of Toronto
. Buildings were soon constructed and students began attending Trinity College
in 1852. After federation with the University of Toronto
in 1904 and completion of the downtown Trinity campus in 1925, the school left this location. The original buildings were then sold to the City of Toronto and most were demolished in the early 1950s. The destruction of the Old Trinity buildings marked the beginning of two decades of extensive heritage destruction in Toronto. Of the college itself, only the stone and iron gates now remain, at the Queen Street park entrance facing south on Strachan Avenue, although the former St. Hilda's College building, (the women's residence of Trinity College) still overlooks the northern half of the park on the western edge. It is now a seniors' residence, John Gibson House.
In the 1950s Garrison Creek was entirely buried and the creek ravine backfilled around the Crawford Street Bridge, raising the surface of the northern end of the park to almost the height of Dundas Street. The steep drop from this upper level to the lower part of the park has become a popular local toboggan
run in winter. Picnic tables and small barbecues are also provided here for summertime use, and public washroom facilities.
In 2001, the Friends of Trinity Bellwoods Park was formed to co-ordinate volunteer activities and provide input to the city on park management.
The park has a community recreation centre, managed and owned by the City of Toronto, called Trinity CRC, located at 155 Crawford Street in the west side of the park. It has two indoor pools, gymnasium, fitness centre, indoor walking/running track and multi-purpose rooms. Adjacent to the centre, in the park, are a volleyball court, large playground, and children's outdoor wading pool. Also in the park are eight outdoor tennis courts located in the south-east corner and an outdoor ice skating rink at the north-east boundary. There is also field space for soccer, football, and rugby, as well as three softball fields along the east boundary.
Trinity Bellwoods is a favourite place for local residents to walk their dogs. The ravine, known as the dog bowl, is the designated leash-free area and was used in the film Dog Park
.
Toronto Parks, Forestry and Recreation maintain a marked Discovery Walk and cycling trail above and parallel to Garrison Creek, which runs through the park from the northwest to the southeast.
Toronto based artist organization Humble Empire http://heisthefuture.com/ created the "Live In Bellwoods"http://liveinbellwoods.com series of videos featuring acoustic performances by popular artists living in or visiting Toronto. Each video highlights a different area of the park. Dave Monks from Tokyo Police Club
, Luke Lalonde from Born Ruffians
, and Chris White of Bellewoods were among the first performers to be featured in the series.
The park is also home of white squirrels, the subject of urban folklore in the city. The Toronto Special newsmagazine featured White Squirrel hunts in a past issue.
The diverse variety of native and imported trees planted throughout the park, in various stages of growth from young to mature, provide a brilliant display of fall colour against the deep green grass. In winter the night view of the Toronto skyline
rising above the ravine is extraordinarily beautiful, especially looking east from the Discovery Walk pathway near the western boundary. Tall black Victorian
-style iron lamp poles along the main paths provide safe but soft illumination and a charming touch of character.
, and informal summer drumming circles. The recent explosion of art galleries a few blocks west of the park on Queen Street will likely only encourage this welcome trend.
In June 2007 a weekly farmers market opened in the northwest corner of the park, at Shaw and Dundas. The market runs from 3 to 7 p.m. every Tuesday from June to October, rain or shine.
The largest annual cultural event in the park is Portugal Day, organized by the local residents and businesses of Portugal Village and the Portuguese
community of Toronto. In the northwest corner of the park there is a small reminder of the diverse Latin American character of other nearby neighbourhoods: a bust of Simón Bolívar
which was donated to the city.
The alleys and laneways which surround Trinity Bellwoods park have become an impromptu art gallery open to the public for one weekend in August for the past four years: Alley Jaunt.
The park is the site for an annual art sale in September as part of the Queen West Art Crawl.
And it is also home to section 3 of the Nuit Blanche
art festival.
It was originally chosen as the site of the G20 protests on June 26–27, 2010, but Toronto Police announced that they would use the area north of Queen's Park instead after local residents opposed the use of Trinity Bellwoods Park as a protest site.http://www.cp24.com/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20100511/100511_protest/20100511/?hub=CP24Home
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
, Ontario
Ontario
Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....
Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, bordered by Queen Street West
Queen Street West
Queen Street West describes both the western branch of Queen Street, a major east-west thoroughfare, and a series of neighbourhoods or commercial districts, situated west of Yonge Street in downtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Queen Street begins in the west at the intersection of King Street, The...
on the south and Dundas Street on the north. The western boundary of the park is Crawford Street, running north to within a short block of Dundas, where the park extends further west several hundred feet past the Crawford Street Bridge
Crawford Street Bridge
Crawford Street Bridge is one of two known bridges that once spanned over Garrison Creek valley in Toronto, Canada, and buried intact in the 20th century...
to Shaw Street. Most of the park's area lies in the original Garrison Creek
Garrison Creek
Garrison Creek was a short stream about long that flowed southeast into the west side of Toronto Harbour in Ontario, Canada.It has been largely covered over and filled in, but geographical traces of the creek can still be found. The natural amphitheatre known as Christie Pits is one such remnant;...
ravine and this creek, now a buried city storm sewer, still flows beneath the park from the northwest to the southeast corners.
