Riverdale Park in Toronto: A Guide to the East and West Sides of the Don Valley

At the east end of Winchester Street the houses stop, Riverdale Park West begins, and the ground drops away. That edge is the reason Cabbagetown feels like a village inside the city: on one side the neighbourhood, on the other a green valley, with the river, the railway and the expressway running quietly through the bottom of it. The green is Riverdale Park, the largest open space within walking distance of the Victorian streets.

The park is one place with two very different halves. The western slope belongs to Cabbagetown and holds the farm, the market and the quiet paths. The eastern slope belongs to Riverdale and Broadview Avenue, with the sports fields, the pool and a famous view back across the valley. A single footbridge ties them together.

Riverdale Park West: the Cabbagetown side

The west side begins where Winchester and the smaller side streets run out. Its best-known neighbour is Riverdale Farm, which occupies the upper part of the slope and has its own gates on Winchester Street at Sumach. The farm is free and open every day, and for many families it is the reason to come down here in the first place.

On Tuesday afternoons in the warm months, the Cabbagetown Farmers Market sets up just outside the farm gates. For 2026, Farmers’ Markets Ontario has it every Tuesday from 3 pm to 7 pm, between May 12 and October 20. The farmers’ market page has the details and the place to check the current season.

The rest of the west side is lawn, paths and trees, sloping down toward the rail line and the valley floor. There is an off-leash area for dogs, so the west side is well used by dog walkers from early in the morning. It is a good place to sit at the end of the heritage walk: the walk reaches the valley edge near the farm, and the slope below is where most people stop.

Riverdale Park East: fields, pool and the long view

Cross the footbridge and the park changes character. Riverdale Park East, on the Broadview side, is the recreational half. It carries playing fields, tennis courts, a swimming pool, an outdoor hockey rink and a running track. The pool and rink follow City seasons and schedules, so the City of Toronto is the place to check if you are planning around them.

The east side is also where the view is. The land rises steeply toward Broadview Avenue, and from the top the whole valley opens out: the trees of the west slope, the Cabbagetown roofs above them, and the downtown towers beyond. On summer evenings the hill fills with people who have come for exactly that.

If you are coming from Cabbagetown, allow a few extra minutes for the climb. The path up the east side is steep, and the reward is the best free view of the skyline in this part of the city.

The footbridge and the valley between

The two halves are joined by a pedestrian footbridge that crosses the Don Valley Parkway, the railway tracks and the Don River in one long span. It is worth pausing halfway. Below, the expressway traffic runs north and south, the river winds alongside it, and the rail line runs between them, a compressed picture of how Toronto used its valleys in the twentieth century.

At the bottom of the valley, the Lower Don Trail follows the river. The City of Toronto has been improving the trail in stages, and it links Riverdale Park to the wider Don Valley trail network. For cyclists and runners it makes the park a stop on a much longer route.

Planning a visit: three ways to use the park

Within Riverdale Park Toronto keeps a working farm and a public pool on opposite slopes, and most visits pick one side or join the two. They fall into three shapes. The short one stays on the west side: down Winchester Street, through the farm, a sit on the slope and back up into Cabbagetown, about an hour in all. The long one crosses the footbridge, climbs the east hill for the view and returns, which takes closer to two hours at an easy pace. The third uses the park as a passage, joining the Lower Don Trail at the bottom and following the river for as long as the legs allow.

Each works better at a particular time. The west side is best in the morning, when the farm has just opened and the east-facing slope catches the early sun. The east hill is best late in the day, when the sun sits behind the downtown towers and lights the valley from the west. The trail suits any time of day, but it is shared with cyclists, so keep to one side.

A small warning about the footbridge approach: the path from the west side down to the bridge is steep, and it is the part of the walk that tires people most on the way back. If you are pushing a stroller or bringing someone who dislikes hills, the west side alone is a full outing.

Finding your way in

There is no single entrance, because the park runs along the valley for a long stretch. From Cabbagetown, the simplest way in is at the end of Winchester Street by the farm gates. From the Broadview side, the park opens off Broadview Avenue, and paths lead down the hill toward the footbridge.

The walk map shows the park in relation to the Cabbagetown streets, and the where is Cabbagetown page explains why the valley is the neighbourhood’s natural eastern boundary.

A short history of Riverdale Park, Toronto

In Riverdale Park Toronto still holds a large piece of the farm of John Scadding, one of the first settlers in the area. The land was once all his. His cabin, built in 1794, was moved to the Canadian National Exhibition grounds in 1879. In 1856 the City of Toronto bought 120 acres of the Scadding property for the Don Jail, and the remaining land opened as a public park in 1880. Archaeological finds made in 1886 showed that First Nations peoples had used the valley long before any of this.

The park grew over the following decades to about 162 acres. Its most famous tenant was the Riverdale Zoo, which occupied the west side from the late nineteenth century until 1974, when the animals moved to the new Toronto Zoo in Scarborough. The site became Riverdale Farm in 1978.

The biggest change came in the 1960s, when the Don Valley Parkway was built through the valley floor. The expressway took a slice of the park and divided it more sharply into east and west, leaving it at about 104 acres. The footbridge is what keeps the two halves one park.

A side note for anyone reading the landscape: the Don Jail, whose land purchase started all this in 1856, still stands at 550 Gerrard Street East, just west of Broadview Avenue. Built between 1859 and 1864 and closed in 1977, it now serves as the administration building of Hennick Bridgepoint Hospital. The park and the jail were carved out of the same farm in the same decade.

Visiting Riverdale Park in each season

Spring and summer are the park at full use: the market on Tuesdays, picnics on the west slope, games on the east fields and the pool when it is open. Riverdale Park has also hosted a summer film series, with free outdoor screenings on the hill; check local listings for whether and when it runs in a given year.

Autumn is quieter and, for many people, better. The trees on both slopes turn at the same time, and the view from the east side at that point is the one most often photographed. The farm holds its own seasonal events in the fall, listed on the Riverdale Farm page.

Winter empties the west side apart from dog walkers and people heading for the farm, which stays open every day. On the east side, the view is sharper than at any other time of year once the leaves are down.

What to bring

Very little. The park is free and open, and the farm next door has washrooms during its opening hours. In summer, bring water and something to sit on, because the best spots on both slopes are on the grass rather than on benches. And if you plan to cross to the east side for the view, leave a little energy for the climb back. A phone camera is enough for the skyline shot; the wide view from the top of the east slope fits the frame without any zoom.

Riverdale Park and the rest of the neighbourhood

For a visitor to Cabbagetown, the west side is the natural end point of a walk through the Victorian streets. The Toronto Necropolis sits on the valley rim just north of the farm, and the two together make a quiet hour after the busier stretch of Parliament Street. The places page lists everything else nearby.

Riverdale Park West also keeps a trace of the zoo years. Riverdale Farm occupies the old zoo grounds, and the slope below it is the same valley edge that zoo visitors came to from the late nineteenth century until 1974. Nothing in the park announces this; once you know it, the paths make a different kind of sense.