Part 1: Introducing Ward 3
Welcome to Ward 3
Cedric writes
We are continuing our journey through London’s wards in this summer series. We now make our way from one corner of the city to the other, going from southwest London to northeast London. The 13th of 14 wards to profile, we welcome you to Ward 3.
The districts within Ward 3 are Fanshawe, Stoney Creek, Airport, and Huron Heights. Three of these districts are for living, while Airport is heavily industrial, with very few people living in it. It is arguably one of London‘s hardest working districts.
You may be familiar with this ward if you’ve gone to Fanshawe College, an institution in London for the last six decades. Other educational institutions in this area include Montcalm Secondary school, and John Paul II and Mother Teresa Catholic Secondary Schools. Toward the east end of the ward (and the city), there is the Fanshawe Conservation Area, and within it, the Fanshawe Pioneer Village. And, of course, there is the London International Airport.
Over the last few decades, I got to know the area better in a few ways: in the 2010s, I was a student at Fanshawe for several years. Throughout this decade, I would make bike trips to Fanshawe Conservation Area, completing a circuit around the eponymous lake that was created nearly 80 years ago.
The ward is very working class in the inner parts of the ward, and more well-to-do, affluent, the more you get out and closer to the city limits.
Transit is only a good option within the ward if you are going to Fanshawe College and surrounding areas. Route 36, which operates between the college and the airport, is the only industrial bus route to operate throughout the evening.
Cycling is a tougher affair here. Other than protected bike lanes along Highbury Avenue near Montcalm, you really have to be careful about cycling.
I’ve been asking for the last number of profiles, the question, how do the constituents of this constituency live together? This question has never been more apt at a place like this. There are subdivisions that are planned to be built adjacent to Fanshawe Conservation Area. The students live near campus, and in established neighbourhoods. And places like Cedarhollow comprise not only London’s newest citizens, but also those of Canada.
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.
Cedric says:
As City Editor for the Loon, welcome to our 13th of the 14 ward profiles. We find ourselves at another community center, this time in the northeast of London, a corner that means many things to many Londoners and people across the world.
Mike says:
This is very much an undiscovered part of London for me, despite regularly spending time in one corner of the ward. Once you get past Huron & Highbury and experience the rest of Ward 3, it’s an area with plenty of interesting spots.
Every week, we’re having a chat in the ward itself. Here are our musings together in Ward 3, at Stronach Arena, where we talked about all things Northeast London, from Fanshawe Lake to Fanshawe College.
Ward 3: The Basics
Ward 3 - Stoney Creek, Huron Heights, Fanshawe, Airport
Population - 32,132
Cedric writes
Ward 3 has been London’s northeast corner ward, having been created in 2006 from the old ward 3.
The ward for the 2026 municipal election will see a few major changes. London Junction, located along First, Second, and Third Streets south of Oxford, will be moved to Ward 2. Ridgeview Heights and the subdivision surrounding Edgevalley Road have been transferred to Ward 4. Stoney Creek, previously in Ward 5, has been moved into Ward 3. This ward has the third-smallest population among the new ward configurations. It makes sense as there is some room for growth. Since the development of the city’s official plan in 2014, a few areas in this corner of London have been designated as “Future Growth”. Over the last two years, plans of subdivision have come before city council, which will see much of the area surrounding Kilally Road developed.
Part 2: Around the ward
Stoney Creek
Cedric writes
This is Ward 3’s newest district. Coming over from Ward 5, Stoney Creek is bounded to the north by the city limits, to the east by Highbury Avenue, to the south by Fanshawe Park Road East, and to the west by Adelaide Street.
The vast majority of residences here are single-family, and this has sprawled out to the city limits. I often wonder if residents of Springridge Drive brag that they can see Middlesex Centre from their house.
