Wychwood Park
Wychwood Park is a neighbourhood enclave and former gated community in Toronto, Canada. The small community is located north of Davenport Road and just west of Bathurst Street. It was founded as an artists colony in the late nineteenth century as a private project by painter Marmaduke Matthews and Alexander Jardin. The region was then still a rural region on the edge of the city, and Matthews planned out a bucolic community and named it after Wychwood in his native Oxfordshire. It is considered part of the overall Wychwood official neighbourhood as designated by the City of Toronto.
The land was divided into irregularly shaped lots, with a central park built around a pond and tennis courts designed by the architect Arthur Edwin Whatmough who put careful restrictions upon what could be built in the community. Whatmough designed many of the houses that were built in the Arts and Crafts style. A few others were also designed by prominent architect Eden Smith, who lived in the neighbourhood. One of Toronto’s ravines ran through the heart of the neighbourhood, and this was preserved as parkland. Taddle Creek ran through the ravine, and it was dammed to create a large pond in the middle of the park. This is now one of the only parts of the city where Taddle Creek is still visible above ground.
While the area was amalgamated into the city of Toronto in 1909, it remains a private community. The streets and amenities are paid for by the local residents, and the community is managed by an executive council. It is one of Toronto’s more exclusive neighbourhoods with house prices well over a million dollars. Several prominent figures have lived in the area, including Marshall McLuhan and Anatol Rapoport.
