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Get My Free Estimate →The Queensway takes its name from its designation as a royal route, and the Etobicoke corridor is distinct from the several other places worldwide sharing the name.
It is one of the most-asked questions about this corridor and it turns up in Google’s own “People also ask” box: why is it called The Queensway? Not Queensway Avenue, not Queensway Road — The Queensway, with the definite article, which is unusual enough in Toronto street naming to be worth explaining.
The short answer
The road takes its name from Queen Elizabeth and belongs to the same naming family as the Queen Elizabeth Way, the highway it runs alongside. The QEW opened in 1939 and was named to mark the royal visit of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth that year. The Queensway carries the same royal reference in a local, municipal form.
The definite article is the giveaway. “The Queensway” is not a street named after a person in the ordinary way, like Royal York Road. It is named as a way belonging to the Queen — a description rather than a label. That is why locals never say “Queensway” on its own, and why it sounds wrong when they do.
Why this matters more than trivia
Because the naming explains the shape of the corridor, and the shape is what you are buying into.
The Queensway exists as a parallel local road to a major provincial highway. That is its entire purpose. It is not a residential side street that grew up — it is a service and commercial spine running alongside the QEW and later the Gardiner, which is exactly why it ended up lined with car dealerships, big-box retail, light industry and strip plazas rather than the tree-lined blocks one street north or south.
And that history is precisely why it is now being redeveloped so heavily. Large, shallow commercial lots with highway access, on a transit route, inside the city — that is the most redevelopable land in Etobicoke. The corridor is filling with mid-rise condominiums because its original job is obsolete, not because someone decided it was a nice place for towers.
Three things that follow, if you are buying here
- It is a wide, busy arterial road. That is what it was built to be. Suites facing The Queensway get traffic noise; suites facing the rear generally do not. Ask which way yours faces before you fall in love with the view.
- Driving is genuinely easy, transit is genuinely mediocre. The highway access that created this road still works beautifully. The subway does not come here. Anyone selling you “steps to transit” on this corridor is describing a bus.
- The retail mix is changing under you. The dealerships and strip plazas that defined The Queensway for sixty years are the exact sites being rezoned. A view over a low-rise plaza today is not a permanent view.
One thing to be careful about when you search
If you search “Queensway” without qualifying it, much of what you find will be Queensway in London, England — a different street, a different Tube station, a different shopping centre. There is also a Queensway in Ottawa, which is what Highway 417 is locally called. When researching this corridor, always search “The Queensway Etobicoke” or “The Queensway Toronto”.
Related reading
- The Queensway, Etobicoke: the reference guide to the corridor
- Shopping and amenities on The Queensway
- Every condo building on The Queensway
- Getting around from The Queensway: the transit guide
- The Queensway development pipeline, 2026
Compiled from public sources and the City of Toronto planning record where applicable. Believed accurate but not guaranteed; corrections welcome. Not intended to solicit buyers or sellers under contract with another brokerage. E.&O.E.
Thinking about buying on The Queensway?
Tell me which building or stretch of the corridor you are looking at and I will send the actual sold and lease comparables from TRREB, an honest read on the location, and what the status certificate is likely to show. No obligation, and I will tell you if the answer is don’t buy it.
Or call Jatin Dua, Broker of Record, RE/MAX Quantum Realty · 437-987-1925