Live in Old Ottawa South

Old Ottawa South occupies the neck of land between the Rideau Canal and the Rideau River, which is why it is small, compact and bounded on two sides by water. Settlement began around 1814 and almost nothing happened for sixty years; the area, then called Rideauville, only became reachable when a bridge went over the canal after Confederation. It was incorporated as a police village in 1905 and annexed to Ottawa in 1907.

The streetcar built it. Tracks reached the neighbourhood around 1910, running roughly the route bus 7 takes today and turning around in what is now Brewer Park. Everything followed: Hopewell School, the churches, and street after street of Craftsman and American Foursquare houses from the 1910s to the 1930s. About 300 buildings here are on the City's heritage reference list. The neighbourhood only acquired its "Old" in the 1990s, to distinguish it from the suburbs that had by then appeared much further south — the community newspaper, The OSCAR, still uses the older name.

What is inside the walk. Bank Street through the middle, with the Mayfair Theatre — open since 5 December 1932, Ottawa's oldest active cinema, a Spanish Revival atmospheric auditorium and never once owned by a chain — plus the pubs and the antique shops. Brewer Park with its pool, arena and pond. Windsor Park on the river, which freezes into an unofficial second skateway most winters. Lansdowne Park over the Bank Street bridge. And Carleton University across Bronson on the same neck of land, which is why so many of the neighbours are academics.

The honest version. This is expensive, and the premium is for the location and the street rather than the house — a 1925 Foursquare is a 1925 Foursquare, with the wiring, the foundation and the uninsulated third floor that implies. Being between two waterways means one road in from each direction and a genuine flood exposure on the low ground at Windsor Park. The student pressure from Carleton has largely priced itself out of the houses but not out of the basements. And Bank Street here is a two-lane arterial as well as a high street, which is a compromise the neighbourhood has been arguing about since the 2004 rebuild.

Worth knowing before you commit

Water on two sides, a high street down the middle

And about three hundred heritage-listed buildings

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• Mostly 1910s–1930s Craftsman and Foursquare stock: check the wiring, the foundation and what was done to the attic
• About 300 buildings are on the City's heritage reference list — worth checking whether yours is before planning work
• The low ground at Windsor Park floods in a strong freshet; this is a riverside neighbourhood
• Carleton is across Bronson, which sets the rental market and fills the streets in September
• The canal pathway reaches Parliament Hill in about twenty-five minutes by bicycle without a traffic light
• There is no rapid transit inside the neighbourhood; Carleton's Line 2 station and the Bank Street buses do the work

How Old Ottawa South got here

• c. 1814American and British settlers take up land on the tongue between the canal and the river. Even after the Rideau Canal is built the area stays sparsely populated, and the Billings estate south of the river exerts more influence over it than Ottawa does.
• 1870s–1900sA bridge over the canal after Confederation opens the area to the city. It is tentatively called Rideauville, and after the turn of the century it grows quickly.
• 1905–1907Rideauville is incorporated as a police village in 1905 and annexed to the City of Ottawa on 16 December 1907.
• c. 1910The streetcar tracks are extended in, running roughly the route bus 7 takes today and turning around in what is now Brewer Park. Hopewell School is built around the same time, and the neighbourhood fills with Craftsman and American Foursquare houses over the following two decades.
• 1920sBrighton Beach opens on the Rideau River shore as a public swimming venue with lessons and water sports — the neighbourhood's own beach for half a century.
• 1942–1959Carleton University is founded and eventually built on the site of an old rubbish dump on the far side of Bronson, on the same neck of land. It becomes the neighbourhood's largest neighbour and the reason so many professors live here.
• 1970Brighton Beach closes to comply with new City pollution standards. The Rideau River has cleaned up considerably since; the beach has not come back.
• 1990s"Old" is added to the name, to distinguish the neighbourhood from the suburbs that had by then appeared much further south. The community newspaper keeps the older name: The OSCAR, for Ottawa South Community Association Review.
• 2004Bank Street is rebuilt through the neighbourhood — overhead power lines removed, traffic calming added, more brick in the sidewalks, and inlaid metal maple leaves carrying the names of Canadian folk musicians.
• 2008The City designates the Mayfair Theatre a heritage building. It opened on 5 December 1932 with The Blue Danube, is a rare surviving Spanish Revival atmospheric auditorium, and has never been owned by or affiliated with a cinema chain.

The resident's angle: the river is the neighbourhood's own and the canal is the city's. Brighton Beach operated on the Rideau here from the 1920s until 1970, when new pollution standards closed it; the water has improved a great deal since and people paddle it, but the beach never came back. And the Skateway is no longer a given — the 2023 season did not open for a single day.

The free option comes in two forms here, and both are water: the canal pathway north to downtown, and the Rideau River at Windsor Park, which freezes into the neighbourhood's own skating surface most winters and is cleared by volunteers rather than by the NCC.