The Beaches
A lakefront village inside the city, where the boardwalk is the back garden and the commute is a streetcar ride along Queen.
What it is like
The Beaches reads as a small town that happens to sit twenty minutes from downtown. The housing stock is mostly detached and semi-detached, much of it Edwardian, on narrow lots running north from the lake — which is why frontage varies so much street to street and why two houses with the same bedroom count can be priced quite differently. North of Kingston Road the lots widen and the prices change again.
Getting around
The 501 Queen streetcar runs the length of the neighbourhood and is the spine of most commutes; the 502 and 503 add rush-hour capacity downtown. Woodbine and Main Street stations on Line 2 Bloor–Danforth are a short bus ride north, and Danforth GO on the Lakeshore East line puts Union about fifteen minutes away.
Things to see and do
Woodbine Beach and the boardwalk run for roughly three kilometres to the R.C. Harris Water Treatment Plant, an art deco building at the eastern end that is worth the walk on its own. Kew Gardens holds the farmers’ market and the bandstand; Ashbridges Bay is the sailing and volleyball end. The Martin Goodman Trail passes through, so the waterfront is continuous by bicycle in both directions.
Shops, restaurants and work
Queen Street East between Woodbine and Victoria Park is the retail spine — independent shops, cafés and restaurants at street level with apartments above, rather than chains in plazas. Kingston Road has a second, quieter commercial strip serving the streets above it.
Schools nearby
Within about 2.5km of the middle of the neighbourhood, with the Ministry of Education’s EQAO results where the school reported them. A rating is one measure of one thing, and school boundaries are set by the board rather than by distance — check any individual listing for the boundaries that actually apply to it.
| School | Level | EQAO |
|---|---|---|
| St Denis Catholic School | Elementary | 9.1 / 10 |
| Balmy Beach Community School | Elementary | 8.8 / 10 |
| Earl Beatty Junior and Senior Public School | Elementary | 8.7 / 10 |
| Malvern Collegiate Institute | Secondary | 8.7 / 10 |
| Kew Beach Junior Public School | Elementary | 8.5 / 10 |
| Norway Junior Public School | Elementary | 8.5 / 10 |
Homes for sale in The Beaches
See what is on the market in The Beaches now — 84 listings, each with its school boundaries, sale history and what comparable homes actually sold for.
Sale figures are aggregates from the Toronto Regional Real Estate Board’s MLS® System over the last twelve months. School information: Ontario Ministry of Education and EQAO. Population, income and age: Statistics Canada 2021 Census, averaged across the dissemination areas this neighbourhood covers.