Time to discover Ward 8
Cedric writes
We are continuing our journey through London’s wards in this summer series. We are nearly at the halfway mark in exploring this city of nearly a half-million people. We have covered much of the east, a bit of the south, and a little bit of the west. We are due to go back to West London. From Ward 2, you have to take Oxford Street to the other side of the city for this one.
Ward 8 is the Oakridge ward. Always has been since 2006. You may be familiar with this ward if your kids played hockey at Oakridge Arena, or maybe you went to Oakridge Secondary School, Notre Dame, or Riverside when you were younger. Do you work in one of the little office buildings along Valetta, Oxford, or Hyde Park Road? You’re in Ward 8.
I became familiar with this area as a kid. As a student athlete, cross country and track and field meets were often held at Notre Dame and Oakridge, respectively. Some of the families of my classmates moved further outward to attend schools like Riverside, Clara Brenton, and Westdale (now West Oaks).
The area is more posh than the others we’ve written about so far. Much of the housing stock is single family residences. There are a lot of beautiful one-story post war houses, along Oxford and within the neighborhoods. It’s not the only kind of housing, though. There are a lot of townhouse complexes and apartment buildings around Oxford and Hyde Park, and Fiddlers Green Road. Oakridge proper also places high in median household income, and conversely places very low in proportions of the population that are low-income and have no formal education.
Cycling can be good in this area, as some of the neighbourhood streets are calm, and the Thames Valley Parkway connects to Oakridge via the Thames Valley Golf Course. I also enjoy taking the protected bike lanes along Oxford Street between Hyde Park and Wonderland.
Transit is another story. It is very sparse in this area, and like I said when covering ward 7, when I was younger, I had to make a mental note to make plans in this area after 6:00 pm or all day Sunday. In the last decade, transit in Oakridge has started to operate a smidge more frequently, and during all times of the week. But it’s not as frequent as points east.
Someone once remarked to me that it was hard to find a good cafe in the area. I wondered if zoning was the reason, as there are limited commercial areas in Oakridge, and the ward in general. There is a large commercial area at Wonderland and Oxford, but within Oakridge proper, the only place for shops is around the corner of Oxford and Hyde Park. (Remember Oakridge Mall?) The only major cafes in this ward are the one each of Starbucks and Tim Hortons. There’s much discourse locally on social media about chains versus local, and if Londoners uniquely prefer chain stores and restaurants. If people prefer chains, it largely comes down to convenience and consistency. It holds water, because when I interviewed for a job at this Starbucks location in the ward several years ago, the manager told me that this was London’s busiest location by volume - the vast majority of sales were by drive-thru.
In this ward, these are the people who know what they want. They like consistency, and predictability. And it’s a good thing to have a balance of lifestyles in our city. At certain times of our life, and within a certain income bracket, some of us want something that is different from what someone else may want. And that’s all well and good. People who want stability and the game on easy mode, they are a part of this story and we are proud to be bringing it to you this week.
That’s our challenge this summer: the story of London Ontario in 14 wards. Join us. We’re going by bike and by car, and we’re inviting Londoners into the conversation.
And today we are announcing a new sponsor - the London Bicycle Cafe! Thanks to this supercool local business for coming aboard, sponsoring the City column on Tuesdays.
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Cedric says:
Hi all, it’s your city editor here! Welcome to another edition in profiling London’s 14 wards. For the first time in a month, we are returning to the west end to take a look at Ward 8. This is a ward that I’ve been familiar with for various parts of my childhood.
Mike says:
I’m having such a good time telling stories from our city with Cedric, a specialist in urban issues and all-round good guy. This time, though, it’s a challenge. This might be the exception that breaks the whole system. Is Ward 8 just there to group voters usefully into a zone? Is it just lines on a map? Perhaps - but it was a rewarding chat.
Every week, we’re having a chat in the ward itself. This time, we settled in at Wonderland and Riverside, with some environmental sounds clearly audible. Please have a listen!
Part 1: Welcome to Ward 8
Ward 8 - Oakridge, West London, Hyde Park
Population - 31,724
Cedric writes
Ward 8 has always centred on Oakridge, having been created in 2006 from the former Ward 1. There are tiny parts of other districts in the Ward, such as West London and Hyde Park. West London’s part of Ward 8 includes the concrete jungle of Wonderland and Oxford, Capulet Lane, and the newest portion of Beaverbrook Avenue located in Oakcrossing. Hyde Park’s contribution to Ward 8 includes places such as the Phillips Family Farm, and oddly the London Hunt & Country Club.
The ward for the 2026 municipal election will see one small change. Previously, the ward contained townhouse complexes and apartment buildings along Sarnia Road between Wonderland and the CPKC tracks, as well as Chapman Court. For this coming election, Ward 8 is now located entirely south of the CPKC tracks, with that tract south of Sarnia being transferred to Ward 7.
