Trinity Bellwoods Park is a public park located in
Toronto, Ontario
Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...
, Canada, bordered by
Queen Street West on the south and
Dundas Street on the north. The western boundary of the park is Crawford Street, several hundred feet before Crawford intersects with Dundas St. West, the park juts toward Shaw Street, westside of the
Crawford Street Bridge. Most of the park's area lies in the original
Garrison Creek ravine and this creek, now a buried city storm sewer, still flows beneath the park from the northwest to the southeast corners.
History
The old
Garrison Creek emptied into
Lake Ontario
Lake Ontario is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. It is bounded on the north, west, and southwest by the Canadian province of Ontario, and on the south and east by the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. The Canada–United Sta ...
at the site of
Fort York, and the land north and west of the fort was set aside as a military reserve. As the town of
York
York is a cathedral city in North Yorkshire, England, with Roman Britain, Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers River Ouse, Yorkshire, Ouse and River Foss, Foss. It has many historic buildings and other structures, such as a Yor ...
grew around the fort, the military reserve was gradually sold off in lots to retiring
British
British may refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies.
* British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...
officers and friends of the military command.
Samuel Smith was granted of land in 1806, which he called Gore Vale after
Lieutenant Governor Francis Gore;
"
vale
A vale is a type of valley.
Vale may also refer to:
Places Georgia
* Vale, Georgia, a town in the Samtskhe-Javakheti region
Norway
* Våle, a historic municipality
Portugal
* Vale (Santa Maria da Feira), a former civil parish in the municip ...
" referred to Garrison Creek
ravine
A ravine is a landform that is narrower than a canyon and is often the product of streambank erosion. Ravines are typically classified as larger in scale than gullies, although smaller than valleys. Ravines may also be called a cleuch, dell, ...
. A portion of Smith's grant later became the park.
When the park was first created (after 1900) it was referred to as Bellwoods Park in the 1903 Goad's Map with a nearby street named Bellwoods Avenue. The ''Bellwoods'' name is believed to be associated to former alderman
William Bell, who served St. Stephen's Ward from 1881 to 1883 and again from 1888 to 1896.

Much of the current parkland was originally purchased from Janet Cameron (sister of Lieutenant Colonel Duncan Cameron C.B. whom first lived here) of Gore Vale in 1851 by
Scottish-Canadian
Bishop
A bishop is an ordained member of the clergy who is entrusted with a position of Episcopal polity, authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance and administration of di ...
John Strachan, an influential
Anglican
Anglicanism, also known as Episcopalianism in some countries, is a Western Christianity, Western Christian tradition which developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the ...
cleric who wanted Toronto to have a private college with strong Anglican ties, partly in opposition to the recently secularized
University of Toronto
The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public university, public research university whose main campus is located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park (Toronto), Queen's Park in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was founded by ...
. Buildings were soon constructed (Gothic Revival structure by architect
Kivas Tully) and students began attending
Trinity College in 1852. After federation with the University of Toronto in 1904 and completion of the downtown Trinity campus in 1925, the school left this location. The original buildings were then sold to the City of Toronto and most were demolished in the early 1950s. The destruction of the Trinity buildings marked the beginning of two decades of extensive heritage destruction in Toronto. Of the college itself, only the stone gates now remain,
at the Queen Street park entrance facing south on Strachan Avenue, although the former
St. Hilda's College building from 1899, (the women's residence of Trinity College) still overlooks the northern half of the park on the western edge. It is now a seniors' residence, John Gibson House. The iron gates are replica with original now installed at
Trinity College School entrance on Deblaquire Street North in
Port Hope, Ontario.
In the 1950s, Garrison Creek was entirely buried and the creek ravine backfilled around the
Crawford Street Bridge with displaced soil from the new Bloor-Danforth subway line, raising the surface of the northern end of the park to almost the height of Dundas Street. The steep drop from this upper level to the lower part of the park has become a popular local
toboggan run in winter. The larger southern part of the 'bowl' is the largest designated dogs 'off-leash' park. Picnic tables are also provided here for summertime use and public washroom facilities. There is a historical plaque the commemorates the bridge buried under this stretch of Crawford, just south of Dundas West.
In 2001, the Friends of Trinity Bellwoods Park was formed to coordinate volunteer activities and provide input to the city on park management. It is made up of volunteer community members
Features

The park is . It has a community recreation centre, managed and owned by the City of Toronto, called Trinity CRC, located at 155 Crawford Street on the west side of the park. It has two indoor pools, gymnasium, fitness centre, indoor walking/running track and multi-purpose rooms. Adjacent to the centre, in the park, are a volleyball court, large playground, and children's outdoor wading pool. Also in the park are eight outdoor tennis courts located in the south-east corner and an outdoor ice skating rink at the north-east boundary and volleyball court just north of the Rec Centre. There is also field space for soccer, football, and rugby, as well as three softball fields along the east boundary.
