Living In The Beach
Today the Queen Street East strip and the boardwalk pair up to provide the best of both worlds – great shopping and dining alongside one of Toronto’s most beautiful nature walks. Queen Street East features colourful indie shops, intimate bistros and hip bars, along with homey bakeries and ice cream parlours. Kew Gardens park offers skating and tennis, and hosts The Beaches International Jazz Festival.
There is an extensive park system along the Waterfront (with Kew Gardens being the only one that extends up to Queen Street) as well as a parks that follow a ravine (partially buried) that bisects the neighbourhood from north to south at Glen Manor Road. When it comes to beach community charm this neighbourhood does not disappoint.
- Walk Score: 88
- Bike Score: 91
- Transit Score: Excellent Transit
Schools In The Beach
Primary
- Glen Ames Senior Public School
- Adam Beck Junior Public School
- Balmy Beach Community School
- Beaches Alternative School
- Kew Beach Junior Public School
- Kimberley Junior Public School
- Norway Junior Public School
- Williamson Road Junior Public School
Secondary
- Malvern Collegiate Institute
Catholic
Primary
- St. Denis CS
- St. John’s CS
Secondary
- Notre Dame High School
- Neil McNeil Catholic Secondary School
Real Estate In The Beach
The neighbourhood side streets are mostly lined with semi-detached and large-scale Victorian, Edwardian and new-style houses. There are also low-rise apartment buildings and a few row-houses. Controversy has risen in recent years over new development in the neighbourhood that is changing the traditional aesthetic, with denser housing causing some residents to protect the traditional cottage-like appearance of the homes with heritage designations for some streets.
