On a rainy, overcast August afternoon, I checked out Queen’s Park in Toronto. The Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) had recently inaugurated a second entrance for Museum station. This subway station takes you to the Royal Ontario Museum, our natural history museum. The new entrance gave me a new perspective on Queen’s Park.
Queen’s Park (The green space)
Queen’s Park is a beautiful urban green space behind the Ontario Legislative Building, which has Legislative Assembly of Ontario. At its centre, the park has a statue of King Edward VII riding a horse. The north side has the Regimental Memorial. The City of Toronto made numerous improvements to the park in 2019, adding benches, new pedestrian entrances and planting native trees. However, the City of Toronto has been criticized for poor upkeep of the park.
That said, the park is often used a place to cross over to get to and from places as a pedestrian or cyclist. Queen’s Park Crescent East and West are thoroughfares for motor traffic with vehicles traveling at higher speeds than what you would normally see on nearby streets. This road and this speed of traffic makes it a hard boundary for accessing Queen’s Park. In other words, the park looks nice but I’ll leave hanging out there for another day.
Museum subway station’s new entrance
Hence, the addition of a second entrance was literally and figuratively breaking down a wall in Torontonians’ minds. Anyone who’s lived here or visited knows Museum station has always had one entrance/exit. The TTC took two years and spent $25.925 million to build this new entrance on Queen’s Park’s north end. As a transit advocate and lover, I had to see what this new entrance was about.
Leaving Museum station gave me a fresh perspective when entering park. The new entrance provides a new experience. Walking toward the statue, I was reminded of similar experiences I had in cities with such transit access to parks.
A step up for Queen’s Park
Madrid’s Parque del Buen Retiro (or, El Retiro) came to mind. Centrally-located with acres of green space and water bodies, this park is a magnet for locals and tourists alike. Buskers play through the day and evening. Vendors will sell you snacks, drinks and meals. This park is also next to El Prado, one of the world’s top art galleries.
The TTC’s second entrance provides Queen’s Park with a gravitas that is reminiscent of one of the world’s best urban parks. It provides a level of access that can help make Queen’s Park a more popular meeting place. It unlocks the park’s placemaking potential.
I did not expect to feel this way. However, Museum station’s new entrance opened my eyes to how an investment in a simple yet necessary amenity can elevate an urban experience. It may take a while, but many Torontonians will soon feel like they are getting reacquainted with an old friend. If the City of Toronto can improve its upkeep, it could even rival El Retiro in Madrid.
