Somerset Street is a street in Ottawa,

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 C ...

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 ...

. It is divided into Somerset Street East and Somerset Street West by the Rideau Canal.

Somerset Street East

Somerset Street East is a short road that runs through the neighbourhood of Sandy Hill from the

University of Ottawa The University of Ottawa (french: Université d'Ottawa), often referred to as uOttawa or U of O, is a bilingual public research university in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. The main campus is located on directly to the northeast of Downtown Ottaw ...

campus to the west and Strathcona Park to the east. Somerset also used to extend east over the Rideau River towards St. Laurent Boulevard. However, that bridge was destroyed by flooding in 1952 and never replaced. The street was renamed Donald Street east of the river. In 2015, a new bicycle/pedestrian bridge ( Adàwe Crossing) was completed across the river on the site of the old bridge, and the street has become an important bicycle corridor between the university and downtown Ottawa. By 2017, bicycle volumes accounted for 65% of street traffic and the street was re-striped with advisory bike lanes.

Somerset Street West

Also known as Ottawa Road #36, Somerset Street West begins at the

Queen Elizabeth Driveway Queen Elizabeth Driveway is a scenic parkway in Ottawa, Canada, that runs along the western edge of the Rideau Canal. It runs from Laurier Avenue in the north to Dow's Lake where it turns into Prince of Wales Drive. It is administered and owned by ...

in the east and continues west to

Wellington Street West Wellington Street West is a 2.3 km road and shopping area west of downtown Ottawa, Ontario. This road was once connected to - and is often confused with - the prominent Wellington Street in downtown Ottawa. But the two Wellingtons were se ...

where it ends at Somerset Square. Somerset Street West houses the backbone of Ottawa's Chinatown, between Bay Street in the east to Preston Street in the west, which is the centre of Ottawa's

Little Italy Little Italy is a general name for an ethnic enclave populated primarily by Italians or people of Italian ancestry, usually in an urban neighborhood. The concept of "Little Italy" holds many different aspects of the Italian culture. There are ...

. The area of the street between Bank and O'Connor is known as Somerset Village. The section west of Booth street was formerly known as Cedar Street, and the section between Booth and Bell streets was formerly Reserve Street. The Ottawa Electric Railway ran along Somerset Street West between Bank Street going west towards Britannia Park. 331 Somerset Street, a former home of

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William Lyon Mackenzie King William Lyon Mackenzie King (December 17, 1874 – July 22, 1950) was a Canadian statesman and politician who served as the tenth prime minister of Canada for three non-consecutive terms from 1921 to 1926, 1926 to 1930, and 1935 to 1948. A L ...

from 1901 to 1910 during his time as

Minister of Labour Minister of Labour (in British English) or Labor (in American English) is typically a cabinet-level position with portfolio responsibility for setting national labour standards, labour dispute mechanisms, employment, workforce participation, traini ...

, is designated as an Ottawa heritage property.March 7, 1997
Ottawa Citizen, "Mackenzie King's Former Residence is Beyond Repair", Tony Lofaro.Ainslie Kerr, "Clothes Closet Phone for the Young WLMK", Ottawa Citizen, June 27, 1951, p. 3

In between

In the 1870s, as the area was developed, a bridge was proposed linking the two Somerset Streets over the Rideau Canal. However, this bridge never came into existence. Today, on the east side of the canal, there is a pedestrian link from the multi-use pathway that runs alongside the canal, across Colonel By Drive, and under Nicholas Street and the

transitway Bus rapid transit (BRT), also called a busway or transitway, is a bus-based public transport system designed to have much more capacity, reliability and other quality features than a conventional bus system. Typically, a BRT system includes ...

, onto the

campus. The street continues through the campus as

Marie Curie Marie Salomea Skłodowska–Curie ( , , ; born Maria Salomea Skłodowska, ; 7 November 1867 – 4 July 1934) was a Polish and naturalized-French physicist and chemist who conducted pioneering research on radioactivity. She was the first ...

Private, with traffic restricted to bicycles in the westbound direction. The Corktown Footbridge connects the two sides, but is restricted to non-motorized traffic. The bridge opened to the public on September 21, 2006.

References

External links

A large public weblog of photographs of many buildings on Somerset Street West made after 2003 is available a
somerset street prototype
{{Ottawa Roads Roads in Ottawa