Boundaries: the political boundaries of Scarborough Southwest are being extended east of Bellamy to Markham Road south of Eglinton, an area which forms the western part of Scarborough Village.
Bellamy Road was named after Edward Bellamy, who in 1888 wrote a popular romance about an ideal utopian socialist society in the year 2000 called “Looking Backward”. Early in the 1900s, one of Bellamy’s disciples bought land on the east side of Bellamy Road, where he hoped to found a society based on Bellamy’s romantic vision. However the founding of this community was opposed by those in power and the landowner was never allowed to move forward with construction.
The intersection of Bellamy and Kingston Road is where Jonathan Gates built a popular tavern after he settled in this area in 1815. On the night of December 5, 1837, the first township militia arrived at this tavern on their way to suppress the Upper Canada rebellion against the ruling class (known at that time as the Family Compact). The rebellion was led by William Lyon Mackenzie, and had many sympathisers in the area, including Peter Secor, Scarborough’s first postmaster.
The Bellamy ravine, also known as Gates Gully, runs south along Bellamy Creek from Kingston Road to the Lake. There is a trail running through the ravine named after the Canadian painter Doris McCarthy who built the first house on the bluffs above the ravine. Native artifacts uncovered in this ravine have been dated back to about 8000 BC, making it the earliest known site of human occupation in the GTA. Controversial developments along the shoreline of this park in 2011 are documented on the Wild Bluffs website.
References:
Robert R. Bonis A History of Scarborough Scarborough Public Library pages 184-185
Jason Ramsay-Brown Toronto Trails and Ravines with Abbey: Gates Gulley (Bellamy Ravine) (Apr 29, 2012)
http://abbey-trails.blogspot.ca/2012/04/april-29-2012-gates-gully-bellamy.html
Wikimapia Bellamy Ravine / Doris McCarthy Trail
http://wikimapia.org/1266945/Bellamy-Ravine-Doris-McCarthy-Trail
Bluffs Girl / The Wild Bluffs The destruction of Doris McCarthy Park (Jun 1 2011)
http://www.thewildbluffs.com/the-destruction-of-doris-mccarthy-park/
