Queen Street was the cartographic baseline for the original east–west avenues of Toronto's and York County's grid pattern of major roads.

Since the original survey in 1793 by Sir Alexander Aitkin, commissioned by Lieutenant Governor John Graves Simcoe, Queen Street has had many names.

[3] "Queen West" is local vernacular which generally refers to the collection of neighbourhoods that have developed along and around the thoroughfare.

From the 1890s to the 1930s, Jewish immigrants coalesced in the neighbourhood known as "the Ward", for which Queen Street between Yonge and University served as the southern boundary.

Perhaps the best-known landmark on this section of Queen West is the broadcast hub at 299 Queen Street West, formerly the headquarters of Citytv and MuchMusic and earlier the site of the Ryerson Press, now housing the broadcast operations of a number of television outlets owned by Bell Media.

Until the 1940s and 50's Queen Street extended west (in several sections) along what is today The Queensway, with the name changed through the westernmost segment though the former Etobicoke in 1947 to avoid confusion due to the break.

[7] During the 1982 Toronto municipal election candidate Deanne Taylor established headquarters at The Cameron House - performing nightly with the Hummer Sisters west of Spadina.

[11] The section of Kingston to Coxwell is similar in design, but without the retail development on the southern side, including the Alliance Cinemas The Beach location.

Queen passes underneath the elevated CN railway tracks, and this marks the border of Leslieville.

The residential landscape within Riverdale is made up primarily of Victorian and Edwardian style homes, constructed in the 1800s as boarding rooms for the working-class.

It is a mixed income and multicultural area, currently experiencing a trend of gentrification along Queen Street East.

In the 1960s and into the early 1980s, this stretch of Queen Street West was an aging commercial strip, known for "greasy spoon" restaurants and inexpensive housing in the area.

While original businesses such as the Cameron, the Horseshoe Tavern and The Rivoli have remained and changed little, the strip is now cluttered with mid- and higher-end international chain stores such as H&M and Zara, the antithesis of what the area was about in the 1970s and 1980s.

From Spadina to Bathurst, Queen Street is lined with street-level retail, with upper level apartments.

Bates and Dodds, Toronto's oldest operating funeral home is at 931 Queen St. West, across from Trinity Bellwoods Park and has been in the same location since 1884.

In the early 1990s, the newly vogue area became associated with nightclubs such as the Bovine Sex Club and several antique shops.

Occupying the same area, between Spadina Avenue and Trinity Bellwoods Park south of Queen Street, is Toronto's Fashion District.

In the 2000s, the changing character of Queen Street West gave rise to concerns in some quarters over the pace and implications of gentrification.

[19][20][21] In some cases, the destruction caused by the fire gave rise to additional angst over the changing character of Queen Street West and the potential nature of the new development that would eventually replace the burned buildings.

For this two-kilometer stretch, nearly every storefront on the north side is either a gallery, bar, or nightclub (the south side of the street is largely taken up by the buildings and grounds of the former Queen Street Mental Health Centre, now part of CAMH), a combination that has led to the district being named one of the coolest neighborhoods in the world both in 2015 and 2016.

[23][24] The Stephen Bulger Gallery, founded in 1994, is also located on Queen West, as was the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art (MOCCA), which relocated to the area in 2005.

[25] The museum moved to a former factory building on Sterling Road north of Dundas Street West.

Unlike the boutique-oriented storefronts of the eastern portion of the street, the Gallery District contains an abundance of space available for special events.

The Camera Bar—originally established by film director and producer Atom Egoyan—is now operated by the Stephen Bulger Gallery as a rental space that offers a bar and film/video screening venue.

Artscape's $17 million transformation of the building, the former Shaw Street School, was completed just before the centenary of its construction in 1914.

ft. centre for creative collaboration housing a diverse mix of creators working in a variety of disciplines, as well as arts, community and social mission organizations.

[31] As the area developed in the early 2000s, plans for condo expansions stirred gentrification concerns, leading to local "queer kiss-in" protests.

Parkdale is one of Toronto's oldest neighbourhoods, and a former independent village, and Queen Street is its main commercial strip, with two and three-storey mixed use buildings, retail on the ground-floor and residences above.

The Queen subway would run from Trinity Bellwoods Park in the west to Broadview Avenue in the east.

This two-line plan was approved by referendum in 1946, but when hoped-for funding from the government of Canada did not materialize, the Queen line was postponed.