Bay Street

For other uses, seeBay Street (disambiguation).

Bay Street

North end	Davenport Road
South end	Lake Ontario
Nearby arterial roads ←University Avenue,Avenue Road Bay Street Yonge Street→

Bay Streetis a major thoroughfare inDowntown Toronto,Ontario,Canada. It is the centre ofToronto'sFinancial Districtand is often used bymetonymyto refer toCanada's financial services industrysince succeedingMontreal'sSt. James Streetin that role in the 1970s.

Bay Street begins atQueens Quay(Toronto Harbour) in the south and ends at Davenport Road in the north. The original section of Bay Street ran only as far north asQueen Street Westand just south of Front Street where the Grand Trunk rail lines entered intoUnion Station.Sections north of Queen Street were renamed Bay Street as several other streets were consolidated and several gaps filled in to create a new thoroughfare in the 1920s. The largest of these streets, Terauley Street, ran from Queen Street West to College Street. At these two points, there is a curve in Bay Street. North of College past Grenville Street to Breadalbane Street was St. Vincent Street, which was later bypassed with new alignment to the west leading to a stub now called St. Vincent Lane from Grosvenor Street to Grenville Street.

History

Doel's Homestead and Brewery on the northwest corner of Bay and Adelaide Street, 1827.

The street was originally known as Bear Street because of frequent bear sightings in the early history of Toronto.It was renamed Bay Street in 1797 from the fact that it connected Lot Street (present-dayQueen Street West) to a bay at theToronto Harbour.In the 19th century the intersection of Bay andKing Streetwas home to Toronto's major newspapers: theMail Building,theold Toronto Star Building,and theWilliam H. Wright Building(oldGlobe and Mailheadquarters) were all located near the intersection.

Until 1922, the section of Bay running north from Queen Street and ending atCollege Streetwas known as Terauley Street (named after the Terauley estate ofJohn Simcoe Macaulaynear Bay and Queen Streets). Several discontinuous streets existed north of College Street toDavenport Road- St. Vincent Street, Chapel Street, North Street, Ketchum Avenue. By-Law 9316 joined these streets together as far north as Scollard Street in 1922.Finally, By-Law 9884, enacted on January 28, 1924, changed the name of Ketchum Avenue to Bay Street, extending it to Davenport Road.There is a short street called Terauley Lane running west of Bay from Grenville Street to Grosvenor Street.

Finance district

Main article:Financial District, Toronto

Office towers forBMO,Scotiabank,CIBCandTD Bankfrom the intersection of Bay andKing Street.

"Bay Street" is frequently used as a metonym to refer to Toronto's Financial District and the Canadian financial sector as a whole, similar toWall Streetin the United States. "Bay Street banker", as in the phrase "cold as a Bay Street banker's heart", was a term of opprobrium especially among Prairie farmers who feared that Toronto-based financial interests were hurting them.Within the legal profession, the term Bay Street is also used colloquially to refer to the large, full-service business law firms of Toronto.

The intersection of Bay andKing Streetis often seen as the centre of Canadian banking and finance. Four of Canada's five major banks have office towers at the intersection — theBank of MontrealatFirst Canadian Place,ScotiabankatScotia Plaza,theCanadian Imperial Bank of Commerce(CIBC) atCommerce Court,andToronto-Dominion Bankat theToronto-Dominion Centre— and the fifth, theRoyal BankatRoyal Bank Plaza,is one block south. Historically, Bay and King was known as the "MINT Corner" from Montreal, Imperial, Nova Scotia, and Toronto, but since 1961 theImperial Bankhas been part of CIBC and the Bank of Nova Scotia has rebranded itself, so this nickname is no longer widely used. The core cluster of towers has crept north with the addition of the 50-storeyBay Adelaide Centreand theSt. Regis Hotel.

Points of interest

Bay Street near Cumberland Terrace

Bay Street at Edward Street

Bay Street near Harbour Street

TheUnion Stationrail, subway, and bus hub partly fronts on Bay at Front, toward the south end of the central business district. The intersection of Bay and Bloor is the location of theToronto Transit Commission'sBay subway station,toward the north end of the central business district. From its 1931 opening until its 2021 decommissioning, intercity bus service was also provided at theToronto Coach Terminalon Bay slightly north of Dundas.

Significantcondominiumdevelopment on Bay, north of the financial district, boomed during the 1990s and construction continues on large, 40-plus storey condominiums and multi-use buildings today. The area is defined by Dundas Street to the south and Bloor/Yorkville to the north and crosses through Toronto'sDiscovery District.Another prominent intersection is the one nearestYorkvilleat Bay andBloor,the centre of an expensive shopping district known asMink Mile.

The area attracts many who work in the financial district and those who work in the Discovery District, nearby hospitals and schools (Toronto Metropolitan University and the University of Toronto). More than 67 per cent (or 10,380) of residents in this area are in the working ages of 25–64, significantly higher than the City of Toronto's average of 58%.

Notable buildings include:

Toronto City HallandOld City Hall,with Bay Street bisecting the two buildings.

• St. Basil's Church (Toronto)
• Toronto Coach Terminal
• Residences of College Park
• 777 Bay
• Murano
• Ontario Government Buildings
• Sutton Place Hotel
• Manulife Centre
• Bell Trinity Square
• Toronto Old City Hall
• Nathan Phillips Square
• Flagship store ofHudson's Bay Company
• Bay-Adelaide Centre
• The St. Regis Toronto
• Commerce Court
• Brookfield Place
• CIBC Square
• Scotiabank Arena
• RBC WaterPark Place

Public transit

Bay Street is served by theroute 19 Bay,which is one of few bus routes exclusively serving Downtown Toronto. Bay Street used to be served bystreetcars lines,which were gradually phased out after the north–southYonge and University subway linesopened in 1954 and 1963 respectively. The remaining streetcar tracks between Dundas and College Streets are now used for short turns and diversions.

See also

• List of financial districts
• List of north–south roads in Toronto

External links

• Bay Street Corridor neighbourhood profile