One of the city's trendiest and youngest neighbourhood, "SoCo" has rapidly risen from the ashes of the old railway lands south of Union Station. The neighbourhood's name derives from its location just "south" of the financial "core".
Until the latter half of the 20th century, this strip of land south of Front Street (the original Lake Ontario shore line) and north of Queens Quay (also sitting on reclaimed land) was for the exclusive use of railway companies operating there maintenance, repair and storage facilities. With the end of steam-powered locomotives, the growth of the city and the relocation of many industries out of the downtown core, the need to operate railway yards in this part of town waned and eventually the land was sold off for redevelopment.
Until the late 1990's, the area's rejuvenation proceeded at a snail pace with a few office and residential towers on the waterfront and entertainment structures (namely the CN Tower and Rogers Centre) on the eastern portion of the area close to Spadina Ave. Today, Soco is a dense collection of some of Toronto's tallest condo towers, office space, sports/concert venues (Rogers Centre and Scotiabank Arena), tourist attractions (CN Tower, Ripley's Aquarium of Canada, the Toronto Railway Museum and Steam Whistle Brewing) and entertainment (The Rec Room).
Use Union Station or the Queen's Quay or Spadina streetcars to access the area.
