Wolseley is a neighbourhood located within the West End of

Winnipeg Winnipeg () is the capital and largest city of the province of Manitoba in Canada. It is centred on the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine rivers, near the longitudinal centre of North America. , Winnipeg had a city population of 749,6 ...

Manitoba Manitoba ( ) is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada at the Centre of Canada, longitudinal centre of the country. It is Canada's Population of Canada by province and territory, fifth-most populous province, with a population o ...

. It is named for

field marshal Field marshal (or field-marshal, abbreviated as FM) is the most senior military rank, ordinarily senior to the general officer ranks. Usually, it is the highest rank in an army and as such few persons are appointed to it. It is considered as ...

Sir

Garnet Wolseley Field Marshal Garnet Joseph Wolseley, 1st Viscount Wolseley, (4 June 183325 March 1913), was an Anglo-Irish officer in the British Army. He became one of the most influential and admired British generals after a series of successes in Canada, We ...

, a British Army officer who came to

in 1870 to suppress the

Red River Rebellion The Red River Rebellion (french: Rébellion de la rivière Rouge), also known as the Red River Resistance, Red River uprising, or First Riel Rebellion, was the sequence of events that led up to the 1869 establishment of a provisional government by ...

History

The area that is now called Wolseley was originally part of the Parish of St. James, and was annexed into the City of Winnipeg in 1882. It was developed primarily between 1905 and 1930 as a middle and upper middle class residential area. Wolseley was home to an amusement park for several years before it closed permanently in 1922. Happyland included a 90-metre Doric-style entrance, a roller coaster, ballroom, Japanese tea gardens,

Ferris wheel A Ferris wheel (also called a Giant Wheel or an observation wheel) is an amusement ride consisting of a rotating upright wheel with multiple passenger-carrying components (commonly referred to as passenger cars, cabins, tubs, gondolas, capsules ...

, and a 240-metre circular swing. Beginning in the 1950s, Wolseley began to change as many upper-middle-class families left the area to settle in Winnipeg's suburbs. Many of the homes were subdivided into

rooming house A rooming house, also called a "multi-tenant house", is a "dwelling with multiple rooms rented out individually", in which the tenants share kitchen and often bathroom facilities. Rooming houses are often used as housing for low-income people, as ...

s. In the 1970s and 1980s, the large houses, central location, and low real estate prices enticed many young people to return to Wolseley. This new Wolseley generation were largely artistic and socially active young adults who began rejuvenating and

gentrifying Gentrification is the process of changing the character of a neighborhood through the influx of more affluent residents and businesses. It is a common and controversial topic in urban politics and planning. Gentrification often increases the ec ...

the area. During this time, the area became affectionately known as "The Granola Belt". Today, Wolseley is once again seen as a desirable residential area, and is one of the most intact pre-1930 residential areas in

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

. A community history, ''Rising to the Occasion'', covering the neighbourhoods of Wolseley, West Broadway, and Armstrong's Point, was published in 2000 as a millennium project of the Robert A. Steen Community Centre.

Area and population

The neighbourhood of Wolseley is bounded on the south by the

Assiniboine River The Assiniboine River (''; french: Rivière Assiniboine'') is a river that runs through the prairies of Western Canada in Saskatchewan and Manitoba. It is a tributary of the Red River of the North, Red River. The Assiniboine is a typical meand ...

, on the west by Omand's Creek, on the north by Portage Avenue and on the east by Maryland Street. The electoral district of Wolseley has wider boundaries to the north and west, and includes more of the West End and a part of St. James. As of 2001, the neighbourhood has a population of 7,830, of which 7.2% reported Aboriginal origin and 4.8% were visible minorities. The average household income is $47,106, which is about 89% of the Winnipeg average. 56% of dwellings in the area are owned, while 44% are rented. It is locally famous for the "Wolseley Elm," a prominent neighbourhood tree which was threatened with destruction in 1957 though it was spared due to the efforts of several neighbourhood women until 1960 when it was cut down. Businesses in Wolseley's small shopping district on Westminster Avenue cater to the politically and socially active nature of Wolseley residents. Businesses include a couple of

organic food Organic food, ecological food or biological food are food and drinks produced by methods complying with the standards of organic farming. Standards vary worldwide, but organic farming features practices that cycle resources, promote ecological ...

marts and small bakery, bookstore, tea shop, used clothing store, and

yoga Yoga (; sa, योग, lit=yoke' or 'union ) is a group of physical, mental, and spiritual practices or disciplines which originated in ancient India and aim to control (yoke) and still the mind, recognizing a detached witness-consciou ...

shop. Harvest Collective, an organic food buying collective, ran as a not-for-profit organization for about three decades.

References

{{coord, 49, 52, 54, N, 97, 10, 26, W, display=title Neighbourhoods in Winnipeg West End, Winnipeg