Dashwood & Dashwood Law celebrates 100 years of service to generations of Beach residents
By JULIA SAWICKI
Founded in 1926 by Fred Dashwood, the legal firm of Dashwood & Dashwood Law has been a fixture in the neighbourhood for 100 years.
Over the past century, Dashwoods has seen the Beach evolve from a working-class neighbourhood to the thriving, established residential area it is today. For Geoffrey Dashwood, who has practiced law at Dashwoods since 1986, the firm’s endurance is tied to the people and families that continue to call the community home.
“There’s a tremendous amount of longevity in this area,” said Geoffrey in a recent interview with Beach Metro Community News to mark the firm’s 100th birthday. “I think most people just never left.”
When Fred first opened his doors, many residents valued a local lawyer, rather than travelling downtown for legal services. A century later, Geoffrey believes that familiarity remains important, with clients appreciating a firm so deeply community based.
For Geoffrey, that sense of connection is one of the reasons the firm has endured.
Families have remained in the area across generations, developing relationships that extend beyond individual businesses and professional relationships. Geoffrey recalled returning to St. Aidan’s church after his children were born and introducing himself, only to discover that members of the congregation still recognized the Dashwood family name.
“There are ties between my family and other families in this area that go back almost to the 19th century,” said Geoffrey. “It’s a lot of the same sort of families have been in the same area for a long period of time.”
The firm’s story begins with Fred, who was called to the bar in 1925 before opening his own practice the following year. Originally from England, Geoffrey’s family immigrated to Canada in the early 1900s and eventually settled in the Beach.
In its earliest days, Fred operated the firm out of an apartment near Kingston Road and Kingswood Road.
Geoffrey said his grandfather was “the village lawyer,” as he was a close-to-home alternative to expensive, downtown law firms.
The apartment served as both the family’s living space and as a workplace, with Geoffrey’s father, John Dashwood, helping prepare the space each morning for clients.
“My dad’s job was, when he had to clear out of the one room, his bedroom basically, and set it up as a law office every morning,” Geoffrey recalled. “My grandfather practiced from the law office when my dad went to school. My dad would come back home, and it turned back into a bedroom.”
John Dashwood purchased the property at 961 Kingston Rd., just west of Scarborough Road, in the 1970s, where the practice remains today.
John worked at Dashwoods from 1955 until his retirement in 2001, with Geoffrey joining after graduation, beginning his own legal career in the Beach in 1986.
Today, Dashwood & Dashwood Law continues to handle wills, estates and property purchases and sales. The office has an associate and approximately five or six staff members, maintaining the neighbourhood presence that has defined the firm since its beginnings.
Although the firm’s history stretches back to a time when typewriters were crucial, and its office doubled as a family bedroom, its central work has remained remarkably consistent.
Geoffrey said he continues to serve residents in the same neighbourhood where his family set down its roots, carrying forward a business shaped by both the changing needs of its clients and its longtime connection to the Beach community.
For more information on Dashwood & Dashwood, please visit https://www.dashwoods.ca/
