Lawrence Manor is a neighbourhood in the city of

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the anch ...

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central C ...

, Canada. This neighbourhood is bounded by Bathurst Street on the east,

Highway 401 King's Highway 401, commonly referred to as Highway 401 and also known by its official name as the Macdonald–Cartier Freeway or colloquially referred to as the four-oh-one, is a controlled-access 400-series highway in the Canadian provinc ...

to the north, the

Allen Allen, Allen's or Allens may refer to: Buildings * Allen Arena, an indoor arena at Lipscomb University in Nashville, Tennessee * Allen Center, a skyscraper complex in downtown Houston, Texas * Allen Fieldhouse, an indoor sports arena on the Unive ...

to the west, and Lawrence Avenue to the south. The western side of the area borders along Bathurst Heights and the large public housing project. Retail stores line much of the area on the west side of Bathurst Street south of Highway 401 to just north of Lawrence Avenue West. Lawrence Plaza at Bathurst and Lawrence caters to the area and opened in 1953. On the side streets west of Bathurst is mainly residential single homes and low rise apartments. The area east of Bathurst to Yonge are home to the more wealthier part of Lawrence Manor. The area was developed by the

Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) (french: Société canadienne d'hypothèques et de logement) (SCHL) is Canada's national housing agency, and state-owned mortgage insurer. It was originally established after World War II, to help re ...

in the 1940s. Baycrest Hospital is located within Lawrence Manor.

Demographics

Lawrence Manor is home to a large population of

Orthodox Jew Orthodox Judaism is the collective term for the traditionalist and theologically conservative branches of contemporary Judaism. Theologically, it is chiefly defined by regarding the Torah, both Written and Oral, as revealed by God to Moses on ...

s, as well as a large Filipino population. About 62% of residents in the northern half of Lawrence Manor identify as being first generation residents, according to the 2011 Census.Statistics Canada, Canadian Census/NHS 2011 This is notably higher than the number of first generation residents in Ontario (~30%) and Canada as a whole (~22%) reported in 2011. The community is home to a number of Orthodox Jewish organizations and religious centres including the Shaarei Shomayim Congregation, the largest modern orthodox synagogue in

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

Education

Two

public In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociological concept of the ''Öffentlichk ...

school board A board of education, school committee or school board is the board of directors or board of trustees of a school, local school district or an equivalent institution. The elected council determines the educational policy in a small regional are ...

s operate schools in Lawrence Manor, the separate

Toronto Catholic District School Board The Toronto Catholic District School Board (TCDSB, known as English-language Separate District School Board No. 40 prior to 1999) is an English-language public-separate school board for Toronto, Ontario, Canada, headquartered in North York. I ...

(TCDSB), and the

secular Secularity, also the secular or secularness (from Latin ''saeculum'', "worldly" or "of a generation"), is the state of being unrelated or neutral in regards to religion. Anything that does not have an explicit reference to religion, either negativ ...

Toronto District School Board The Toronto District School Board (TDSB), formerly known as English-language Public District School Board No. 12 prior to 1999, is the English-language public-secular school board for Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The minority public-secular franc ...

(TDSB). Both TCDSB, and TDSB operate public elementary schools in the neighbourhood. TCDSB operates St. Margaret Catholic School, whereas TDSB operate Baycrest Public School. TCDSB is the only public school board to operate a secondary school in Lawrence Manor,

Dante Alighieri Academy Dante Alighieri Academy (Dante Alighieri, DAA, or Dante, official name: Dante Alighieri Catholic Academy) also known as Dante Alighieri Academy Catholic Secondary School is a Catholic public high school in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Administered by ...

. Both TCDSB institutions operate a satellite campus for the school in the neighbourhood, known as Beatrice Campus. TDSB does not operate a secondary school in the neighbourhood, with TDSB secondary school students residing in Lawrence Manor attending institutions in adjacent neighbourhoods. The French

first language A first language, native tongue, native language, mother tongue or L1 is the first language or dialect that a person has been exposed to from birth or within the critical period. In some countries, the term ''native language'' or ''mother tongu ...

public secular school board,

Conseil scolaire Viamonde The Conseil scolaire Viamonde (CSV) is a public-secular French first language school board, and manages elementary and secondary schools in the Ontario Peninsula and the Greater Golden Horseshoe. The school board operates 41 elementary schools an ...

, and it separate counterpart,

Conseil scolaire catholique MonAvenir Conseil scolaire catholique MonAvenir ( en, My Future Catholic School Board) is a Roman Catholic French first language public- separate school board that manages elementary and secondary schools in the Greater Golden Horseshoe. The school board op ...

also offer schooling to applicable residents of Lawrence Manor, although they do not operate a school in the neighbourhood. CSCM and CSV students attend schools situated in other neighbourhoods in Toronto. In addition to public institutions, the neighbourhood is also home to

Eitz Chaim Schools Eitz Chaim Schools ( he, ישיבת עץ חיים) is a private, Orthodox Jewish elementary school in Toronto and Thornhill, Ontario, Canada. The school receives funding from the UJA Federation of Greater Toronto, primarily based on the amount of ...

