Toronto Entertainment District

Understand

Financial District

The Financial District is the economic powerhouse of Toronto. Dozens of towering glass, concrete and steel monoliths are a must-see for architecture enthusiasts. The district is actually quite compact and walkable, even in inclement weather. That's because of the "PATH" - 27 km (16 miles) of interconnecting passageways under the streets that feature more than 1,200 stores and services. Street entrances to the subterranean walkway are indicated with "PATH" signage.

Fashion District The heart of Toronto's Fashion District is along Spadina Avenue from Front Street in the south to Queen Street in the north. However, hardly any garment manufacturing is done here today as garment industry work has long since left for cheaper places. Along Spadina, you can still see many graceful, multi-storey loft buildings that used to house garment manufacturing operations; buildings of this type also appear north of Queen Street to Sullivan Street at the southern end of Chinatown. The Fashion District overlaps the Entertainment District along the east side of Spadina Avenue. The name "Fashion District" appears on a street sign at the south-west corner of Spadina Avenue and Richmond Street West beside the Fashion Building, a warehouse-loft.

Rogers Centre Rogers Centre, formerly known as SkyDome and not to be confused with Rogers Stadium in North York, is a multi-purpose stadium, situated next to the CN Tower near the shores of Lake Ontario. It opened in 1989, and is home to the American League's Toronto Blue Jays, and was also home to the Canadian Football League's Toronto Argonauts before that team moved to BMO Field in Harbourfront in 2016. While it is primarily a sports venue, it also hosts other large-scale events such as conventions, trade fairs, concerts, funfairs, and monster truck shows. The stadium was renamed following its purchase by Rogers in 2005, but locals prefer the original "SkyDome". The venue was noted for being the first stadium to have a

Getting there

By plane The nearest airport to Toronto's financial district is the Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport, which is located across a narrow channel from the foot of Bathurst Street in the Harbourfront district. The main commercial airline serving the airport is Porter, operating year-round flights to New York City, Chicago, Montreal, Quebec City and Halifax as well as winter flights to Mont-Tremblant. Air Canada Express also offers service to Montreal. Porter operates a free bus for its passengers between the airport and Union Station; alternately, you can take the 509 streetcar from Queen's Quay and Bathurst, a few blocks from the airport, to Union Station.

By train Toronto's main railway station, Union Station sits at the foot of the financial district, on Front Street between York and Bay Streets. All commuter rail lines in the city run to and from Union Station and are run by Go Transit. Trains run all day on weekdays and weekends on the Lakeshore line from Hamilton in the west to Oshawa in the east. All the other lines run only at rush hour on weekdays. All intercity trains in Toronto run to Union Station and are operated by Via Rail. (Ontario Northland no longer runs Toronto-North Bay-Cochrane by rail.) For more information on intercity and commuter rail services to Toronto, see the Toronto city article.

By subway The financial district is well served by subway line 1 (Yonge-University-Spadina) with Queen, King, Union, St Andrew and Osgoode stations all lying in the district.

By streetcar Many streetcar lines run through or terminate in the financial district. The 504 King line runs along King street, through the centre of the neighbourhood, The 501 Queen line runs along Queen street at the north end of the district and the 502 Downtowner and 503 Kingston Rd lines terminate in the district. The subway, streetcar lines and buses are run by the TTC and a TTC fare includes transfers between both modes to complete a single trip.

By car Most of the majo

See

1 Canada's Walk of Fame, King St & Simcoe St (2 blocks west on north side, 1 block west on south side along King St; 1 block south on west side along Simcoe St). Toronto meets Hollywood where visitors can see plaques for most of Canada's famous names (Martin Short, for example) embedded in the sidewalk. The plaques are stylized stars that look a little like maple leaf.

2 CN Tower, 301 Front St W, ☏ +1 416-868-6937. 9AM-9:30PM. The CN Tower is Toronto's most recognizable and famous feature, and was the world's tallest free-standing structure until the Burj Khalifa surpassed it in September 2007. It is still the tallest free-standing structure in the Americas. At a dizzying 553 m high, a visit is worth it for the view of the city alone. A glass elevator will take you up to where you can look out from behind glass windows or from an outside observing area through a metal screen. It attracts large numbers of tourists; best times are weekdays in the morning. You can jump up and down on the thick glass floor in parts of the observatory (the view from the floor downward essentially shows the base of the tower). 360, the revolving restaurant, is in the main deck, but isn't particularly renowned. Restaurant diners with reservations can avoid the queues for the observatory, and at night the lights from distant Rochester, New York are visible over the lake. Adult (13-64) $43, Senior (65+)/Youth (6-13) $30, Child (3-5) $14; separate rates for additional attractions. (updated Jun 2023) 3 Draper Street - Victorian houses, Draper Street (at Front St W between Spadina Ave and Bathurst St). Draper Street is a small Heritage Conservation District. This short street is lined with over a dozen Victorian-era houses from the 1880s. The houses are private residences. (updated May 2016) 4 Graffiti Alley, Graffiti Alley, Rush Lane & cross-lanes (west side of Spadina Ave between Richmond St & Queen St). Lanes at the rear of commercial buildings have colourful displays of graffiti, a few

Do

Venues 1 Scotiabank Arena (formerly Air Canada Centre), 40 Bay St (Subway line 1 and streetcars 509 & 510 to Union Station), ☏ +1 416-815-5500. This hockey arena plays host to all Toronto Maple Leafs home games as well as Toronto Raptors basketball games. It also hosts many of Toronto's large concerts. The arena is directly adjacent to Union Station and there is a passage leading from the underground concourse into the arena, however the passage can be confusing. The facility was renamed from Air Canada Centre to Scotiabank Arena effective July 1, 2018 due to a change in sponsorship. 2 Princess of Wales Theatre, 300 King St W (504 streetcar to John St; 3 short blocks from St Andrew Subway Station), ☏ +1 416-872-1212. Modern theatre for musical productions. (updated Dec 2015)

3 Rogers Centre (formerly SkyDome, not to be confused with Rogers Stadium in North York), 1 Blue Jays Way (510 Streetcar to Bremner Blvd or Subway to Union Station and follow the Skywalk), ☏ +1 416-341-1707.