Brewer Park is a municipal park in

Ottawa Ottawa (, ; Canadian French: ) is the capital city of Canada. It is located at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River in the southern portion of the province of Ontario. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the core ...

, Ontario, Canada. It is located on the north bank of the

Rideau River The Rideau River (french: Rivière Rideau) is a river in Eastern Ontario, Canada. The river flows north from Upper Rideau Lake and empties into the Ottawa River at the Rideau Falls in Ottawa, Ontario. Its length is . As explained in a writin ...

Bronson Avenue Bronson Avenue ( Ottawa Road #79) is a major north-south arterial road in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. It starts as a continuation of the Airport Parkway, which is an expressway to the Macdonald-Cartier International Airport. It continues past Carl ...

, across from

Carleton University Carleton University is an English-language public research university in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Founded in 1942 as Carleton College, the institution originally operated as a private, non-denominational evening college to serve returning World ...

. In the winter, Brewer park houses a world-class

speed skating Speed skating is a competitive form of ice skating in which the competitors racing, race each other in travelling a certain distance on Ice skate, skates. Types of speed skating are long track speed skating, short track speed skating, and marath ...

oval, two smaller-sized

hockey Hockey is a term used to denote a family of various types of both summer and winter team sports which originated on either an outdoor field, sheet of ice, or dry floor such as in a gymnasium. While these sports vary in specific rules, numbers o ...

rinks as well as Canada's largest Legal Graffiti wall under Dunbar Bridge. It is one of the most popular places for the students of Carleton University, who can study or involve themselves in many sports.

Sport and playground facilities

Brewer park contains facilities for both the young and old. *3 soccer fields (two are also

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

accessible) *3

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding tea ...

diamonds *a hockey arena (Brewer arena) *legal graffiti wall *many

biking Cycling, also, when on a two-wheeled bicycle, called bicycling or biking, is the use of cycles for transport, recreation, exercise or sport. People engaged in cycling are referred to as "cyclists", "bicyclists", or "bikers". Apart from two ...

paths *half of a

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

court *a mini-waterpark *4 play-structures *waterfront and pond *a community garden, Brewer Park Community Garden, including a geodesic dome greenhouse Brewer Park is also home to the annual House of Paint Hip Hop Festival. Over 200 urban artists worldwide gather once a year to celebrate the positivity of the hip-hop community with a block-party-style festival. At this event the underbelly of the Dunbar Bridge is covered with art from 75 graffiti artists from around North America. Though not part of the park, Brewer is adjacent to the Ottawa Tennis & Lawn Bowling Club, to the Westboro Academy, and to Brewer

Pool Pool may refer to: Water pool * Swimming pool, usually an artificial structure containing a large body of water intended for swimming * Reflecting pool, a shallow pool designed to reflect a structure and its surroundings * Tide pool, a rocky pool ...

, a fairly large indoor pool.

History

In the 1960s and 1970s, Brewer park housed a public

beach A beach is a landform alongside a body of water which consists of loose particles. The particles composing a beach are typically made from rock, such as sand, gravel, shingle, pebbles, etc., or biological sources, such as mollusc shel ...

that encircled Brewer Park Pond, a shallow pond approximately 100 metres in diameter, which drew a young crowd around the area. But

pollution Pollution is the introduction of contaminants into the natural environment that cause adverse change. Pollution can take the form of any substance (solid, liquid, or gas) or energy (such as radioactivity, heat, sound, or light). Pollutants, the ...

measurement and clarity standards in

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

changed and enclosed beaches were not permitted, and the beach was closed permanently in 1971. The pond is still there, and the building that once housed a canteen and many storage items (known as the Beach Pavilion), previously used as a locker room for many football teams who play on the neighbouring field, was taken down in December 2017 as it had reached the end of its functional life-cycle and in need of significant repairs. The Pavilion had been situated on posts raising it above the floodplain and allowing it to survive, relatively unharmed, during the yearly spring freshet. The remainder of the park, tennis club and nearby low-lying residential areas are protected by a low berm/dam constructed in the 1980s.

House of Paint wall

In 2003 the wall along the Dunbar Bridge underpass -which runs under Bronson Avenue where it goes over the Rideau river- became Ottawa's first legal graffiti wall. Graffiti art had been painted here for years before the legalization, but the wall now is an open forum for artists to show creativity. Most works of art are not around for more than a couple weeks due to the painting being replaced. The "House of Paint" graffiti jam started in 2003 as a celebration of the creation of Ottawa's first Free Zone for Legal Art. Since then it's become a yearly event under the bridge. Aside from the paint being used on the wall, the House of Paint Festival is now the most Eco-Conscious festival in the Ottawa area. There are many recycling and eco-friendly initiatives to take care of waste from the event. HOP staff also have a "Clean up day" around the event space leading up to the event to do their part to keep things clean.

References

House of Paint official website
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