Upper Beaches
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Upper Beaches is a rather recently coined name for the neighbourhood directly north of the Beaches area in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It stretches from Woodbine Avenue in the west to Victoria Park in the east. The southern border is Kingston Road, while the northern boundary is generally considered to be the CN tracks between Gerrard Street and Danforth Avenue. The city's official name for this area is East End Danforth, though that is rarely used. The city also includes the buildings along and just north of Danforth Avenue in the neighbourhood.
Until recent years the neighbourhood was largely working class, with lower prices than the Beaches to the south. The area was also home to a number of industrial sites alongside the rail line, which runs just north of Gerrard. Today almost all of the industry has been forced out, and replaced by shoddy and tightly packed large housing developments. It is one of a group of neighbourhoods, such as the South Annex and South Riverdale that have been snapped up quickly by lower middle class recent immigrants as the older downtown neighbourhoods have become dramatically more expensive for them to afford.
Residents in the neighbourhood are primarily lower middle-income earners, although there is a healthy mix across the spectrum. The housing types range from squat apartment buildings to partical-board based single detached homes with a near equal split across most housing types. The area is served by the Danforth GO Station, below Main St. between Gerrard and Danforth in addition to the nearby Woodbine and Main subway stations on the Bloor-Danforth line. Since there are limited links to the Danforth due to the local rail line to the north, the nearest main commercial strip in the area is much further south at Kingston Road, which is home to an eclectic mix of small shops and restaurants, though it is not yet as exclusive as Queen Street to the south.
