University Avenue's Hospital Row

University Avenue was widened and landscaped into an unusually grand, park-like boulevard through the early-to-mid 20th century, its generous central median and formal plantings designed to give the street a monumental civic character distinct from Toronto's ordinary commercial avenues. Much of the land the widened avenue and its surrounding institutional lots occupied had previously been part of the Ward, cleared over the same period the avenue itself was being developed.

A concentrated cluster of major hospitals

The avenue became lined with a concentrated cluster of major teaching hospitals, including Toronto General Hospital, SickKids, Mount Sinai Hospital and others, earning the corridor its informal nickname, Hospital Row. That density of major medical and research institutions along a single downtown street made University Avenue one of the most significant concentrations of healthcare infrastructure in Canada, tightly linked to the University of Toronto's medical school just to the north.

Sources

• The Canadian Encyclopedia — University Avenue
• Wikipedia — University Avenue (Toronto)

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