This once was TORONTO’s Coney Island. On summer afternoons thousands crowded the beaches and amusement park rides where King Street intersects Queen Street West. There was little air-conditioning, cottage country was too far away, the city was sweltering, but the fresh, cool waters of Lake Ontario beckoned, providing welcome relief to one and all.  You could hop a tram and be there in no time.

The Sunnyside Amusement Park was demolished in 1955 to make way for the Gardiner Expressway.  But the fresh-water beaches endure, and the city’s largest swimming pool isn’t far away.  <PHOTOS – Toronto Star Archive and City of Toronto Archive>