Elgin Street (Ottawa Road #91) is a

street A street is a public thoroughfare in a built environment. It is a public parcel of land adjoining buildings in an urban context, on which people may freely assemble, interact, and move about. A street can be as simple as a level patch of dirt, ...

in the

Downtown ''Downtown'' is a term primarily used in North America by English speakers to refer to a city's sometimes commercial, cultural and often the historical, political and geographic heart. It is often synonymous with its central business distric ...

core of

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 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 ...

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 ...

. Originally named Biddy's Lane, it was later named after

Lord Elgin Earl of Elgin is a title in the Peerage of Scotland, created in 1633 for Thomas Bruce, 3rd Lord Kinloss. He was later created Baron Bruce, of Whorlton in the County of York, in the Peerage of England on 30 July 1641. The Earl of Elgin is the h ...

. The north/south running street begins at Wellington Street in

Confederation Square Confederation Square (french: Place de la Confédération) is an urban square in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, and is considered the second most important ceremonial centre in Canada's capital city, after Parliament Hill. Roughly triangular in ar ...

, just east of the Parliament buildings and just west of the bridge over the

Rideau Canal The Rideau Canal, also known unofficially as the Rideau Waterway, connects Canada's capital city of Ottawa, Ontario, to Lake Ontario and the Saint Lawrence River at Kingston. It is 202 kilometres long. The name ''Rideau'', French for "curtain", ...

. In the centre of Elgin Street for the first two blocks is

, home of Canada's National War Memorial. To the south of this on the east of Elgin is the

National Arts Centre The National Arts Centre (NAC) (french: Centre national des Arts) is a Arts centre, performing arts organisation in Ottawa, Ontario, along the Rideau Canal. It is based in the eponymous National Arts Centre (building), National Arts Centre build ...

; to the west is the

British High Commission A British High Commission is a British diplomatic mission, equivalent to an embassy, found in countries that are members of the Commonwealth of Nations. Their general purpose is to provide diplomatic relationships as well as travel information, ...

. Continuing south, Elgin is fronted by

Confederation Park Confederation Park ''(French: Parc de la Confédération)'' is a public park and National Historic Site of Canada, located in the downtown core of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. It is bordered on the south by Laurier Avenue and Ottawa City Hall; on the ...

to the east and the

Lord Elgin Hotel The Lord Elgin Hotel is a prominent hotel in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. With 355 guest rooms, it is located at 100 Elgin Street at Laurier Avenue, across from Confederation Park in Downtown Ottawa. The twelve-storey limestone structure was name ...

to the west. South of the park, just past

Laurier Avenue Laurier Avenue ''(French: Avenue Laurier)'' (Ottawa Road #48) is a central east west street running through Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Originally known as "Maria Street" (west of Waller) and "Theodore Street" (east of Waller), it was renamed in ...

, is the

Ottawa Court House The Ottawa Courthouse () is an courthouse in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. It is the main provincial court for the Ottawa area, and as such handles most of the region's legal affairs. The building is home to the civil, small claims, family, crimina ...

, across from the First Baptist Church and Grant house (1875 mansion), followed by

City Hall In local government, a city hall, town hall, civic centre (in the UK or Australia), guildhall, or a municipal building (in the Philippines), is the chief administrative building of a city, town, or other municipality. It usually houses ...

(former

Regional Municipality of Ottawa-Carleton In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as zones, lands or territories, are areas that are broadly divided by physical characteristics (physical geography), human impact characteristics (human geography), and the interaction of humanity and t ...

Headquarters) and Knox Presbyterian Church. South of this, the street becomes mainly a business area, home to a number of stores, restaurants, and bars. Progressing south, the street steadily becomes more residential, home to low rise apartment buildings. Elgin ends at the Queensway, where it turns into Hawthorne Avenue before turning east and going over the Rideau Canal at the

Pretoria Bridge The Pretoria Bridge is a table bridge in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. It crosses the Rideau Canal linking the Glebe and Centretown to Old Ottawa East. The bridge was built in 1915, replacing an earlier wooden swing bridge on Argyle Street just to ...

. At the southern end of Elgin is the headquarters of the

Ottawa Police Service The Ottawa Police Service (OPS; French: ''Service de police d'Ottawa'') is a municipal police force in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. The OPS serves an area of 2,790 square kilometres and 1,017,449 (2021 census) people alongside several other police ...

The street is now nicknamed "

Sens Mile Sens () is a commune in the Yonne department in Bourgogne-Franche-Comté in north-central France, 120 km from Paris. Sens is a sub-prefecture and the second city of the department, the sixth in the region. It is crossed by the Yonne and ...

", similar to the

Red Mile The Red Mile is the name given to a stretch of 17 Avenue SW in Calgary, Alberta, Canada during the Calgary Flames 2004 Stanley Cup playoff run, which ended with a loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning in seven games in the finals. It gained worldwide ...

Calgary Calgary ( ) is the largest city in the western Canadian province of Alberta and the largest metro area of the three Prairie Provinces. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,306,784 and a metropolitan population of 1,481,806, makin ...

and the Blue Mile in

Edmonton Edmonton ( ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Alberta. Edmonton is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Alberta's central region. The city ancho ...

- a street for

Ottawa Senators The Ottawa Senators (french: Sénateurs d'Ottawa), officially the Ottawa Senators Hockey Club and colloquially known as the Sens, are a professional ice hockey team based in Ottawa. They compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a membe ...

celebrations in the 2007 Stanley Cup Playoffs. The plan originated as a grassroots campaign upon realization that the home of the Ottawa Senators, Canadian Tire Centre is located 30 minutes west of the city's downtown core in the suburb of Kanata. In June 2010 a life size bronze statue of the Canadian jazz pianist Oscar Peterson was unveiled at the corner of Elgin and Albert Streets by

Queen Elizabeth II Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 1926 – 8 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until Death and state funeral of Elizabeth II, her death in 2022. She was queen ...

during her royal tour of Canada. As of November 2011, the former National Art Gallery at 90 Elgin is being torn down to be replaced with a new 17 storey (8 floors on Elgin) office building that will house the Federal Finance Department. Furthermore, behind Grant House and First Baptist Church at 150 Elgin, there was a 23-floor (300 ft) office building called "Performance Court" under construction.

References

External links

Google Maps: Elgin Street

Elgin Street Community Portal
{{Ottawa Roads Roads in Ottawa