Kew Gardens, Public park in The Beaches, Toronto, Canada
Kew Gardens is a park in The Beaches running from Queen Street East to Kew Beach on Lake Ontario. Joseph Williams laid it out from 1879 on his 20.7-acre farm, naming it after London's Kew Gardens. Williams' house still stands and serves as the caretaker's residence, alongside the bandstand and the Leuty Lifeguard Station (c. 1920).
The land began as a private farm operated by Joseph Williams in the 1850s, who later transformed it into a public destination modeled after London's Kew Gardens. This shift from rural property to community gathering place helped shape the development of The Beaches neighborhood.
The park's name comes from Joseph Williams, who opened it in 1879 as "The Canadian Kew Gardens", after the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew in south-west London. Each July it hosts the main stages of the Beaches International Jazz Festival, a non-profit event that draws tens of thousands of people over four days.
The park runs from Queen Street East down to Kew Beach on Lake Ontario, so enter from either end. It is served by the Queen streetcar. A wading pool and, in winter, a skating rink are among the facilities; the northeast corner holds the Beaches branch of the Toronto Public Library. The Beaches International Jazz Festival uses the park as its main venue each summer.
Joseph Williams named his 1879 pleasure grounds The Canadian Kew Gardens after London's Kew, and banned alcohol and noisy rides to keep it a "Place of Innocent Amusements." The 17-metre aluminum screen added to the park's north edge in 2016 came out of the 2012 Queen Street Visioning study.
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