Most of the section known as Spadina Avenue is a six-lane urban arterial (four lanes for cars, two dedicated right-of-way lanes for a streetcar running down the middle) with a speed limit of 50 km/h (30 mph), although it is unposted. The section known as Spadina Road is a two- to four-lane collector road with speed limits alternating between 40 and 50 km/h (25–30 mph). The 77 Spadina bus route inspired a song, "Spadina Bus", which became a surprise
Top 40 hit in Canada for the
jazz fusion band
The Shuffle Demons in 1986. In the 1990s, however, the TTC rebuilt and reinstated the
510 Spadina streetcar line, which runs largely in a dedicated right-of-way along the median strip of the street since its opening in 1997. Prior to the construction of the Spadina LRT, streetcars ran down the street until it was replaced by the 77 Spadina bus. Bricked road bed was used along the streetcar route. Small sections of the brick road bed remained until the LRT was constructed. In the 1960s, city hall was planning to tear up Spadina and most of the buildings on either side to construct the
Spadina Expressway, a proposed highway that would have run straight into downtown. After a long public battle, with the opposition to the project led by Toronto urban writer
Jane Jacobs and former Toronto mayor
John Sewell, the plans were halted in 1971. In 2006, the
Forest Hill Jewish Centre announced plans to rebuild the façade of the
Great Synagogue of Jasło, Poland, which was destroyed by the German Army in World War II, as the façade of its new building on Spadina Road, a project that was completed by 2015.
Route Lake Shore to Queen Street The southern section of Spadina was the heart of Toronto's industrial area for most of the 20th century, but in the 1970s, most of the factories left. Most of the land south of Front Street is infill on Lake Ontario. The
Rogers Centre (formerly the SkyDome) was opened just east of Spadina in 1989. This area was previously the site of the
CNR Spadina Roundhouse. Some land along this portion of Spadina has also been redeveloped into the
condominium tower complex of
CityPlace. The road once crossed the railway lands with a
pony truss bridge built in 1926-1927 (replacing an early single lane truss bridge), which was replaced with the current
Box girder bridge in the 1990s. More recently, a number of tower buildings are being built or have been planned. Concord Canada House at 23 Spadina will have 74 stories, The Well at Front Street will have 46 stories and The Taylor at 57 Spadina will have 36 stories. In 2021, new residential tower buildings were proposed for the corners at Adelaide and Richmond. From
Front Street, Spadina runs through the
Fashion District and along the western edge of the
Entertainment District, which also contains a number of office buildings.
Queen Street to College Street on Spadina Avenue north of Dundas Street North of
Queen Street West, the avenue passes along the eastern side of the
Alexandra Park neighbourhood, which is made up of a number of public housing projects. The intersection of
Dundas Street West and Spadina is the centre of Toronto's second-oldest Chinatown (the oldest was located at Dundas and Elizabeth Streets), with many restaurants and shops catering to the Chinese community. The Chinese Spadina began in the 1970s after the departure of Jewish Toronto (1920s to 1960s) from the area. It supplanted an older Chinatown centred on Dundas Street West and Elizabeth Street, which was disrupted when
New City Hall was constructed in the early 1960s. Just west of the avenue in this area is the famed Kensington Market. The famous Shopsy's Deli was on Spadina north of Dundas Street, but it moved and burned down in the 1980s. The intersection of Spadina Avenue and
College Street is known as an inexpensive place to buy electronics, with a number of independent stores in the area. It is also the location of the
El Mocambo, where
the Rolling Stones performed one night to a small audience that included the
wife of Prime Minister
Pierre Trudeau.
College Street to Bloor Street North of College Street, the avenue forms the western border of the
University of Toronto St. George campus and is home to several businesses catering to students, as well as university facilities such as the Athletic Centre and a number of student residences such as
University of Toronto Graduate House. Just north of College Street, the roadway splits into a traffic circle, called
Spadina Crescent. The building in the centre of the circle was originally built as
Knox College, but it was renovated in 2017 to become the Daniels Building, which houses the
Faculty of Architecture.
Spadina Road North of
Bloor Street, Spadina Avenue gives way to Spadina Road. Here the street passes through the upper-middle-class neighbourhood known as
The Annex. For this stretch of the road,
Line 1 Yonge–University passes underneath. Two stations,
Spadina and
Dupont, are under it. Spadina Road is interrupted just north of Dupont Street by an escarpment, Davenport Hill. The two sections require traffic to divert via Davenport Road, Walmer Road and Austin Terrace. There is a flight of stairs called "
Baldwin Steps" and walkway in Spadina Park between the two sections of Spadina Road. Spadina Road continues atop this escarpment in front of
Spadina House, one of Toronto's largest mansions.
Casa Loma is also nearby. The house and the street are named after the escarpment, the word
ishpadinaa meaning "[it is a] hill" or "rise" in the
Ojibwe language. Spadina Road continues north through the wealthy neighbourhood of
Forest Hill. Starting north of
St. Clair Avenue and continuing a few blocks further north is lower Forest Hill Village, which forms the main street of a small commercial area, the historical downtown of Forest Hill before Toronto grew around the town. Forest Hill continues to just north of Eglinton Avenue. The street continues north through this green, rolling residential neighbourhood. This stretch is served by the 33 Forest Hill bus route. North of
Eglinton Avenue, Spadina Road is again interrupted, here by the trenched right-of-way for the defunct
Belt Line Railway, now a popular walking trail. It briefly resumes north of Eglinton, and ends at New Haven Drive (1100 Spadina Road – Northern Preparatory Junior Public School – Toronto District School Board). To access the section north of Eglinton traffic diverts via Eglinton Avenue and Chaplin Crescent. The road ends at New Haven Drive next to Northern Preparatory Jr Public School. ==Landmarks==