History
Lake Ontario
Lake Ontario is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. It is bounded on the north and southwest by the Canadian province of Ontario, and on the south by the American state of New York. Ontario, Canada's most populous province, was named for the lake. In the Wyandot language, ontarío means...
at the site of Fort York
Fort York
Fort York is a historic site of military fortifications and related buildings on the west side of downtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The fort was built by the British Army and Canadian militia troops in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, to defend the settlement and the new capital of the...
, and the land north and west of the fort was set aside as a military reserve. As the town of York
York, Upper Canada
York was the name of Old Toronto between 1793 and 1834. It was the second capital of Upper Canada.- History :The town was established in 1793 by Governor John Graves Simcoe, with a new 'Fort York' on the site of the last French 'Fort Toronto'...
grew around the fort, the military reserve was gradually sold off in lots to retiring British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
officers and friends of the military command. British Army
British Army
The British Army is the land warfare branch of Her Majesty's Armed Forces in the United Kingdom. It came into being with the unification of the Kingdom of England and Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. The new British Army incorporated Regiments that had already existed in England...
Lieutenant-Colonel Samuel Smith
Samuel Smith (Upper Canada)
Samuel Smith was a Loyalist British army officer and politician. He was appointed to the Executive Council of Upper Canada and appointed Administrator of Upper Canada....
is said to have bought 1000 acres (4 km²) of land here in 1801, which he called Gore Vale after Lieutenant Governor Francis Gore
Francis Gore
Francis Gore, was a British officer and British colonial administrator.Gore was commissioned into the 44th Foot in 1787, but transferred to the 54th Foot in 1794 and the 17th Light Dragoons in 1795. He retired with the rank of major and then became Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Canada from 1806 to...
, the Vale
River Valley
River Valley is the name of an urban planning area within the Central Area, Singapore's central business district.The River Valley Planning Area is defined by the region bounded by Orchard Boulevard, Devonshire Road and Eber Road to the north, Oxley Rise and Mohamed Sultan Road to the east, Martin...
in the name referring to Garrison Creek ravine.
Much of the current park land was originally purchased from a Mrs. Cameron of Gore Vale in 1851 by Scottish
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
-Canadian Bishop
Bishop
A bishop is an ordained or consecrated member of the Christian clergy who is generally entrusted with a position of authority and oversight. Within the Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox Churches, in the Assyrian Church of the East, in the Independent Catholic Churches, and in the...
John Strachan
John Strachan
John Strachan was an influential figure in Upper Canada and the first Anglican Bishop of Toronto.-Early life:Strachan was the youngest of six children born to a quarry worker in Aberdeen, Scotland. He graduated from King's College, Aberdeen in 1797...
, an influential Anglican deacon
Deacon
Deacon is a ministry in the Christian Church that is generally associated with service of some kind, but which varies among theological and denominational traditions...
who wanted Toronto to have a private school with strong Anglican ties, partly in opposition to the recently secularized University of Toronto
University of Toronto
The University of Toronto is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, situated on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution of higher learning in Upper Canada...
. Buildings were soon constructed and students began attending Trinity College
University of Trinity College
The University of Trinity College, informally referred to as Trin, is a college of the University of Toronto, founded in 1851 by Bishop John Strachan. Trinity was intended by Strachan as a college of strong Anglican alignment, after the University of Toronto severed its ties with the Church of...
in 1852. After federation with the University of Toronto
University of Toronto
The University of Toronto is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, situated on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution of higher learning in Upper Canada...
in 1904 and completion of the downtown Trinity campus in 1925, the school left this location. The original buildings were then sold to the City of Toronto and most were demolished in the early 1950s. The destruction of the Old Trinity buildings marked the beginning of two decades of extensive heritage destruction in Toronto. Of the college itself, only the stone and iron gates now remain, at the Queen Street park entrance facing south on Strachan Avenue, although the former St. Hilda's College building, (the women's residence of Trinity College) still overlooks the northern half of the park on the western edge. It is now a seniors' residence, John Gibson House.
In the 1950s Garrison Creek was entirely buried and the creek ravine backfilled around the Crawford Street Bridge, raising the surface of the northern end of the park to almost the height of Dundas Street. The steep drop from this upper level to the lower part of the park has become a popular local toboggan
Toboggan
A toboggan is a simple sled which is a traditional form of transport used by the Innu and Cree of northern Canada. In modern times, it is used on snow to carry one or more people down a hill or other slope for recreation. Designs vary from simple, traditional models to modern engineered composites...
run in winter. Picnic tables and small barbecues are also provided here for summertime use, and public washroom facilities.
