Toronto Neighbourhood Spotlight – Leslieville

Leslieville is a neighbourhood in Toronto, Ontario, Canada east of the Don River bounded by the Canadian National railway line and Gerrard Street to the north, Empire Avenue to the west, Eastern Avenue to south, and Coxwell Avenue to the east.

This east-end neighbourhood forms part of the broader neighbourhood of South Riverdale. Leslieville began as a small village in the 1850s, which grew up around the Toronto Nurseries owned by George Leslie and sons, after whom the community is named. Most of Leslieville’s residents were gardeners or were employed at one of the brick-making factories in the area. 

Alexander Muir, the composer of The Maple Leaf Forever, was the first principal of the Leslieville Public School, one of the first buildings in the village. Muir was inspired when a brilliant maple leaf fell on his jacket from a Leslieville tree. That tree fell on July 19, 2013. Before this, it was a famous landmark in the community.

For decades, South Riverdale was home to light industry, particularly along Eastern Ave. south of Queen St. Metal processing and tanning were notable industries which, along with other industrial activity, left Leslieville and South Riverdale with a legacy of contaminated land. In 2000, the A.R. Clarke Tannery went up in flames, burning for days and unleashing toxic ash on the surrounding neighbourhood. Almost all these industrial areas have now been abandoned and are being redeveloped.

Leslieville once mainly housed those who worked in the factories, and their departure has greatly changed the area. The reduction in air pollution and fumes have made it much more appealing to members of the middle and creative class. Leslieville is a neighbourhood which gentrified rapidly between 2000 and 2010 when it was commonly referred to as an up-and-coming neighbourhood, with new restaurants, shops and cafés catering to its new populace popping up. Several

industrial buildings in the immediate area, including north along Carlaw, have been revamped into condominiums. Despite the average house costing just under a million dollars, it still has a largely working-class and middle-class sensibility. Most of Leslieville is middle class. In some of the former industrial areas large film studios have opened, including Cinevillage and Showline Studios. Just to the south, in the Port Lands area, the massive new Pinewood Toronto Studios have been built. 

A fortified site along Eastern Avenue was the main Toronto base of the Hells Angels until it was raided by police and confiscated in 2007.  A number of large public housing complexes built in the neighbourhood in the 1960s and 1970s suffer from ills due to bad design. Just to the southeast of the neighbourhood is the massive Ashbridges Bay Wastewater Treatment Plant, Canada’s largest. Concerted efforts have been made to eliminate odours for the benefit of local residents, but they still do sometimes waft over the area and the neighbouring Beach neighbourhood.