, a private Orthodox Jewish elementary school.

Politics

At the federal and provincial level the area is within the riding of

Eglinton—Lawrence Eglinton—Lawrence is a federal electoral district in Ontario, Canada, that has been represented in the House of Commons of Canada since 1979. It covers a portion of Toronto northwest of downtown. It stretches from Yonge Street in the east ...

(formerly in the federal riding of Eglinton and provincially within Oakwood). The current MP and MPP are Liberal

Marco Mendicino Marco Mendicino (; born July 28, 1973) is a Canadian politician who has been the Minister of Public Safety since October 26, 2021. A member of the Liberal Party, Mendicino represents Eglinton—Lawrence in the House of Commons, sitting as a me ...

and Conservative

Robin Martin Robin Lynn Martin is a Canadian politician, who was elected to the Legislative Assembly of Ontario in the 2018 provincial election. She represents the riding of Eglinton—Lawrence as a member of the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario. ...

respectively. At

Toronto City Council Toronto City Council is the governing body of the municipal government of Toronto, Ontario. Meeting at Toronto City Hall, it comprises 25 city councillors and the mayor of Toronto. The current term began on November 15, 2022. Structure The c ...

it is represented by Ward 8 councillor Mike Colle. During the period of

Metro Toronto The Municipality of Metropolitan Toronto was an upper-tier level of municipal government in Ontario, Canada, from 1953 to 1998. It was made up of the old city of Toronto and numerous townships, towns and villages that surrounded Toronto, whic ...

, the area was under the Metro Ward of North York Centre South.

Recreation

Lawrence Manor is home to several municipal parks, including Elijah Park, and Prince of Wales Park. Municipal parks in Lawrence Manor are managed by the

Toronto Parks, Forestry and Recreation Division Toronto Parks, Forestry & Recreation (PFR) is the division of Toronto's municipal government responsible for maintaining the municipal park system and natural spaces, regulation of and provision of urban forestry services, and the delivery of rec ...

. The division also manages the

community centre Community centres, community centers, or community halls are public locations where members of a community tend to gather for group activities, social support, public information, and other purposes. They may sometimes be open for the whole co ...

at the Barbara Frum Library and Recreation Centre. The building is used as a community centre, as well as a branch of the

Toronto Public Library Toronto Public Library (TPL) (french: Bibliothèque publique de Toronto) is a public library system in Toronto, Ontario. It is the largest public library system in Canada, and in 2008 had averaged a higher circulation per capita than any other pub ...

Transportation

Several major roadways serve as the neighbourhood's boundaries, with Bathurst Street to the east, Lawrence Avenue to the south, and

to the north. Highway 401 is a major east-west

controlled access highway A controlled-access highway is a type of highway that has been designed for high-speed vehicular traffic, with all traffic flow—ingress and egress—regulated. Common English terms are freeway, motorway and expressway. Other similar terms i ...

. Portions of another controlled access highway, Allen Road, also bounds the neighbourhood to the northwest.

Public transportation Public transport (also known as public transportation, public transit, mass transit, or simply transit) is a system of transport for passengers by group travel systems available for use by the general public unlike private transport, typical ...

in the neighbourhood is provided by the

Toronto Transit Commission The Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) is the public transport agency that operates bus, subway, streetcar, and paratransit services in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, some of which run into the Peel Region and York Region. It is the oldest and larges ...

(TTC). The TTC operates several

bus routes A bus (contracted from omnibus, with variants multibus, motorbus, autobus, etc.) is a road vehicle that carries significantly more passengers than an average car or van. It is most commonly used in public transport, but is also in use for cha ...

through Lawrence Manor including 7 Bathurst and 52 Lawrence. The

Toronto subway The Toronto subway is a rapid transit system serving Toronto and the neighbouring city of Vaughan in Ontario, Canada, operated by the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC). It is a multimodal rail network consisting of three heavy-capacity rail ...

stop,

Yorkdale station Yorkdale is a subway station on Line 1 Yonge–University in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is located in the median of the William R. Allen Road just south of Highway 401. Opened in 1978, it is named after the nearby Yorkdale Shopping Centre ...

, is situated west of the neighbourhood.

References

External links

Englemount-Lawrence - City of Toronto - Englemount-Lawrence Neighbourhood Profile
{{authority control Jewish communities in Canada Jews and Judaism in Toronto Neighbourhoods in Toronto Orthodox Jewish communities Orthodox Judaism in Ontario