Marie Street was named by Louis Poulin for his eldest daughter Violette Marie Poulin ..read more

With varying degrees of accuracy Britannia has been “on the map” at least since it was surveyed to give land grants after the war of 1812. The maps tell one story of the history of Britannia, although without context it can be hard to know what you are seeing. All the same, here is a sampling of almost 200 years of mapping Britannia. Britannia 1831 Note Dow’s Great Swamp to the East, and the Ferry above Shirley’s Bay. That would be the Richmond Rd running up to Richmond, and then back to Constance Bay. Survey Map 1863 The shifting shape of the shoreline probably reflects time of year that the ..read more

Originally named Bay St and extending across into Belltown as far as Croft, presumably because it ran along the edge of Britannia Bay. The street was cut into two by the creation of Britannia Park in 1900. When Britannia became part of the City of Ottawa in 1950 the Britannia Village section of Bay St was renamed “Salina” as Ottawa already had a Bay St. One proposed new name was “Alice St., but in 1950 there was already an Alice St in Vanier so that wasn’t going to happen. In the 1870s there had also been an Alice St in what is now Centretown (The Ottawa Citizen, Saturday, August 1, 1925, pg 2 ..read more

The Ottawa Citizen, Nov 11, 2009 Life circumstances has meant that I missed Remembrance Day with the next “Britannia at War” post. One of the “circumstances” is the task got a lot more complex due to the numbers who served and the variability of information available. We know a lot about some, next to nothing about others. I would like to honour those who served without glorifying war. I would like to honour all equally, but not if it means defaulting to a minimal presentation of all because that is all we know about some. Many who served survived, but we know little about them. Some survivors ..read more

This is a self-led, walking audio tour of the basic history of Ottawa’s Britannia. For a few years now I have been intending to lead a Jane’s Walk covering the basic history of our community. With one thing and another it kept getting set aside, but this year I was really going to do it Then Covid-19. Not the best time to lead a group on an afternoon outing. So instead I offer the self-led, walking audio tour Download the MPEG-4 Audio file from the Google Drive onto the mobile device of your choice using the link below Download Audio File The Tour takes approximately one hour. It begins at t ..read more

From 1982 – 1993 at 1475 (or 1476 Richmond Rd), site of the former Town and Country Restaurant. It was part of The Town and Country Plaza. The Ottawa Citizen, Friday, January 14, 1983 The Ottawa Citizen, Thursday, December 9, 1993 The Ottawa Citizen, Thursday, December 9, 1993 Feature image from Lost Ottawa Facebook Group ..read more

1460 – 1490 Richmond Rd / 2625 Carling Ave:  Between Richmond Rd and Carling Ave, just east of where they intersect. Also For some inexplicable the bus stop opposite on Richmond Rd is known as “Richmond Plaza” by OC Transpo. Since Richmond Plaza is (was) in the former village of Richmond (now part of Ottawa) many km west of Britannia, and the Richmond Plaza Motel is at Richmond Road and Kirkwood, several km east of Britannia, I have no idea why OC Transpo has done this; maybe they confused this with Richmond Sqaure, about 1 km east at Assaly. Regardless, they seem to think it refers to t ..read more

Bayshore Plaza: The mini-mall fronting on Carling Ave between Kempster and Burland in Belltown was probably built in 1978. It’s a little hard to tell as the Bayshore Shopping Centre on Woodridge Cres in Bayshore is also often referred to as “Bayshore Plaza”, so the term is almost useless for doing archive searches. 3001 Carling Ave 1995 – Current: Appletree Medical Clinic ???? – 1995: Convenience Store 1989 – ????: Movie Movie 1987 – ????: VACANT 1986? – 1987: Timoteo’s, king of Wheels 1987 1979? – ????: Canadian Gold Distributors The Ottawa Citizen 28 Sep 1979, Fri Page 19 3005 Carl ..read more

Some stories tell themselves and it’s idiotic to try and condense them. As soon as I came across a mention that “Fod Sparyk” (sounds like a Douglas Adams character) had been killed in Britannia in 1907, I just had to know the whole story. The only thing I will note is that $36 from 1907 is worth almost $1,000 in 2019 dollars. Without further ado, The Ottawa Journal 25th Jul 1907, Thu  •  Page 5 ..read more

According to Ottawa’s Britannia “A grocery store, Elroy’s Canteen, at the corner of Scrivens and Walter, began to operate by 1948 and was managed by Thomas Merrifield.“ Below is the only reference I could find anywhere on google or the newspaper archives for “Elroy’s Canteen“; other than that, nothing. So all trace of “Elroy’s Canteen” at 110 Scrivens seems to have completely disappeared. Metrical Stress Theory: Principles and Case Studies – Jan 1 1995 However, the store at 110 Scrivens was already known as Merrifield’s Grocery by 1954, and was run by Thomas George Merrifield and his wife Jos ..read more