Victoria Park is a station on Line 2 Bloor–Danforth of the Toronto subway system. It is located at 777 Victoria Park Avenue, one block north of Danforth Avenue in Scarborough. The station can be accessed by pedestrians directly from Victoria Park Avenue; by way of an unstaffed entrance from Albion Avenue; through an automated entrance from Teesdale Place; and via a walkway that leads to the nearby Crescent Town area. A City of Toronto bicycle station is located adjacent to the main Victoria Park Avenue entrance, providing a paid secure indoor bicycle parking area.
History
left|thumb|Demolition of old bus bays in 2009
Victoria Park station was opened in 1968 in the Borough of Scarborough, but the access footbridge across Victoria Park Avenue, built in the 1970s, extended into the Borough of East York.
Until 1973, the buses and the subway trains serving the station were in separate fare zones, and so the turnstiles and collector booths were placed between the bus bays and the subway platforms. When the zones were abolished, the layout was reconfigured to bring the buses inside the station's fare-paid area.
The station underwent a large-scale, renovation between 2008 and 2011. The original bus terminal with indoor platforms was demolished and replaced with a new, accessible outdoor bus terminal. New station entrances were built, an indoor bicycle station for parking was opened, and a green roof was added. Interior and exterior finishes were updated, and environmentalist and designer Aniko Meszaros was commissioned to create a permanent art installation, entitled Roots. The station became fully accessible with the addition of elevators.
In November 2021, the city government announced that an agreement had been reached with a developer to build over 500 new homes on a 173-space commuter parking lot at the station. The parking lot permanently closed effective June 3, 2025.
Architecture and art
right|thumb|Train platform level
Upon opening in 1968, Victoria Park station's interiors continued on the Bloor–Danforth subway line's design theme of practical simplicity with minimal creative flourishes and no public art. Most overtly, the station's interior walls are clad with the pattern of simple tiles shared with most other stations on the line. The tiles are smooth and unadorned grey block tiles with a narrower row of similar tiles in black meeting the ceiling at platform level. The original signage uses the Toronto Subway Font, with the station name sandblasted onto the walls in large type and painted in the same colour as the strip of black tiles by the ceiling. The flooring is the same basic pattern of terrazzo that appears at most Bloor–Danforth line stations: repeating grey squares separated by strips of aluminum.
right|thumb|New bus terminal platform
right|thumb|Artwork by Aniko Meszaros on the train platform level
Victoria Park station consists of a concourse at grade where fare control takes place, elevated platforms for subway trains, and a large outdoor bus transfer area. The present bus terminal was completed in 2011 by Stevens Group Architects, with Brown and Storey Architects, landscape architect Scott Torrance, and the TTC's internal design department on the 2008–2011 renovation of the station. It replaced the original enclosed bus terminal, which was an oversized concrete structure with a series of bus bays sheltered by arched roofs. This transfer area is a plaza with a pedestrian walkway that is sheltered by a massive concrete canopy which arches out of a central row of columns. The canopy is perforated with circular openings in certain places for a whimsical effect of lightness, breaking up its shadows on sunny days.
Where the circular holes are cut deeper through the canopy, they are clad with stainless steel inside and contain artwork by designer and environmentalist Aniko Meszaros, as part of her installation entitled, Roots. Meszaros' artwork in this part of the station consists of intricate stainless steel screens akin to filigree with an organic, root-like design. These screens were cut by laser and meant to allow the sun to cast interesting shadows onto the walkway below. The canopy extends beyond the bus transfer area and even the station's prominent glazed entrance on Victoria Park Avenue (also part of the 2008–2011 renovation) to a prominent column on the pedestrian plaza, wrapped with a rounded bench. The eastern edge of the bus transfer plaza is marked by a concrete retaining wall textured with a root motif. It holds up a landscaped slope.
The bus transfer plaza connects with the station's original concourse at surface level. The 2008–2011 renovation introduced the station's prominent glazed entrance on Victoria Park Avenue, which was previously a windowless brick and concrete wall. This entrance consists of a large doorway, with a minimalist glass facade around it accentuated by panes of pink-red glass, including a coloured glass entrance canopy. Above the entranceway, vertical metal trusses are visible behind the glazing. This entrance opens onto a small but functional pedestrian plaza with benches, trees, newspaper boxes, and the entrance to the station's indoor bicycle storage area.