Jump to content

London, Ontario: Difference between revisions

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Browse history interactively
← Previous editNext edit →
Content deleted Content added
VisualWikitext
No edit summary
No edit summary
Line 233: Line 233:
* [[Frederick Banting]], discoverer of [[insulin]], practised in London, and has both a museum dedicated to him and a high school named after him
* [[Frederick Banting]], discoverer of [[insulin]], practised in London, and has both a museum dedicated to him and a high school named after him
* Sir [[Adam Beck]], who was instrumental in setting up the early grid to deliver hydro-electric power from [[Niagara Falls]] to the rest of Ontario.
* Sir [[Adam Beck]], who was instrumental in setting up the early grid to deliver hydro-electric power from [[Niagara Falls]] to the rest of Ontario.
* [[Bill Brady]] broadcast journalist, Member of [[Order of Canada|The Order of Canada]] and formerly National Director of the [[Canadian Heart Foundation]].
* [[Richard Maurice Bucke]], pioneer in the modern treatment of the insane, and friend of [[Walt Whitman]].
* [[Richard Maurice Bucke]], pioneer in the modern treatment of the insane, and friend of [[Walt Whitman]].
* [[Peter Butler]], grandson of an escaped slave involved in the settlement of an early Canadian Black community.
* [[Peter Butler]], grandson of an escaped slave involved in the settlement of an early Canadian Black community.

Revision as of 22:14, 21 August 2005

Template:Canadian City London is a city in southwestern Ontario, Canada on the Quebec City-Windsor Corridor with a metropolitan area population of about 432,451; the city proper has a population of about 336,539 (2001). London is the seat of Middlesex County, at the forks of the non-navigable Thames River, almost exactly halfway between Toronto and Detroit. It is located at 43°2′N 81°9′W / 43.033°N 81.150°W / 43.033; -81.150. London and the surrounding area (roughly, the territory between Kitchener and Chatham) is collectively known as Western Ontario.

London was first settled in 1826 and was incorporated as a city in 1855. Since then, London has grown into one of Canada's largest municipalities with a strong focus towards education, health care, tourism, and economic prosperity.

History

John Graves Simcoe

Prior to European contact in the 17th century, the present site of London was occupied by numerous Algonquin and Iroquois villages; the Algonquin village at the forks of Askunessippi (the Thames River) was called Kotequogong. This site was selected as the site of the future capital of Upper Canada in 1793 by Lieutenant-Governor John Graves Simcoe, who named it after London, England. However, the choice was rejected by Governor Dorchester, who commented sardonically that access to London would be limited to hot-air balloons.

In 1814 there was a skirmish during the War of 1812 in what is now south London. The city itself was not founded until 1826, and never became the capital envisioned by Simcoe. It was part of the Talbot Settlement, overseen by Colonel Thomas Talbot, who surveyed the land and built the first government buildings for the administration of the Western Ontario region. With the rest of southwestern Ontario which was part of this settlement, it benefitted from Talbot's provisions for building and maintaining roads and for assignment of priority for access to main roads to productive land (rather than to Crown and clergy reserves, which received preference in the rest of Ontario). In 1832 the new settlement suffered an outbreak of cholera. London remained a centre of strong Tory support during the Upper Canada Rebellion of 1837, with a large British garrison stationed there, although there was a brief rebellion led by Charles Duncombe.

On April 13, 1845, a large fire destroyed much of London, which was at the time filled with mostly wooden buildings. One of the first victims of the fire was the town's only fire engine. In the 1860s, sulphur hot springs were discovered at the forks of the Thames River while industrialists were drilling for oil. The springs became a popular destination for wealthy Ontarians, until the turn of the 20th century when a textile factory was built over them.

While other Protestant cities in Ontario (notably Toronto) remained under the sway of the Orange Order well into the twentieth century, London abandoned sectarianism in the nineteenth. In 1877, Catholic and Protestant Irish in London formed the Irish Benevolent Society, which was open to both Catholics and Protestants and forbade the discussion of Irish politics. The influence of the Orange Order (and of Catholic organizations) quickly waned. The Society survives to this day.

St. Peter's Cathedral Basilica, seat of the Roman Catholic Diocese of London

On May 24, 1881, the ferry SS Victoria capsized in the Thames River, drowning approximately 200 passengers, the worst disaster in London's history. Two years later, on July 12, 1883, the first of the two most devastating floods in London's history killed seventeen people. The second major flood occurred on April 26, 1937, which destroyed over 1000 homes and caused millions of dollars in damages, particularly in West London. After repeated floods the Upper Thames River Conservation Authority built Fanshawe Dam to control the level of the Thames; it opened in 1952. Financing came from the federal, provincial, and municipal governments. Other natural disasters include a 1984 tornado that led to extensive damage in the White Oaks area of South London.

