Bloor Street is a major east-west commercial thoroughfare in Toronto and is also home to the city's most exclusive shopping area. The street is named after Joseph Bloor (or Bloore), who founded the Village of Yorkville in 1830.

The Kingsway is an upscale residential neighbourhood in Toronto, located on the western side of the Humber Valley. It developed out of the vision of Robert Home Smith, a lawyer by training who began developing land in the early 1900s. The Kingsway became his personal vision of the ideal community and was mostly inspired by the Garden City principles.

Indeed, Smith was a big fan of everything English, and this affected his ideas for the neighbourhood. By the 1920s, his ideas culminated into the development, which he named Kingsway Park.

"Tastefully appointed" traditional homes were to sit on well-treed and winding streets, to create an air of a wooded retreat. Smith also decreed that no owner could build a house without the approval of his staff, and he developed strict regulations against the cutting of trees. Most of the homes were designed in the Arts and Crafts style.

Kingsway Park was a development aimed at affluent home buyers. Street names such as Queen Anne Road and Kingsgarden Road emphasize the appearance of English respectability and affluence that Smith was selling.