Live in New Edinburgh and Rockcliffe Park
Rideau Hall, 24 Sussex, the ambassadors and a village that has been a heritage conservation district since 1977 — the wealthiest square kilometre in Ottawa, and one of the quietest.
Two neighbourhoods that share a boundary, a postcode and almost nothing else about how they were made. New Edinburgh was founded in 1829 by Thomas McKay, one of the builders of the Rideau Canal locks, who bought the land where the Rideau meets the Ottawa and named his village for his native Edinburgh; the streets carry his family's names, and the place was industrial for its first fifty years, running mills off the river. It was incorporated as a separate village in 1866 and annexed by Ottawa in 1887. Rockcliffe Park was founded in 1864 by Thomas Keefer on explicitly Picturesque principles — curving roads without curbs or sidewalks, generous lots, and houses set unobtrusively in a continuous green landscape — became a police village in 1908 and an independent village from 1926, and stayed independent until amalgamation on 1 January 2001. In 1977 the entire village was designated a heritage conservation district, one of only a handful of surviving nineteenth-century communities of its kind in North America. Between them they hold Rideau Hall, 24 Sussex Drive, Stornoway, a good share of the diplomatic corps, and average incomes about three times the Ottawa figure. They also hold, in the older purpose-built walk-ups along Beechwood, some of the cheapest rents in the inner city — which is the sort of thing an average conceals.
A mill village and a Picturesque village, sharing a boundary and nothing else
New Edinburgh runs from the Rideau River west, the Ottawa River north, Beechwood Avenue south and Springfield Road and the old Rockcliffe Park village limits east. Rockcliffe Park sits immediately east of it on the Ottawa River cliffs, taking in McKay Lake, Sand Pits Lake and the Rockeries. This guide covers the Ottawa Neighbourhood Study's Lindenlea – New Edinburgh and Rockcliffe Park neighbourhoods together.
New Edinburgh was founded in 1829 by Thomas McKay, a stonemason and one of the builders of the Rideau Canal locks, who bought the land where the Rideau meets the Ottawa and named his village for his native Edinburgh. Its streets carry his family: Crichton was his wife's maiden name, Keefer his son-in-law, and Thomas, John and Charles his sons. For its first fifty years it was industrial, running mills off the falls. McKay built Rideau Hall here as a private house in 1838; the Crown leased it in 1865 and bought it in 1868.
Rockcliffe Park was a different idea entirely. Thomas Keefer founded it in 1864 on explicitly Picturesque principles — narrow curving roads without curbs or sidewalks, generous lots, mature trees, houses set unobtrusively into a continuous green landscape. It became a police village in 1908, an independent village from 1926, and stayed independent until amalgamation on 1 January 2001. In 1977 the entire village was designated a heritage conservation district — the whole place, not a list of buildings — making it one of a handful of surviving nineteenth-century communities of its kind in North America. The motto on its coat of arms is Inter Arboribus Floremus: amidst the trees we flourish.
What is here now. Rideau Hall and its 32 hectares, open to the public and free. 24 Sussex Drive. Stornoway, where the Dutch royal family lived through the Second World War and where the Leader of the Official Opposition lives now. A large share of the diplomatic corps. Ashbury College and Elmwood School. A public library branch that residents built and staffed themselves before the City took it over. And, in Rockcliffe Park, no commercial activity of any kind — the shops are on Beechwood Avenue, on the other neighbourhood's boundary.
The honest version. Rockcliffe Park had an average income of $186,000 in 2020 against $64,500 across Ottawa, and buying here is a different exercise from buying anywhere else in this guide. The heritage designation is the thing to understand: a heritage permit is required before altering or demolishing a property, and the district's edges are contested — in 2019 the Local Planning Appeal Tribunal ordered the City to issue a demolition permit at 270 Buchan Road after the City admitted that 721 property evaluations in the district had not been done correctly. Renting is a different story again: CMHC's zone average here is below the Ottawa figure, because the purpose-built stock is older walk-up on Beechwood rather than the houses the neighbourhood is famous for. Both facts are true and they describe different buildings.
- Rockcliffe Park is a heritage conservation district in its entirety — a heritage permit is required to alter or demolish
- There is no commercial activity inside Rockcliffe Park; Beechwood Avenue is the shopping street for both neighbourhoods
- Roads without curbs or sidewalks are a design choice, not neglect, and they change how snow clearing and leaf collection work
- The rental figures and the sale figures describe different buildings here — the walk-ups on Beechwood are not the houses
- New Edinburgh's low ground floods in a strong freshet; 2017 and 2019 both closed parts of New Edinburgh Park
- Security infrastructure and occasional Sussex Drive closures come with the official residences
How the two villages got here
- 1829Thomas McKay, a stonemason and one of the builders of the Rideau Canal locks, buys the land at the junction of the Ottawa and Rideau rivers and lays out a village named for Edinburgh. The streets take his family's names — Crichton was his wife's maiden name, Keefer his son-in-law, and Thomas, John and Charles his sons.