London's role as a military centre continued into the 20th century during the two world wars, serving as the administrative centre for the Western Ontario district. Today there is still an active Garrison Support Unit in the city.

London amalgamated many of the surrounding communities in 1961, including Byron and Masonville, adding 60,000 people and more than doubling its size. After this amalgamation, surburban growth accelerated as London grew outward in all directions, creating expansive new subdivisions such as Westmount, Oakridge, Whitehills, Pond Mills and White Oaks. In 1993 London annexed the entire Town of Westminster, a large, primarily rural municipality directly south of the city. With this massive annexation, London almost doubled in size again, adding several thousand more residents. London now stretches south to the boundary with Elgin County.

The 1993 annexation has made London one of the largest urban municipalities in Ontario. Intense commercial/residential development is presently occurring in the southwest and northwest areas of the city. Opponents of this development cite urban sprawl and transportation concerns as major issues facing London. The City of London is currently the 11th largest city in Canada and the 5th largest city in Ontario.

Law and Government

Middlesex County Court House, (John Ewart, architect, 1824-1825 Gothic Revival)

Main article: London City Council

London's municipal government is split between fourteen councillors (two representing each of London's seven wards) and a Board of Control, consisting of four controllers and the mayor. London's current mayor is Anne Marie DeCicco. Historically, the Board of Control was introduced during a period of expansion so the councillors could deal with regional issues while the board dealt with problems affecting the entire city. Although London has many ties to Middlesex County, it is now "separated" and the two have no jurisdictional overlap. Exception here is granted to the Middlesex County courthouse and jail as both are located in London.

In the provincial government, London is represented by:

In the federal government, London is represented by:

See also: List of mayors of London, Ontario, Roman Catholic Bishops of London, Ontario

Geography

The area was formed during the retreat of the glaciers during the last ice age, which produced areas of marshland, notably the Sifton Bog, as well as some of the most productive areas of farmland in Ontario. The eastern half of the city is generally flat, with gently rolling hills in the west and north.

The Thames River dominates London's geography, with the North Thames River and Thames River meeting at the centre of the city known as "The Forks" or "The Fork of the Thames". The North Thames runs through the man-made Fanshawe Lake, located in north-east London. Fanshawe Lake was created by Fanshawe Dam, which was constructed to protect the areas down river from catastrophic flooding which has affected the city on two occasions in the past.

Due to its proximity to the Great Lakes, London experiences very contrasting seasons. The summers are usually hot and muggy, while the winters are normally quite cold. London has the most thunder and lightning storms of any area in Canada.

Major Parks

Boer War Memorial, Victoria Park (George Hill, sculptor)
  • Victoria Park, in central London
  • Harris Park, in central London
  • Gibbons Park, in north London
  • Fanshawe Conservation Area, in east London
  • Springbank Park, in north-west London
  • Westminister Ponds, in south London

Economy/Industry

File:Labatt.jpg
the first Labatt brewery was built in London

London's economy is dominated by locomotive and military vehicle production, insurance, and information technology; the London Life insurance company was founded there, and General Motors' Electro-Motive Division now builds all its locomotives in London. General Dynamics Land Systems also builds armoured personnel carriers there. London also is a source of life sciences and biotechnology related research; much of this is spurred on by the University of Western Ontario. The headquarters of the Canadian division of 3M are located in London, and both the Labatt and Carling breweries were founded there. Kellogg's also has a major factory in London.

Demographics

As of 2001, the City of London had 336,539 inhabitants. According to StatCan, Canada's official statistics office, the metropolitan population is 432,451 growing an annual 0.76%.

Racial make-up

The racial makeup of London is around 91.1% White (including 1.3% Aboriginal) mostly comprising those of British origin but including a sizable Argentine and Chilean population that has grown in the last few decades. Most of the rest of the population are Black (1.7%), Arab (1.5%) and Asian (1.1%). There are a small number who are Hispanic, Korean, Japanese, and mixed race.

The city of London has one of the highest percentages of people who are of British Isles origin. The five largest reported ancestries in London are:

There are many churches in London and the religious population is predominantly Christian. According to StatsCan the Christian population can be expressed as:

Protestant: 44.0 % Roman Catholic: 27.9% other Christian: 3.9%

Islam is the second largest religion after Christianity; many adherants of Islam come from Lebanon and Palestine. There are also small populations of muslims: Pakistanis, Indians, Iraqis, Egyptians, Somalis, Syrians, Afghanis, Turks, Sudanese, Algerians and many more. There are also a few second and even third generation Muslims living in London.

In a city that is constantly growing and attracting new citizens, other religious faiths are also represented. The Islamic population represents 2.7% of the total and the Hebrew, Hindu, Sikh and Buddist faiths are represented and have dedicated places of worship. There are also centers for Theosophy and Eckankar devotees, as well as a center for Unitarians. There is also an active Baha'i community in London.

