Bedford Park

Bedford Park is bisected by Yonge Street, lying north of Lawrence Avenue and east of Avenue Road. The northern boundary is Brooke Avenue on the West side of Yonge, and Snowdon Avenue to the east of Yonge. The eastern boundary is Roslin Avenue.

Bedford Park began as a farming hamlet North of Toronto. The hamlet was a popular stopover for farmers making their way to market in the city. The neighbourhood was likely named after the Bedford Park Hotel, which opened in 1873 at the southwest corner of Yonge Street and Fairlawn Avenue, just north of Lawrence Avenue.

In 1890 Bedford Park was amalgamated with the hamlets of  Davisville and Eglinton to the south, and incorporated as the City of North Toronto. In the same year, the Metropolitan Street Railway of Toronto began service to the area, encouraging residential development.

The original homes in the area were constructed between 1890 and 1940. Bedford Park was conceived as a middle class housing development on the northern boundary of the city, with mid-sized detached and semi-detached homes. The relocation of the Rosedale Golf Club in 1909 to the section of the Don Valley northeast of Bedford Park brought about development of the (more moneyed) bordering Neighbourhoods of Lawrence Park and Teddington Park.

Bedford Park's quiet streets, mature trees, good schools and parks, and proximity to Highway 401 and Lawrence subway station attract young professionals and their families to the neighbourhood. Many of the original homes still stand, with a number having undergone extensive renovations. A portion of the original homes in the neighbourhood have been torn down and replaced with larger, more modern homes.

The City of Toronto's neighbourhood definitions place Bedford Park within a larger Neighbourhood, called Bedford Park-Nortown. The border of this larger area extend to Bathurst Street on the west, Highway 401 to the north, Hillhurst Boulevard (just north of Eglinton Avenu) to the south, and zigzags from northeast to southwest along Yonge Street and Avenue Road. The larger area now also encompasses Ledbury Park, which has turned into quite a large construction zone with the huge migration of young professionals to the area. The classic bungalows which dominated the area are being replaced by dumpsters and construction, which has vaulted the housing value disproportionately to the city average.

Area Schools

To find out which schools are associated with your prospective new home, please click here to access the Toronto District School Board Street Guide and enter the street name only. 

Please feel free to contact me regarding this area and or any surrounding areas that you may be interested in. Call me at  416-804-0991 (client line) or 416-441-2888 ext 266 (office) or send me an email ctalpalar@trebnet.com