In 2001, the Friends of Trinity Bellwoods Park was formed to co-ordinate volunteer activities and provide input to the city on park management.
Features
Trinity Bellwoods is a favourite place for local residents to walk their dogs. The ravine, known as the dog bowl, is the designated leash-free area and was used in the film Dog Park
Dog Park (film)
Dog Park is a 1998 American/Canadian romantic comedy film written and directed by Bruce McCulloch.-Plot:Andy, is a writer for newspaper classifieds who has been bouncing from relationship to relationship since eighth grade. Throughout the film, he loses custody of his dog when his girlfriend,...
.
Toronto Parks, Forestry and Recreation maintain a marked Discovery Walk and cycling trail above and parallel to Garrison Creek, which runs through the park from the northwest to the southeast.
Toronto based artist organization Humble Empire http://heisthefuture.com/ created the "Live In Bellwoods"http://liveinbellwoods.com series of videos featuring acoustic performances by popular artists living in or visiting Toronto. Each video highlights a different area of the park. Dave Monks from Tokyo Police Club
Tokyo Police Club
Tokyo Police Club is an indie rock band from Newmarket, Ontario, Canada. It consists of vocalist and bassist David Monks , keyboardist Graham Wright, guitarist Josh Hook , and drummer Greg Alsop ....
, Luke Lalonde from Born Ruffians
Born Ruffians
Born Ruffians, formerly known as Mornington Drive, are a Canadian indie rock band formed in 2004, originally from Midland, Ontario, located near Georgian Bay. They are currently signed to Warp Records. The members are Luke Lalonde , Mitch Derosier and Steven Hamelin...
, and Chris White of Bellewoods were among the first performers to be featured in the series.
The park is also home of white squirrels, the subject of urban folklore in the city. The Toronto Special newsmagazine featured White Squirrel hunts in a past issue.
The diverse variety of native and imported trees planted throughout the park, in various stages of growth from young to mature, provide a brilliant display of fall colour against the deep green grass. In winter the night view of the Toronto skyline
Skyline
A skyline is the overall or partial view of a city's tall buildings and structures consisting of many skyscrapers in front of the sky in the background. It can also be described as the artificial horizon that a city's overall structure creates. Skylines serve as a kind of fingerprint of a city, as...
rising above the ravine is extraordinarily beautiful, especially looking east from the Discovery Walk pathway near the western boundary. Tall black Victorian
Victorian era
The Victorian era of British history was the period of Queen Victoria's reign from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. It was a long period of peace, prosperity, refined sensibilities and national self-confidence...
-style iron lamp poles along the main paths provide safe but soft illumination and a charming touch of character.
Events
Trinity Bellwoods has been the site of many recent cultural events, including an anarchist bookfair, live theatre, performance artPerformance art
In art, performance art is a performance presented to an audience, traditionally interdisciplinary. Performance may be either scripted or unscripted, random or carefully orchestrated; spontaneous or otherwise carefully planned with or without audience participation. The performance can be live or...
, and informal summer drumming circles. The recent explosion of art galleries a few blocks west of the park on Queen Street will likely only encourage this welcome trend.
In June 2007 a weekly farmers market opened in the northwest corner of the park, at Shaw and Dundas. The market runs from 3 to 7 p.m. every Tuesday from June to October, rain or shine.
The largest annual cultural event in the park is Portugal Day, organized by the local residents and businesses of Portugal Village and the Portuguese
Portugal
Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...
community of Toronto. In the northwest corner of the park there is a small reminder of the diverse Latin American character of other nearby neighbourhoods: a bust of Simón Bolívar
Simón Bolívar
Simón José Antonio de la Santísima Trinidad Bolívar y Palacios Ponte y Yeiter, commonly known as Simón Bolívar was a Venezuelan military and political leader...
which was donated to the city.
The alleys and laneways which surround Trinity Bellwoods park have become an impromptu art gallery open to the public for one weekend in August for the past four years: Alley Jaunt.
The park is the site for an annual art sale in September as part of the Queen West Art Crawl.
And it is also home to section 3 of the Nuit Blanche
Nuit Blanche
Nuit Blanche is an annual all-night or night-time arts festival. A Nuit Blanche will typically have museums, private and public art galleries, and other cultural institutions open and free of charge, with the centre of the city itself being turned into a de facto art gallery, providing space for...
art festival.
It was originally chosen as the site of the G20 protests on June 26–27, 2010, but Toronto Police announced that they would use the area north of Queen's Park instead after local residents opposed the use of Trinity Bellwoods Park as a protest site.http://www.cp24.com/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20100511/100511_protest/20100511/?hub=CP24Home