Britannia, Ottawa

Britannia Village
—  Neighbourhood  —
Britannia Beach
Nickname(s): Britannia
Country	Canada
Province	Ontario
City	Ottawa
Government
• Mayor	Jim Watson
• MPs
• MPPs
• Councillors
Elevation	70 m (230 ft)
Time zone	Eastern (EST) (UTC−5)
• Summer (DST)	EDT (UTC−4)

A house in Britannia Road decorated for Halloween

Britannia is a neighbourhood and also a street in the west end of Ottawa, on the Ottawa River across from Aylmer. The neighborhood has a mix of low and high income housing. The lower income areas of the neighbourhood are closer to Richmond Road and the more affluent areas are located near the Britannia Yacht Club at the north end of Britannia Road.

Many of Britannia's old cottages live on as bungalows. Surrounded by water, forest, and hills, Britannia maintains a reclusive charm.

The Ottawa River Pathway is a very long segment of Capital Pathway along the south bank of almost the entire length Ottawa's portion of the Ottawa River. A bike path extends from Britannia some 12 kilometers to the Parliament buildings downtown. Today, there is probably no neighbourhood in Ottawa more mixed than Britannia forming a contrast with many of the homogenized satellite communities that have become Ottawa.^{[citation needed]}

History

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  Britannia Boating Club 1896 by William James Topley

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  Steamer GB Greene

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  Ottawa Electric Railway Car Britannia on the Bay 1900 by Andrew Merrilees

John LeBreton owned the village site in 1818. John LeBreton advertised the sale of real estate in the village area in 1828. LCol Joseph Bouchette referred to Lac Deschênes as Chaudiere Lake in 1832. Around 1876, an apple orchard near the head of the rapids was undermined and washed away during a big flood.

It was once a small mill owned by Mr Jamieson to the west of Ottawa. A cottage town and boating club developed around the site of the old mill. The Britannia Yacht Club was established in 1887. The Club house still retains its historic appearance. Members of the club have won many championships and Olympic gold medals. Canada's only Gold medal winner from the 1936 Summer Olympics, Frank Amyot, paddled these waters in the 1920s and 1930s. The Club's Dragon Lounge's bar was fashioned out of a dragon sail boat. The Clubhouse was included amongst other architecturally interesting and historically significant buildings in Doors Open Ottawa, held June 2 and 3, 2012.

The Britannia Bay post office was established in 1889, under the community's first postmistress Mrs C Hand.

The "G.B. Greene", known as 'Queen of the River,' a double-decked side wheeler steamer built by the Upper Ottawa Improvement Company in 1896, took up to 250 passengers up the Ottawa River to Chats Falls on daily pleasure excursions. Although she was dismantled in 1946, her anchor remains at Britannia Beach today.

In 1899, the Ottawa Electric Railway Company built a street-car line to Britannia. In 1899, the Metropolitan Power Company was formed to construct a power house just north of the Britannia Boathouse Club with a 2000-foot canal to extend to the lower end of the Lac Deschênes Rapids. The area became popular at the turn of the century because the Ottawa Gas and Electric company extended the trolley line and created an amusement park at Britannia beach to encourage users of the trolley system to use the system on weekends. A cottage and beach community resulted.

The first trip of the Ottawa Electric Railway Car 202 Britannia-on-the-Bay on the Britannia Line was 13 January 1900. The electric line to the village on Britannia Bay was open for regular traffic in the spring 1900.

In 1910, Albert Bedingfield's stencil designs, now in the Library and Archives Canada collection, were published by Britannia-Bay, Ottawa, Ont. This date is incorrect. Although Albert Bedingfield did live in Britannia Bay, and did indeed have a small pamphlet of stencil designs printed, said pamphlet contains no publication/printing date. In fact Albert Bedingfield was not yet a resident of Canada in 1910; he and his family did not immigrate to this country until 1911, when he was still a very young boy.

In 1911, the Neogothic Britannia Heights Methodist Church was erected at Carling & Richmond. Renamed the Britannia United Church in 1920 after the amalgamation of the United Church of Canada. After her congregation moved to Britannia United on Prinecrest Road in 1961, the building was used to sell Macintosh & Watts china, to sell paintings and as a construction shack until it burned down in 1975.

During World War I, men were encouraged to join the 207th (Ottawa-Carleton) Battalion, CEF at the Britannia Pier.

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  Britannia On The Bay by E B E Bessey 1909

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  Britannia-on-the-Bay near Ottawa 1910 Postcard

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  WWI recruitment ad 207th Ottawa Carleton Battalion -join at the Britannia Pier

During World War II, the Princess Alice Barracks Cabin at Britannia Bay provided a summer home for Royal Canadian Air Force (Women's Division) personnel near the Britannia Boating Club's facilities for tennis, dancing and boating. Rented from the King's Daughter's Guild of Ottawa, the cabin featured 60 beds, a separate cookhouse and dining pavilion. The cabin had served the King's Daughter's Guild of Ottawa since 1913 as a Fresh Air Cottage for mothers and undernourished children. After the war, the Fresh Air Cottages were rented to families as year round apartments. During a kitchen fire at the Fresh Air Cottage on Dec 11, 1952, Roger Murphy, aged 2 died and 26 residents were left temporarily homeless. The Fresh Air Cottage on Cassels Street, was expropriated and demolished, and is now part of the conservation area around Mud Lake.

Rapid growth in all directions during the 20th century meant that it was soon surrounded by the western suburb of Nepean. Larger, modern houses were built in between cottages. Nowadays it is simply an out-of-the-way part of west end of Ottawa, featuring among other things Barks and Bubbles dog-washing business, Regina Street Public School, a movie theatre complex, Britannia Baptist Church, a Britannia Conservation area centred on the National Capital Commission's (Mud Lake), and Britannia beach.

