New pool, playground among improvements coming to Blantyre Park as reconstruction work begins
By MATTHEW STEPHENS
Blantyre Park in southwest Scarborough is undergoing at year-long reconstruction project that will include significant changes to its pool and playground areas.
The park is located on just north of Kingston Road between Blantyre Avenue and Fallingbrook Road, and south of Clonmore Drive.
According to the City of Toronto, the reconstruction project will focus on improving the park with an updated playground and pool, as well as new features such as a splash pad, fitness equipment area, a multi-use play area, seating areas, trees and plantings, and other updated features.
The existing outdoor pool and its associated building will be replaced with a new facility that is “compliant” with the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (ADOA). Changes to the pool include a new changeroom building, a new five-lane lap pool with a shallow (three-foot deep) family side pool, an accessible ramp leading to the pool deck, and a stepped-down wading pool entrance area.
The new pool facility will be oriented in the same position as the existing pool, but will have a “larger footprint” and improved amenities.
Blantyre Park’s existing baseball diamond will remain unchanged and another sporting facility (such as a basketball or pickleball court) will be added. The additional sports facility will be determined by local feedback in the third phase of community engagement for the park.
The city’s plan to revitalize the park have been ongoing since 2019, when the first engagement phase was rolled out to the public.
A Beach Metro Community News reporter spoke with a member of the project’s construction crew recently, who mentioned that much of the park has remained unchanged for more than 50 years. As a result, many of its features were deemed “unsafe and outdated” by the city, including the outdoor pool and the existing horseshoe pit. Residents had expressed significant concern about the horseshoe pit due to its protruding metal rods.
The park has been closed since early December for work to begin on the reconstruction
According to City of Toronto Media Relations, from now until the summer of 2027 construction will be carried out in Blantyre Park in a way that will “enable sections of the park to reopen as the project advances.”
However, the city’s website states that the projected timeline for construction is “subject to change.”
Named after a town in South Lanarkshire, Scotland, Blantyre Park was once a residential estate owned by Peter Paterson Junior, who acquired the 50-acre plot of land in 1848, built a home, and named the grounds and gardens in honour of the Scottish hometown he moved from with his family at the age of 11.
The 50-acre plot of land – which is equivalent to nearly 38 football fields lined up end to end – spanned from the location of Blantyre Park all the way down to Lake Ontario and land where the R.CR.C Harris Water Filtration Plant is now located.
During that time, Paterson leased 14 acres of his estate lands, which were used as a recreation and amusement park area that opened in 1878.
By the late 1800s to early 1900s, following Paterson’s death, Archbishop John Walsh purchased the estate and 18-acres of the surrounding land to open an industrial school for Roman Catholic boys.
From 1912 to 1934, the amusement park on the leased land was removed by the city and reopened as a “Forest School” by the Board of Education, which was later replaced by the R.C. Harris Water Filtration Plant.
Accessible information regarding Blantyre Park’s history ends there. However, between now and 1934, the lands known as Blantyre Park have been reconstructed as a public park space, which has undergone minimal changes, aside from the park’s playground space, in the last 20 years.
For more information regarding the Blantyre Park reconstruction plans, please go to https://www.toronto.ca/city-government/planning-development/construction-new-facilities/improvements-expansion-redevelopment/blantyre-park-improvements/