From 2006 to 2010, Ward 8 had Springbank Drive as part of its southern boundary, taking in part of Southcrest and Westmount. Today, that is part of Wards 11 and 10, respectively.
Part 2: Around the ward
West London
Cedric writes
Part of this district includes the large commercial area anchored along Wonderland Road at Oxford Street. Ward 8 takes in all of that, west of Wonderland Road. In between the plazas are high-rise apartment buildings along Wonderland Road, Beaverbrook Avenue, and Capulet Lane.
Beaverbrook Avenue snakes through the area and enters the Hyde Park district, and the Oakcrossing subdivision.
Also within Ward 8 is Riverside Drive between Wonderland and the CN overpass. Braemar Crescent, which loops on Riverside’s north side, is commemorated with a stone marking “Sifton’s First Subdivision, Est. 1949”, by the longtime London–based developer. The CN rail bridge was built in 1974, bypassing the original bridge to the north and providing for a smoother curve in the road.
Hyde Park
Cedric writes
Part of the Hyde Park district is in Ward 8, between the CN and CP tracks. There is a subdivision along the north side of Sarnia Road that has New York City-themed street names, and not far from there is the Hellenic Community Centre. Across the road, just east of Hyde Park Road is Phillips Family Farm, which is a wonderful place in the middle of every autumn to buy a pumpkin or a gourd. The farm is a London favourite to take family and couples photos.
Also oddly in the Hyde Park district is the London Hunt & Country Club, a golf course and venue located along Oxford Street, west of Sanatorium Road. According to the city, it’s in Hyde Park, but spiritually, it’s an Oakridge place.
Oakridge
Cedric writes
This ward contains bits and pieces of the other two districts, but it 100% contains Oakridge. It’s perfectly normal if you think of this as the Oakridge ward. The original two subdivisions are known as Oakridge Park and Oakridge Acres. The former is largely located north of Oxford, with a small portion southeast of Oxford and Sanatorium. Oakridge Acres is located between Oxford and Riverside Drive.
The area is a very quiet place, in so many ways. I pulled up the Lexis Nexis crime map and Oakridge Acres appeared to be crime-free. That map, of course, shows crimes that are reported. The rest of the area had crimes reported in and around the Oxford and Hyde Park intersection.
The community is shaped by institutions, most of which sprouted from Canada’s post-war housing boom. If you enter Oakridge along the main roads, you may notice a faded blue-and-white sign along some utility poles. They signify the Optimist Club of Oakridge Acres, which is one of the eight London chapters of the service organization Optimist International. This chapter was founded in 1957. Like I mentioned with Sifton above, it left its mark on Oakridge early on. In 1958, the company built their first subdivision with curbs and gutters on Headley Drive, inside Oxford Street and Sanatorium Road. Two years later, they developed Hunt Club Drive, which became a part of North America’s first subdivision with complete underground services.
The Optimist Club also has naming rights to the park surrounding Oakridge Arena on Valetta Street. In 1963, it was officially opened as London’s first municipally-run covered arena.
Oakridge Secondary School opened in 1959, switching jurisdictions two years later as part of London Township was annexed by the City of London. I became familiar with this school as a pre-teen when track and field meets took place here. It was a wonderful and beautiful building, like many post-war buildings are.
Down the road from the school is the Sifton Bog. It received its name around this time 60 years ago, when Sifton among other landowners donated their land along Oxford Street to the Upper Thames River Conservation Authority. It’s a really peaceful place and it’s so hard to believe that when you’re in there, the busy corner of Oxford and Hyde Park is just minutes away.
The Child and Parent Resource Institute is located along the west side of Sanatorium Road. Formerly known as the Queen Alexandra Sanatorium and later the Beck Memorial Sanatorium, the sprawling network of buildings is an architectural marvel. There was a class action lawsuit brought against the provincial government on behalf of victims of abuse at the facility, which was eventually settled for $12 million.
If you’re a longtime Londoner, you’ll know about the Cedars, but I think newcomers should too. Until it burned down in 2018, one could see the Cedars with the naked eye from Springbank Park, along the Thames Valley Parkway. Located at 1266 Riverside Drive, it was an Italianate house that originally hosted an athletic club and gymnasium. By the 21st century, it was sold to Drewlo Holdings, who owned the long-vacated property at the time the fire reduced the Cedars to rubble. If you look throughout the Internet, it was a popular spot to do urban exploration, judging by a lot of photos and Youtube videos. I snapped a photo of it from the Springbank side with my cellphone months before it burned down, but unfortunately do not have this photo in my possession. It was a reminder and motivation to keep those old photos because you may not know when you can tell the stories about them.
The street names in this area carry some interesting themes. In Oakridge Acres, there are streets named after Irish counties (Kildare, Donegal) and Scottish places (Dunedin, Inverness, Oban). North of Oxford Street, many names come from English places (Wembley, Manchester, Staffordshire, Cheltenham, Aintree) and British royals (Queen Anne, Queen Mary, Prince George, and Prince Philip).