Although Thomas Ahearn's hydroelectric project was abandoned as unfeasible, the unfinished canal was used in 1951 by Past Commodores Thomas G. Fuller and Reginald G. Bruce with volunteer labour provided by Club members as the basis of the Britannia Yacht Club protected harbour. Today, the BYC harbour provides 250 wet moorings, fuel and pump out facilities, for both sail and power boats.

The Britannia water filtration plant commissioned and constructed between 1956 and 1959 is one of two water treatment plants that serve City of Ottawa's residents. The 23,000 m2 plant, which is situated on 18.7 hectares of city property draws from the Ottawa River and treats an average of about 200 megalitres of water a day. The plant was included amongst other architecturally interesting and historically significant buildings in Doors Open Ottawa, held June 2 and 3, 2012.

The neighbourhood has a perhaps one of its kind 1967 EXPO style dome covering a local children's hockey rink that made it to the top 500 architecturally significant buildings in Canada in 2002 as voted by CIRA.

In 1976, an article in the Ottawa Citizen described real estate prices in Britannia and in the older Britannia Bay area: semi detached houses ($48,000), duplexes ($65-70,000), 3 & 4 story apartment buildings and is surrounded by highrises; 15 three story townhouses on Kehoe ($95-100,000); older converted cottages ($38-45,000); and two story townhouses on Bradford rented for $250-300 a month. In 1976, schools in the neighbourhood included Regina Public School, Grant School (now closed) and St. Leonard's School.

The neighbourhood and, is the former home of the Ottawa Folk Festival at Britannia Park.

In 2003, Canadian Hydrographic Service published "1550, Britannia Bay to Chat Falls", which was 4 maps on 1 sheet; Previous editions of the cartographic material were produced in 1961, '62, '69, '73, '77, '82, '86, and '96.

In 2003, the City of Ottawa erected a Heritage Designation plaque for William Murphy House, 127 Britannia Road.

In 2010, the City of Ottawa erected a Heritage Designation plaque for Old St. Stephen's Church, 181 Britannia Road. "Built in 1892, Old St. Stephen's Church was one of two churches built to serve the fashionable 19th century resort community of Britannia, and is the only one remaining today. A vernacular interpretation of the Gothic Revival style, it features the pointed-arch windows and door, simple rectangular form and tower commonly associated with the style. Old St. Stephen's Church is now a private residence."

Sub-Neighbourhoods

• Britannia Bay
• Lincoln Heights
• Britannia Village
• Britannia Heights

Gallery

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  Britannia yacht club est 1887 in Britannia, Ottawa, Ontario

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  Relaxing summer day at Brittania Beach

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  Belltown Dome

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  Mud Lake, Britannia, Ottawa

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  An old streetcar station, Britannia, Ottawa

Notable Residents

• Adam Acres, a member of the Canadian House of Commons, owned a farm situated on Britannia Bay on the Ottawa River
• Thomas Ahearn, was instrumental in the development of a 2000-foot canal just north of the Britannia Boathouse Club to generate electricity; The canal is now used by the Britannia Yacht Club as a sheltered harbour.
• Dick Bell, a member of the Canadian House of Commons owned a farm "Fairfields", situated on Britannia Bay. The Dick Bell park, which houses the Nepean Sailing Club was named in his honour.
• Captain Thomas G. Fuller was a Canadian naval officer who earned renown in the Second World War for his actions as a member of the Coastal Forces of the Royal Navy. His estate was the Moorings across the street from the Britannia Yacht Club. He converted a former tugboat, G.B. Patee II, (1904), into a brigantine tall ship, the STV Black Jack. In the 1980s, he designed and built a brigantine, the STV Fair Jeanne, which was named in honour of his wife. Today, the ships are flagships of the Bytown Brigantine sail training program. His family firm, Thomas Fuller Construction is currently managed by 4 of his 6 children.
• Ezekiel Stone Wiggins, a teacher, amateur meteorologist and his wife, writer Susie Anna Wiggins built Arbour House, a Designated Heritage Property 1994, as their summer home. Currently housing the Arbour House Studios, 105 Britannia Road, the corner tower, shingled gables and irregular plan are typical of the Queen Anne Revival-style.

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  STV Black Jack, brigantine tall ship at Britannia Yacht Club

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  The Moorings, Fuller home, Britannia, Ottawa

Notable Architecture

Property	Address	Ward	Construction Date	Architect	Photo
Arbour House	84 Bradford Road	Bay	1892		|
Britannia Yacht Club	Castle Road	Bay	1896	Edgar Lewis Horwood
Britannia Yacht Club	Castle Road	Bay	1906–1918	Charles Penruddocke William Kivas Band
Old St. Stephen's Church	181 Britannia Road	Bay	1892
William Murphy House	127 Britannia Road	Bay	18..
Rowatt House	Britannia Road	Bay	18..		|

See also

• List of Ottawa neighbourhoods
• Geography of Ottawa

References

Bibliography

• Taylor/Kennedy, Eva M./James (1983), 'Ottawa's Britannia', Ottawa, Ontario: Britannia Historical Association 
• Laberge, Edward P. (1995), 'Sterling Place : a historical sketch', Ottawa, Ontario: E.P. Laberge 
• Kirby, Donald (1965), 'Historical sketch of the Britannia Yacht Club, 1891-1967', Ottawa, Ontario: Britannia Yacht Club, AMICUS No. 20991722 

External links

• Britannia Amusement Park

• Ottawa Neighbourhood Study Wiki! [1]
• Britannia, Ottawa on Flickr.com