- 1830s–1860sNew Edinburgh is industrial: mills using the power of the Rideau at the falls. McKay builds Rideau Hall in 1838 as a private house; the Crown leases it in 1865 and buys it in 1868, and it has been the Governor General's residence ever since.
- 1864Thomas Keefer founds Rockcliffe Park on Picturesque principles — narrow curving roads without curbs or sidewalks, mature trees, generous lots, houses set unobtrusively into a continuous green landscape. The village motto, Inter Arboribus Floremus, means "amidst the trees we flourish".
- 1866–1887New Edinburgh is incorporated as a separate village by a special act of parliament in 1866, and annexed by Ottawa twenty-one years later.
- 1908–1926Rockcliffe Park becomes a police village in 1908 and an independent village from 1926, with its own reeve. It stays that way for seventy-five years, which is why it does not look like the rest of Ottawa.
- 1940–1945The Dutch royal family lives at Stornoway in Rockcliffe Park during the Second World War. Princess Beatrix attends Rockcliffe Park Public School, whose gymnasium is now called Queen Juliana Hall. Stornoway is today the residence of the Leader of the Official Opposition.
- 1977The entire village of Rockcliffe Park is designated a heritage conservation district — the whole place, not a set of buildings — making it one of a handful of surviving nineteenth-century communities of its kind in North America.
- 2001Amalgamation. Rockcliffe Park loses its village council and its mayor and becomes part of the City of Ottawa, which it has been arguing with about heritage permits ever since.
- 2016–2019Council adopts a Rockcliffe Park Heritage Conservation District Plan under the Ontario Heritage Act. In 2019 the Local Planning Appeal Tribunal sides with a homeowner at 270 Buchan Road and orders the City to issue a demolition permit, after the City admits that 721 property evaluations in the district were not done correctly. The designation stands; its edges are contested.
The most park-like square kilometre in Ottawa, by design
Rideau Hall's 32 hectares are open to the public and free, with paths, a skating rink in winter and a cricket pitch in summer — for a great many residents this is simply the daily walk. Rockcliffe Park itself is a park in the literal sense: McKay Lake (a meromictic lake, whose bottom water never mixes), Sand Pits Lake, and the Rockeries, maintained by the NCC. North along the cliffs is the NCC's own Rockcliffe Park greenspace on the Sir George-Étienne Cartier Parkway. New Edinburgh Park holds the ball diamonds and the canoe club on the Rideau, and Beechwood Cemetery — 65 hectares — is over the southern boundary.
The resident's angle: this is the least park-deprived neighbourhood in the guide, and almost none of the green is a conventional municipal park — it is a vice-regal estate, a private-village landscape maintained to a heritage plan, an NCC parkway and a national cemetery. That works beautifully for walking and less well for a football pitch. New Edinburgh Park is the one that does ordinary park duty, and it is also the one that floods.
21 places, with real drive times
Road-adjusted distance and drive time from the centre of the community to each destination, nearest first. Filter by category.
Showing 1–12 of 21 places, nearest first.
Method: distances and drive times are estimated from a representative point between Crichton Street and the village, using straight-line distance multiplied by a road factor and a tiered speed model — honest ranges, not routed times. There is no O-Train station in either neighbourhood and none planned; the commute is Sussex Drive, the Vanier Parkway or a bicycle down the river path.
Every gym within reach
There is no municipal recreation centre in either neighbourhood, which is unusual for somewhere this central. What there is instead is the Rideau Hall grounds — free, open, with a winter skating rink — the membership-based Rideau Sports Centre on Donald Street, and the City's Champagne Bath in Lowertown for a pool.
- Paths, lawns and a public skating rink in winter, with the cricket pitch in summer
- Rideau Sports Centre on Donald Street has indoor tennis, a winter dome and a gym on a membership basis
- Champagne Bath in Lowertown is the nearest City pool — a 1924 bathhouse, still municipal
- Ashbury and Elmwood run their own facilities, which are not open to the public
| Facility | What it is | Drive |
|---|---|---|
| Rideau Hall grounds open | Not a gym: 32 hectares of the Governor General's grounds, open to the public, free, with paths, a skating rink in winter and the cricket pitch in summer. For a great many residents this is the daily walk. | 3–4 min |
| Rideau Sports Centre open | The tennis and multi-sport centre on Donald Street beside the Rideau River — indoor courts, a winter dome, a gym and a restaurant. Membership-based, and the nearest full racquet facility. | 4–6 min |
| Champagne Bath open | 321 King Edward Avenue in Lowertown — Ottawa's first municipal pool, built between 1921 and 1924, still a City pool and fitness centre at municipal prices. The nearest public pool to either neighbourhood. | 6–9 min |
| New Edinburgh Park open | Ball diamonds, a canoe club on the Rideau River and the riverside pathway — the free option, and the one that connects south through Vanier and north to the Ottawa River pathways. | 3–4 min |
The free option is everything: the Rideau Hall grounds, the Rockcliffe Park lakes and Rockeries, the NCC parkway along the cliffs with cross-country skiing and tobogganing in winter, and the river pathway through New Edinburgh Park. Very few Ottawa neighbourhoods need a gym membership less.
