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A brief History of Old South London
The area we now know as Old South began as a Crown Reserve, established
in 1793, by John Graves Simcoe. The boundaries of the Crown Reserve,
as it existed south of the Thames River, extended from the Coves
east to what is now High Street and from Base Line Road (the northern
boundary of Westminster Township) north to the River. [As an historical
aside, if Simcoe’s plan to establish London as the capital
of Upper Canada had come to pass, the government buildings were
to have been built in London South, west of the Forks of the Thames.]
During the period 1840-1880, London South was almost entirely an
exclusive residential neighbourhood. Many wealthy Londoners, and
quite a few Westminster Township grandees, were granted or purchased
country estates south of the Thames and built large mansions. Few
survive to this day, however. When London was selected as the administrative
and judicial capital of the London District in 1826, economic development
was assured. Government bureaucrats were soon followed by merchants
and entrepreneurs whose increasing wealth was supplemented by the
establishment of a substantial British military garrison in London
in 1838. London’s role as the economic hub of a great agricultural
hinterland was confirmed with the arrival of the Great Western Railway
in 1853.
By the 1850’s, several of the town’s wealthiest merchants
and professional men who had, until this time, lived close to their
businesses in the town proper, were attracted to London South by
its underdeveloped and rural character, by its close proximity to
the core of London, and by Westminster Township’s lower tax
rates. Though separated from the town proper by the south branch
of the Thames River, the area was not isolated. The Westminster
Bridge (on Stanley Street) was opened in 1826, Clark’s Bridge
(on Wellington Street) was completed in 1840, and these two were
followed by the first Victoria Bridge on Ridout Street in 1848.
Thus, from its very beginnings, London South was an exclusive,
unincorporated residential suburb dominated by a number of palatial
estates stretching along the south bank of the Thames River.
South London, prior to its annexation in 1890, did not possess
a central business district of its own as the city’s commercial
core was located just across the river. What it did have was “Shaw’s
Corners” – the traditional centre of the area at Wortley
road and Craig Street. Named after Shaw’s Grocery on the southeast
corner of the intersection, what we now think of as the commercial
core of “Wortley Village”, stretching from Craig Street
to Elmwood Avenue, are mainly more recently-established businesses
in converted residences.
The London Street Railway made its first appearance south of the
Thames in 1888. This first route crossed the Victoria Bridge along
Ridout Street, turned west along Craig Street to Wortley Road, and
then turned around. After the system was electrified in 1895, a
new route came into being – west along Stanley Street, south
along Wharncliffe Road to Askin Street, east along Askin to Wortley
Road, and then east along Elmwood Avenue to Ridout where the tram
turned north on Ridout to complete the circuit.
London South remained a part of Westminster Township until its
annexation by the City of London on May 1, 1890. The key issue in
the vote, as in London East, revolved around the issue of water
supply from the city’s Springbank Waterworks, the extension
of police and fire protection to the area, and increased funding
for schools.
Old South London has been fortunate in being able to preserve its
residential character and, in this, clearly resembles Old North
London. Commercial development has been confined to the major traffic
arteries running along the eastern and western boundaries of the
neighbourhood. The early estates, and the small agricultural acreages
surrounding them, had been subdivided into building lots by developers
as early as the 1850’s, though extensive residential build-up
waited until the 1880’s. During the 1880’s and 1890’s,
a building boom ensued that saw the construction of both substantial
homes, in keeping with the neighbourhood’s high-income character,
and handsome cottages, as can be seen today along such streets as
Askin Street. By 1914, the area had developed south to Tecumseh
Avenue. The next building boom developed in the 1920’s and
1930’s when the houses along McKenzie, Windsor, Devonshire
and Emery Streets were built.
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