Toronto Parks, Forestry and Recreation Division maintain a marked Discovery Walk and shared pedestrian/cycling trail above and parallel to Garrison Creek, which runs through the park from the northwest to the southeast. Trinity Bellwoods is a favourite place for local residents to walk their dogs. The ravine, known as the dog bowl, is the designated leash-free area. The park is a destination for many to picnic, play sports, and enjoy nature. The park's baseball diamond is officially named SkyDome in reference to the popular former name of the
Rogers Centre
Rogers Centre (originally SkyDome) is a retractable roof stadium in downtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada, situated at the base of the CN Tower near the northern shore of Lake Ontario. Opened in 1989 on the former Railway Lands, it is home to t ...
.
The park is home to white squirrels, the subject of urban folklore in the city.
The Toronto Special news magazine featured White Squirrel hunts in a past issue. The true albino squirrels have pink eyes. It is deemed good luck to have spotted one, or two. As there are families of them.
The diverse variety of native and imported trees planted throughout the park, in various stages of growth from young to mature, provide a brilliant display of fall colour against the deep green grass. The Friends of Trinity Bellwoods Park run the volunteer Adopt-a-tree program (originated by the Friends) that helps ensure the survival of newly planted trees. The emerald ash borer beetle is slowly infesting the trees and succession planting and Parks, Forestry and Recreation have been aggressively planting every year to replace the many that are designated to be cut down because of this beetle. In winter the night view of the Toronto
skyline
A skyline is the wikt:outline, outline or shape viewed near the horizon. It can be created by a city's overall structure, or by human intervention in a rural area, rural setting, or in nature that is formed where the sky meets buildings or the ...
rising above the ravine is extraordinarily beautiful, especially looking east from the Discovery Walk pathway near the western boundary. Tall black
Victorian-style iron lamp poles along the main paths provide safe but soft illumination and a charming touch of character.
Events and activities
Trinity Bellwoods has been the site of many recent cultural events, including outdoor movie nights, an
anarchist bookfair, live theatre,
performance art
Performance art is an artwork or art exhibition created through actions executed by the artist or other participants. It may be witnessed live or through documentation, spontaneously developed or written, and is traditionally presented to a pu ...
, and informal summer drumming circles. In June 2007 a weekly farmers' market opened in the northwest corner of the park, at Shaw and Dundas. It currently operates every Tuesday from 3-7pm from early May to the end of October.
In the northwest corner of the park there is a small reminder of the diverse
Latin American
Latin Americans (; ) are the citizenship, citizens of Latin American countries (or people with cultural, ancestral or national origins in Latin America).
Latin American countries and their Latin American diaspora, diasporas are Metroethnicity, ...
character of other nearby neighbourhoods: a bust of
Simón Bolívar
Simón José Antonio de la Santísima Trinidad Bolívar y Palacios (24July 178317December 1830) was a Venezuelan statesman and military officer who led what are currently the countries of Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Peru, Panama, and Bol ...
which was donated to the city. This is where the Trinity Bellwoods Farmers' Market is located.
It was originally chosen as the site of the G20 protests on June 26–27, 2010, but Toronto Police announced that they would use the area north of Queen's Park instead after local residents opposed the use of Trinity Bellwoods Park as a protest site.
2021 clearing
In 2021, police cleared between 20 and 25 people who had been camping in the park. Notices had been posted to vacate, but after a
COVID-19
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. In January 2020, the disease spread worldwide, resulting in the COVID-19 pandemic.
The symptoms of COVID‑19 can vary but often include fever ...
outbreak in a shelter hotel.
References in culture
Treble Charger wrote a song called Trinity Bellwoods, which was on their debut album
NC17.
Toronto-based artist organization Humble Empire created the "Live In Bellwoods" series of videos featuring acoustic performances by popular artists living in or visiting Toronto. Each video highlights a different area of the park. Dave Monks from
Tokyo Police Club, Luke Lalonde from
Born Ruffians, and Chris White of Bellewoods were among the performers to be featured in the series.
See also
*
2010 G-20 Toronto summit
*
Crawford Street Bridge
References
External links
Friends of Trinity Bellwoods ParkTrinity Bellwoods Farmers Market*
ttp://www.QueenWestArtCrawl.com Queen West Art Crawl
{{Parks and squares in Toronto
Parks in Toronto