Belltown is a neighbourhood in the

Britannia The image of Britannia () is the national personification of United Kingdom, Britain as a helmeted female warrior holding a trident and shield. An image first used by the Romans in classical antiquity, the Latin was the name variously appli ...

area of

Bay Ward Bay Ward or Ward 7 (French: ''Quartier Baie'') is a municipal ward in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada represented on Ottawa City Council. It covers much of the western portion of the old city of Ottawa as well as some portions of what was once Nepean. Th ...

, in the west end of

Ottawa Ottawa is the capital city of Canada. It is located in the southern Ontario, southern portion of the province of Ontario, at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the cor ...

. It is bounded on the east by

Britannia Park Britannia Park (Hebrew: Park Britannia, פארק בריטניה) is a forest and recreation area in Israel, in the Judean lowland. The forest was planted by the Jewish National Fund starting in the 1950s, and with the financial aid of Britis ...

, on the north by the

Ottawa River The Ottawa River (, ) is a river in the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec. It is named after the Algonquin word "to trade", as it was the major trade route of Eastern Canada at the time. For most of its length, it defines the border betw ...

, on the west by Andrew Haydon Park and the south by

Carling Avenue Carling Avenue is a major east–west arterial road in the west end of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. It runs from March Road in Kanata to Bronson Avenue in the Glebe. The road is named for John Carling, founder of Carling Brewery and Conservative M ...

. Prior to Ottawa's amalgamation in 2001, the neighbourhood spanned the Ottawa- Nepean municipal boundary. The neighbourhood's population is 2089 ( 2016 Census), with 294 people living in the Nepean portion.

History

The neighbourhood began to be built in the early 1920s with additions in the late 1940s. It was part of Nepean Township until most of the area was annexed by Ottawa in 1950. In its early years, the neighbourhood was a "cottage community". In 1963, the eastern part of the neighbourhood received sewers for the first time, replacing the use of septic tanks. At the same time, parts of the neighbourhood faced expropriation to make room for the proposed "Pinecrest-Deschenes Freeway" which was never built. In 1968, the Britannia Woods housing development was completed in the neighbourhood for placement of families in to rent-to-income units. Britannia Woods is owned by Ottawa Community Housing. It was built by Catkey Construction and financed by the

Ontario Housing Corporation Public housing policies in Canada includes rent controls, as well as subsidized interest rates and grants. Early public housing policy in Canada consisted of public-private lending schemes which focused on expanding home ownership among the middle ...

. In 1975, residents approved a grant of over $2 million as part of the Neighbourhood Improvement Program (NIP) to "rehabilitate and preserve" the neighbourhood. The NIP was a federal-provincial-municipal plan to improve and preserve old neighbourhoods and encourage development of the community's environment. The money mostly went toward storm sewer and road construction, and a multi-use recreation facility, plus street lighting, water-front development, playgrounds, tree planting and traffic light installation. The grant would pay for the Belltown Dome hockey arena, a

geodesic dome A geodesic dome is a hemispherical thin-shell structure (lattice-shell) based on a geodesic polyhedron. The rigid triangular elements of the dome distribute stress throughout the structure, making geodesic domes able to withstand very heavy ...

-shaped building, which officially opened in 1979. In 1979, Nepean City Council approved a $250,000 for improvements in the Nepean section of the neighbourhood, for the creation of a park, an additional sewer and street upgrades. One issue that continued to threaten the community's character was the proposed "Britannia Parkway", which would have run along the Ottawa River connecting the

Kichi Zibi Mikan The Kichi Zībī Mīkan, ( ) formerly the Sir John A. Macdonald Parkway, and previously the Ottawa River Parkway, is a four-lane scenic parkway along the Ottawa River in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. It runs from Carling Avenue near Connaught Avenu ...

to the Queensway. The parkway was never built. Today, the neighbourhood is threatened by being within the Ottawa River's

floodplain A floodplain or flood plain or bottomlands is an area of land adjacent to a river. Floodplains stretch from the banks of a river channel to the base of the enclosing valley, and experience flooding during periods of high Discharge (hydrolog ...

.https://maps.ottawa.ca/geoottawa/ GeoOttawa

Amenities

In addition to Britannia Park, which forms the neighbourhood's eastern border, and Andrew Haydon Park which forms the western border, Belltown also contains Grandeur Park. Municipal facilities include the Belltown Dome Arena, the Ron Kolbus Lakeside Centre and Briannia Trolley Park. The neighbourhood contains one school, Dr. F.J. McDonald Catholic. The Briannia Woods project includes a community garden.

External links

Belltown Neighbourhood Association

References

{{reflist Neighbourhoods in Ottawa