Part 3: Politics of Ward 8
Mike writes
Aside from the much-mentioned local story about a youthful Josh Morgan just missing being elected in Ward 8 in 2006 (more on the podcast), there’s precious little to say about Ward 8. It’s a place where voters like a safe bet. Ward 8 routinely returned Paul Hubert for many years, and now appears to be in a similar cycle with Steve Lehman, who’s the Planning and Environment Committee chair and a recipient of a heavy incumbent advantage. He has one opponent, Coralia Esterra Tudor, a local paralegal.
Curiously, there is one exception to the idea that Ward 8 is straightforward, perhaps dull. Back in 2018, the race to succeed Hubert did get spicy, with Lehman and former school board trustee Matt Reid involved in a series of recounts and Lehman taking the win.
This was our one-and-only time using that system, and it’s complicated, so I asked the A.I. model to explain:
The 2018 Ward 8 election used ranked-ballot voting and required nine counting rounds. No candidate reached the election threshold of 3,918 votes in the early rounds, so the lowest-ranked candidates were eliminated one at a time and their eligible votes were transferred according to voters’ next choices. Steve Lehman began with 2,348 votes and remained in the lead throughout the count. After Matt Reid was eliminated in Round 8, Lehman was the only continuing candidate and was declared elected with 3,823 votes. Of the 7,835 eligible ballots cast, 4,003 were ultimately exhausted because they contained no further valid ranking.
Now, though, we’re back at First Past The Post and there are just two candidates. Unless there’s some twist to come, Lehman can feel confident in Ward 8.
2022 results
2018 results
2014 results
A full list of Ward candidates is maintained by the City Clerk’s Office here. And you can find a guide to every ward in our MEGAPOST here.
Part 4: In the news
Mike writes
It’s a challenge to find much of a cohesive narrative about this part of town, although there are stories. I’ll share a few here.
So, we know this area includes Sifton Bog. The latest on that much-loved urban oasis is some narrative from 2024 about expansion. That’s a CBC report.
Here’s a very recent story about Ward 8 location the Hunt Club and a long-serving staffer.
And here is that disturbing story about historical abuse at CPRI, which is in Ward 8.
It is a low-crime area, as Cedric says, and there are the usual fires and crimes that can be expected of any neighbourhood - here’s the fire that destroyed The Cedars, mentioned by Cedric above - with Oakridge Secondary School showing up in that due to bomb threats such as this.
And in the LFP, here’s an Oakridge student scoring a great scholarship.
And there was, of course, the dreadful tragedy in which a eight-year-old Girl Guide was killed by a driver, at Wonderland and Riverside. This story describes the outcomes, and is a very sad story to read.
More appropriately, Ward 8’s story is London is miniature: lovely neighbourhoods, aspiration & affluence, and traffic thundering past somewhere nearby. Pretty much any story about lifestyle in London, Ontario could be about Ward 8, in my opinion.
Part 5: And there’s more…
Our restaurant pick
Cedric writes
This was a tough one, and not because of the restaurant. I always make sure to profile a restaurant that is locally-owned. The restaurants that do exist in the ward are mostly chains in Oakridge proper. Yes, chains mean consistency, but locally owned means that money can stay in the community. So I had to look east. Literally, to the east edge of the ward, along Wonderland near Oxford Street. This commercial area also has chain restaurants, but there are a few places that are totally owned and operated by locals.
I recently visited The Kebab King to have lunch, and enjoyed the vibe here. There is no experience quite like being called “boss” while you are looking at the menu and contemplating your order.
The unmissable landmarks
Oakridge Arena
Located at 825 Valetta Street, this arena was London’s first municipally-operated covered arena, being run by the then-Public Utilities Commission. It officially opened in February 1963, but it did not stop groups of children and teenagers from enjoying a skate on the ice the December prior.
It was renovated multiple times between 1985 and 2011. In March 2020, it became the site of London’s first Covid-19 assessment centre, where visitors could take tests to determine whether or not they tested positive for the novel coronavirus. A similar assessment centre opened at the Carling Heights Optimist Community Centre, and the two buildings split testing until the assessment centre in Oakridge was closed in July 2021.
That’s Ward 8
And that’s how we see it. We went to a place that people merely drive around and happen to live in, and we offer you this guide to what it’s all about. It was loud and it was quiet, and it was certainly an interesting conversation about London.
The Cedric/Mike teamup will continue all summer! We’re looking at all 14 wards, featuring one every Tuesday all the way to September. You can follow along here at London Ontario Online News, where there’s new content every day and we live here, too.
We’d love you to stay engaged and in touch. You can send us any topics you’d like us to discuss, or questions, or most anything else. Thank you - see you soon!