
Britannia: A History Blog
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This site is about the community of Britannia in Ottawa, Canada. Specifically, it is about history.
Britannia: A History Blog
8M ago
Despite it’s name, Britannia has not had a lot of direct association with the British Crown. There is the Ann Sisson, the wreck beached in the bay that in 1860 carried the future King of England Albert, Prince of Wales up the Ottawa River.
And there is one visit by a Royal … sort of. As the Wikipedia article about The Britannia Yacht Club states:
Source R.D. Barry photostream on Flickr
On July 3, 1967, as a Canadian Centennial project, Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, Commodore of Britannia Yacht Club Thomas E Appleton, Chairman of Duke of Edinburgh Regatta committee James Craig celebrated C ..read more
Britannia: A History Blog
3y ago
Marie Street was named by Louis Poulin for his eldest daughter Violette Marie Poulin ..read more
Britannia: A History Blog
3y ago
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
Britannia: A History Blog
3y ago
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
Britannia: A History Blog
3y ago
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
Britannia: A History Blog
3y ago
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
Britannia: A History Blog
3y ago
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
Britannia: A History Blog
3y ago
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
Britannia: A History Blog
3y ago
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
Britannia: A History Blog
3y ago
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