Weston, Toronto
Weston is a neighbourhood in
Toronto,
Ontario,
Canada in the north-west end of the city. The neighbourhood generally lies south of
Highway 401, east of the
Humber River, north of Eglinton Avenue, and west of Jane Street. Weston Road just north of Lawrence Avenue is the "downtown" core of Weston, with many small businesses and services.
Today, Weston is filled largely with Black Canadians, African immigrants and Caribbeans. Recent significant immigrant groups include
Jamaicans, and Somalians.
The first European settlement was in the
1790s, when a
saw mill was built on the west side of the Tanaouate River (which we now call the Humber River) on an old native trading path along the Humber River, named after the well-known
Humber estuary in
Yorkshire,
England. In
1815, James Farr, a prominent local mill owner, named it "Weston" after the place of his birth north of London in Hertfordshire
Britain. As
this page on Weston notes, "Weston grew along both sides of the river until
1850 when a disastrous
flood destroyed the west bank settlement. Improvements to Weston Road (then known as Main Street) and the arrival of the
Grand Trunk Railway in
1856 stimulated substantial growth on the east side."
The
Town of Weston grew, and over the
19th century became an important industrial centre for the Toronto area. The symbol adopted for the town, an outline of an old-fashioned bicycle, was based on this history of manufacturing and especially the old
Canada Cycle and Motor Company Limited (CCM) bicycle factory on Lawrence Avenue just east of Weston Road. Models of bicycles now hang from the streetlights along Weston Road.
Weston was incorporated as a village in
1881, and then as a town in
1914; but in
1967 it became part of the Borough (later City) of
York. In
1998, York was in turn
amalgamated with the five other members of
Metropolitan Toronto, (Toronto,
Etobicoke,
North York,
East York, and
Scarborough) in the new "
megacity" of Toronto.
So in a sense, the Town of Weston has not existed as a legal reality for almost forty years, but the strength of identity of the area is such that it continues to be informally known as "The Town of Weston" to this day. In fact, many of the areas businesses and residents still use "Weston, Ontario" on the sender address for mail, without any reference being made to Toronto. The town has a historic library (previously a
Mechanic's Institute and
Carnegie library) and there is a Weston
farmers' market every Saturday morning from early June to the first weekend in November.
Of late, the issue of the proposed
Blue22 hi-speed rail link between
Toronto Airport and
Union Station downtown has become a hot political issue in Weston during the Canadian Federal Election being held on January 23, 2006. So called for its 22 minute ride from end to end, it has been proposed for completion by 2009. Under the current proposal, there is no plan for the line to stop in Weston where the route would pass. Weston is currently a station stop on the
Georgetown GO line.
The incumbent liberal MP,
Alan Tonks, supports the link, while the other candidates oppose it. If approved, the link would see the construction of three additional tracks through the neigbourhood and would increase rail traffic more than four fold. Community activists are worried about the link severing the community (vehicle traffic on one street will be permanently blocked from crossing the tracks, replaced by a pedestrian bridge) and the possibility of lower future property values due to increased noise and diesel fumes.
*
List of neighbourhoods in Toronto*
Welcome To Weston*
Weston Place*
Ontario Plaques - The Founding of Weston
