The West End

[King of Kensington]

Do you agree with most common definition of basically the Old City west of Bathurst?

 

[vic]

Yes. Though you often hear things on the news like, "Shooting in Toronto's west end..." but they're referring to Somewhere in north Etobicoke...

 

[JasonParis]

I personally use old-city west of Bathurst as "West-End." And old-city east of Don River as "East-End." Outside of the old city, I'd tend to use the old city/borough name and/or the actual place's neighbourhood name. For whatever reason, I'd never say "North-End" though, nor does anyone else seem to either. Most people seem to refer to the old-city's spine up Yonge as "Midtown" or just by "Yonge & _____."

 

[King of Kensington]

Bathurst and Don River work well for simplicity's sake. Bathurst to Don I guess is "central" (I don't think everything in it is "downtown"). The "feeling" generally drops off around Spadina and Jarvis IMO. Harbord Village for instance basically feels like a west end neighborhood to me. Cabbagetown is kind of its own thing. The transition from downtown to neighborhoods is smoother going west than going east, as the east-central area (i.e. Jarvis to the Don) was much more impacted by urban renewal than the west-central area (i.e. University to Bathurst). In addition, east-central Toronto developed very early and east of the Don development was delayed, while westward development was more contiguous.

It's when you go up north it gets confusing. I tend to stick to North Toronto for what was once the Town of North Toronto, since it does seem to be a clearly definable area that's larger than a neighborhood and more of a section. It's the Bloor to St. Clair area - the Annex, Casa Loma, Deer Park and Rosedale - I'm not sure what to call.