One public elementary, two independent schools, and an alternative programme
Rockcliffe Park Public School is the village's public elementary — its gymnasium is Queen Juliana Hall, after the Dutch princess who attended during the war. Ashbury College and Elmwood School are the independent day and boarding schools, and a substantial reason the diplomatic corps concentrates in these streets. In New Edinburgh, Lady Evelyn Alternative School runs the alternative public programme and admits from across the city.
| School | Board | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Rockcliffe Park Public School | OCDSB | The village's public elementary, whose gymnasium is named Queen Juliana Hall after the Dutch princess who attended during the war. |
| Elmwood School | Independent | The independent girls' school in Rockcliffe Park, from pre-kindergarten to grade 12. |
| Ashbury College | Independent | The independent day and boarding school on Mariposa Avenue, and one of the reasons the diplomatic corps concentrates here. |
| Lady Evelyn Alternative School | OCDSB | The alternative-programme public school in New Edinburgh, which admits from across the city and is heavily subscribed. |
| Ottawa Public Library — Rockcliffe Park branch | Library | Beside the elementary school, originally funded, built and staffed by residents and now a City branch — with the Margaret A. Bailey art collection. |
The public secondary catchment is outside both neighbourhoods, and a significant share of local families use the independent schools instead — which makes the published catchment a poor guide to what the children on your street actually do. Confirm the current catchment for a specific address with the school board before you buy.
Month by month, what living here looks like
Not a highlights reel — the actual annual rhythm, including the dates residents have to remember.
- The rink on the Rideau Hall grounds opens, and it is free and rarely busy
- A daily mean of −10 °C and 59 cm of snow on average; Rockcliffe's curbless roads are cleared differently from the rest of the city
- Cross-country skiing along the Sir George-Étienne Cartier Parkway and the river cliffs
- The coldest fortnight of the year, with about 16 nights below −20 °C
- McKay Lake freezes and the village skates on it in a good year
- The diplomatic calendar's quietest month, which is noticeable if you live on Sussex
- The Rideau River breaks up at the falls, which is the loudest the neighbourhood gets all year
- The Rideau Hall grounds thaw and the paths reopen
- Grit season on Beechwood Avenue
- Both rivers peak, and the low ground in New Edinburgh Park goes under most years — 2017 and 2019 badly
- The tulips go in along Sussex Drive for the festival
- The canoe club at New Edinburgh Park opens for the season
- The Canadian Tulip Festival runs along Confederation Boulevard, which passes through the neighbourhood
- Doors Open Ottawa opens Rideau Hall and several embassies
- Rockcliffe Park's gardens are at their best, and the village is at its most obviously Picturesque
- The changing of the guard and the ceremonial season begins at Rideau Hall
- Sunset near 8:50pm, and the river pathways are usable until well after it
- School years end at Rockcliffe Park PS, Elmwood and Ashbury within a week of each other
- Canada Day, and the neighbourhood is on the route rather than in the crowd
- A July daily mean of 21.2 °C with humidex regularly past 35, moderated by the tree canopy more than anywhere else in the city
- The quietest weeks of the year in Rockcliffe Park, when much of the village is away
- The emptiest month in both neighbourhoods, and the easiest one to view a house in
- Peak humidity, though the mature canopy makes a genuine difference here
- The Ottawa River beaches and Gatineau Park are twenty minutes away
- The private and public school years start and the morning traffic on Springfield and Beechwood returns
- The best weather of the year, and the month the Rideau Hall grounds are at their most pleasant
- The diplomatic season restarts, and with it the traffic control on Sussex
- Rockcliffe Park and Beechwood Cemetery are, between them, the best autumn ten days in Ottawa
- The first frost usually lands in the first half of the month
- Leaf collection in a district with no curbs is its own annual problem
- Remembrance Day at Beechwood, the National Cemetery of Canada, is the neighbourhood's own ceremony
- Dark by half past four, and the month a heritage-designated house's windows become a policy question as well as a bill
- The overnight winter parking ban starts in mid-November
- Christmas Lights Across Canada lights Confederation Boulevard through the neighbourhood
- The Rideau Hall skating rink opens when the cold holds
- The first real snow, and Rockcliffe's roads look their best under it
24 photographs of Ottawa and the region
Drawn from the site's shared, freely licensed Ottawa photo library — not photographs of New Edinburgh and Rockcliffe Park itself. Filter by category.
Showing 1–12 of 24 photographs.
About these photographs. Openly licensed images geotagged in or near New Edinburgh and Rockcliffe Park, found on Wikimedia Commons and served from there with full attribution. Inline photos elsewhere on the page may still come from the site's shared Ottawa library.