Where the Streets Have Names

Toronto has some odd street names.  Take Avenue Road, for example.  And that's just the beginning.

There's a street in my neighbourhood called Parkview.  One time I walked along it until I finally came to the park it was named for.  I was curious to see what the park itself was called.  I circled around to the front of the wooden sign.  It read:  "Parkview Park".  So, the street is named for the park which is named for the street.  Whose idea was that?

Yonge Street is always a tough one to explain to out-of-towners.  We pronounce it "young".  You can always tell if you're talking to someone from a foreign call centre if, when confirming your shipping address, they rhyme it with "sponge".

Supertest is a favourite of mine.  It sounds like a place where exciting science experiments happen, or maybe car races.

Once, while house-hunting, I visited a street called Dingwall.  Even if the house hadn't been a wreck, I don't know if I would have considered it.  I wouldn't want to have an address on Dingwall.

The list of bizarre Toronto street names certainly wouldn't be complete without mentioning Cummer.

I've never understood why certain streets are referred to as "the" followed by their name.  Danforth Avenue is commonly known as The Danforth.  There's also The Queensway.  But no one ever refers to The Yonge, or The Supertest.  (Or, I must add, The Cummer.)

When Ken and I were hunting for condos a few years ago, we ran across quite a few condo developments that had named their private drives creatively.  My two favourites were from the same complex.  There was Fashion Roseway, and Flaming Roseway.

I was thinking that it would be pretty cool if we combined some of our odd street names to make even better names, such as The Flaming Queensway.

Obviously they should put me in charge of naming new streets.  Now that this post is up, I'll be waiting for the job offer.