Crime

Crime in London is low for a city of its size, although the Hell's Angels have set up a chapter in town and formerly housed a chapter of the Outlaws Motorcycle Club. Marijuana is widely available illegally. Ecstasy and special K are uncommon. London has a small crack problem, with the downtown eastside containing some crack houses and dealers. Pharmaceutical drugs, such as morphine, oxycodone and other opiates are increasing in use. The central eastside of the city is thought of as being less safe than other parts of the city, with the adage "EoA" (East of Adelaide) meaning that one is in the bad part of town. Prostitution is a key problem in this area. However, there have been attempts by the residents of the community East of Adelaide to "own" the term "EoA" as well as promoting business and cultural development in that area of the city, as well as reducing all negative stigma's attached to the area.

Hate groups do exist in London. Most notable is the Northern Alliance who have a base in the city.

Education

London elementary and secondary schools are part of two school boards, the Thames Valley District School Board and the London District Catholic School Board. See List of schools in London, Ontario.

London is the home of the University of Western Ontario (UWO). UWO was founded in 1878 and is Canada's fourth oldest university. UWO is a vibrant centre of learning with 1,164 faculty members and almost 29,000 undergraduate and graduate students. The Richard Ivey School of Business, part of UWO, was formed in 1922 and often ranks among the best business schools in the world. UWO has three affiliated colleges: Brescia University College, founded in 1919, Canada's only university-level women's college; Huron University College, founded in 1863, pre-dating UWO itself; and King's University College, founded in 1957.

London is also the home of Fanshawe College, a community college with an enrolment of approximately 13,000 full-time post-secondary students, including 3,500 apprentices, more than 200 international students from over 34 countries, and almost 40,000 registrants taking part-time continuing education courses each year.

Sports teams

File:Londonknights.gif
The London Knights

London is currently home to the London Knights of the Ontario Hockey League, who play at the John Labatt Centre, the host arena of the 2005 Memorial Cup, and were both 2004-2005 OHL and Memorial Cup Champions. They are by far the most popular sports team in the city. During the summer months, the London Majors of the Intercounty Baseball League play at the historical Labatt Park. Lesser and former sports teams from London include:

The University of Western Ontario teams play under the name Mustangs. The university's football team plays at TD Waterhouse Stadium.

Labatt Park, which opened in 1877, is also North America's oldest operating baseball park still in its original location.

The Forest City Velodrome, located at the former London Ice House, is the only indoor cycling facility in Ontario and only the third built in North America. It opened in 2005.

Communications and media

Federal government building, Art Deco

The independent London Telephone Company was bought by the Bell Telephone Company of Canada in 1881. Bell Canada continues to be the incumbent local exchange carrier for London.

Television

London pioneered in the establishment of cable television in Canada, being either the first or second city in Canada with cable service, when Ed Jarmain and others wired the first 15 homes... and had to purchase TV sets for 14 of them! London had the second private local television station in Canada, CFPL (on-air November 28, 1953), and CFPL was the first Canadian local channel to broadcast in colour (1966). It remains the only local TV station in London, and as part of CHUM Limited's NewNet system was branded as The New PL. In August 2005 CFPL was rebranded as A-Channel.

Radio

London also had radio since 1922 when CJGC was established. It joined a Windsor station in early 1933 to become CKLW, but a local station was reestablished late that year, CFPL-AM. A sister FM station was established in 1948, and is now owned by Corus Entertainment. Competitor CKSL started in 1956; a third station, CJOE, was founded in 1967, changing to CJBK in 1970. In addition to one station each with Fanshawe College (CIXX) and UWO (CHRW), other stations are associated with existing stations. The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation has a local studio used primarily for hourly newscasts at the bottom of the hour during the regional morning show.

The following stations broadcast in London:

Radio stations broadcasting from Woodstock and St. Thomas can also be heard in London.

Newspapers

Until 1937, London had two newspapers: the London Free Press (established 1849) and the London Advertiser. The Advertiser folded in 1937, and there has been no major local competition for the Free Press since then. The Free Press, formerly owned by the Blackburn family, is now owned by Sun Media. The Free Press also publishes London This Week, a free weekly municipal oriented newspaper. Scene Magazine, a free biweekly newspaper, was established in 1989, focusing on local and entertainment news, while The Londoner, a free weekly newspaper founded in 2003, calls itself "London's community newspaper".

Arts and culture

London's diverse cultural offering boosts its tourism industry. The city is home to many festivals throughout the summer including the London International Children's Festival, London Ribfest which is the second largest rib festival in North America [1], and Sunfest, a World music and culture festival — the second biggest in Canada after Caribana in Toronto.

Musically, London is home to Orchestra London, a professional symphony orchestra, the London Youth Symphony, and also the Guy Lombardo museum. There are several museums and theatrical facilities including Museum London which is located at the Forks of the Thames. Museum London exhibits art by Paul Peel and Greg Curnoe. London is also home to the Museum of Archaeology, owned by the University of Western Ontario (UWO), with a reconstructed Iroquois village, the McIntosh Gallery which is an art gallery on the UWO campus, and Grand Theatre which is a professional theatre with a secondary stage named the McManus Studio. Other places and events of artistic and cultural interest include:

Transportation

TD-Canada Trust bank building, Art Deco

London is present at the junction of two major highways: the 401 (the Macdonald-Cartier Freeway, connecting Windsor to Montreal) and the 402 (connecting London to Sarnia). Also, Highway 403, which diverges from the 401 not far east of London, provides ready access to Brantford, Hamilton, the Golden Horseshoe region and the Niagara Peninsula.

Many smaller 2-lane highways also pass through or near London including Kings Highways 2, 3, 4, 7 and 22. Many of these are "historical" names, however, as provincial downloading in the 80's and 90's put responsibility for most provincial highways onto municipal governments. Nevertheless, these roads continue to provide important access from London to nearby communities and locations in much of Western Ontario including Goderich, Port Stanley and Owen Sound.

Within London, as with many cities, traffic tends to congest in certain areas during rush hour. However, the lack of a municipal expressway (either through or around the city) as well as the presence of two signficant railways (each with attendant switching yards and few over/under -passes) contributes heavily to this congestion. These conditions cause travel times to be highly variable with end-to-end (or top-to-bottom) times varying from 20 minutes to over an hour.

London is the largest city in Ontario not to have an expressway. This is despite plans to construct such a road (around the city's periphery) which have existed for decades. Notable in the 1960s and early 1970s was an effort to route, through the north and east sections of the city or in the rural areas beyond, an expressway from Sarnia. The assorted route options (in-city that served users but disrupted neighbourhoods, or out-of-the-city that avoided neighbourhoods but did not serve city users) were fought over, but in the end, city council rejected the expressway, and instead accepted Airport Road to serve the east end.

Although there are many factors at play, proponents of the project attribute the lack of progress largely to litigation by environmental lobbies and local home-owners. Nevertheless, the recent doubling (to four lanes) of Airport Road (formerly Highway 100) in the industrialized east end does represent progress toward this goal and significantly aids traffic (largely coming off the 401) in reaching the east, and north ends of the city.

Since the 1970s, London has been more successful at urban road realignments that eliminated "jogs" in established traffic patterns over 19th-century street "mis-alignments": the Riverside Drive-Queens Avenue-Dundas Street linkup, the Horton Street Expressway, the Bradley Avenue-Highbury interchange, the Wonderland Road bridge over the Thames River, and the Oxford Street West extension.

Like most cities of its size or larger, London has several taxi and for-hire limousine services and the London Transit Commission has 32 bus routes throughout the city.

London is on the Canadian National Railway main line between Toronto and Chicago, Illinois (with a secondary main line to Windsor) and the Canadian Pacific Railway main line between Toronto and Detroit. VIA Rail operates passenger service through London station as part of the Quebec City-Windsor Corridor, with connections to the United States.

London is also an important destination for intercity bus travellers. The Greyhound Canada express services to and from Toronto are heavily travelled, and connecting services radiate from London throughout southwestern Ontario and through Detroit, Michigan to Chicago, Illinois. London International Airport (YXU) is served by airlines such as Air Canada, Air Canada Jazz, WestJet and Northwest Airlines and provides flights to popular national and international destinations. Many flights to nearby major airports such as Toronto or Detroit are flown daily.

Miscellaneous

Contrary to popular belief, London did not take on the name "Forest City" due to the number of trees in the city. In its early days, London was an isolated destination and one would have to walk through a forest to get there. So it can be said that London was a "city within a forest" and as such earned the nickname "The Forest City". In modern times, however, Londoners have become protective of the trees in the city, protesting "unnecessary" removal of trees. The City Council and tourist industry have created projects to replant trees throughout the city.

Asteroid (12310) Londontario is named for the city.

Notable Londoners

Sir Frederick Banting
File:EricLindros.jpg
Eric Lindros
File:Tv the nature of things david suzuki .jpg
David Suzuki

The following is a list of some famous Londoners:

Further reading

  • Frederick H. Armstrong and John H. Lutman, The Forest City: An Illustrated History of London, Canada. Burlington, Ontario: Windsor Publications, 1986.
  • Orlo Miller, London 200: An Illustrated History. London: London Chamber of Commerce, 1992.

See also

External links

North: Middlesex Centre
West: Middlesex Centre London East: Thames Centre
South: Southwold, Central Elgin
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=London,_Ontario&oldid=21526701"