The main community hub in this district is the combination YMCA and Stoney Creek Branch of the London Public Library. I visited this place shortly after it opened in early 2011 and was mesmerized at the size and cleanliness of things within. I was not a fan of there being a place like this built where transit access, and crosswalks were sparse, where you had to leave before 5:30 pm to grab a bus to transfer at Masonville. Things have improved on that front, but it took several years to do so.
There’s a mayoral flair in the centre of the district. Two roads in the district are named after a former London mayor, George Wenige. North and South Wenige Drive encircle Sunningdale Road East. Until 1994, Wenige solely held the record for longest time served as mayor, serving nine, one-year terms over five stints. Tom Gosnell tied the record at the end of his third term in 1994, with Anne Marie DeCicco-Best breaking the record in 2009. Maybe someday, they will get streets named after them as well.
The corner of Fanshawe and Highbury was once a quiet corner, but in the last few years, to match residential growth, the Stoney Creek Commons plaza opened with a Food Basics and McDonalds as the most prominent tenants.
Fanshawe
Cedric writes
Fanshawe is London’s northeasternmost district. The original Fanshawe was a hamlet located at modern-day Highbury Avenue and Fanshawe Park Road. Since then, the name has been lent to a community college, conservation area, pioneer village, and electoral districts at the federal and provincial levels.
The district is one of London’s most diverse with at least 40% of the population being immigrants, and at least 52% of the population consisting of visible minorities. This is one of the four minority-majority districts in the Forest City, and the only one east of Richmond Street.
Not many people live here right now, but the abrupt dead ends of streets like Killarney Road imply that there are more subdivisions to come. There is an Irish feel to the street names, with surnames lent to streets like Reilly Walk, O’Hanlan Cross, and Guiness Way, and place names such as Portrush Way, Tralee Place, and Dingle Place.
As mentioned above, Fanshawe Conservation Area is located in this district. This is a wonderful place to get lost in nature. I have been here dozens of times over the course of my life. My most memorable visit was in August 2020, where I took my bicycle to the lake and rode it around the lake.
I’ve been amazed in this part of the city about how history is so recent. There are people who are living, who can remember a city and a county without a Fanshawe lake. The floods of 1937 got local authorities to act on creating a flood mitigation system for the area, in case the Thames River flooded again, and it came in the form of Fanshawe Dam and Fanshawe Lake. Prior to the lake’s creation, what is now Fanshawe Park Road continued down a steep grade and ended at the townline dividing London Township and West Nissouri Township. Where Fanshawe Lake took shape, you can see on a map where connections were cut off. There are cottages on Lakeside Drive, which was once a part of that townline, but is now a quiet place where people live on the lake.
Huron Heights
Cedric writes
This district contains some of the oldest neighbourhoods in Ward 3. It’s likely also the first thing you think of when it comes to Ward 3. Huron Heights is filled with that typical post-war development: curvilinear streets, single-story homes with wide lawns, and low-rise apartment buildings.
Fanshawe College is also located in the south of this ward. I was a student here during the 2010s, and despite recent news stories about post-secondary education, I remain thankful for the education I received here. The main campus is a sprawling set of buildings along Oxford Street East. The oldest buildings were given the letters A through G. In recent decades, they have started to fill out the alphabet with J, K, L, M, and T, with Z being located down the road in a little exclave building near Third Street. When visiting the area to get to know Ward 3 a bit better, I was amazed at the progress in construction of the East London Link rapid transit project. The bike lanes in that section of Oxford were almost finished, and I was able to beat the cars to Highbury Avenue as I was cycling westbound.
Two of the main community centres in Huron Heights are the North London Optimist Community Centre and Stronach Arena. I’ve had some good times in both of these buildings. In North London, I went rollerskating for somebody’s birthday party. And at Stronach Arena, I attended a professional wrestling show, with my brother-in-law.
There appears to be some room to grow here. You can tell where London had previously sprawled to its former city limits. Chippewa Drive abruptly dead ends at a field and Sandford Street becomes a rural road around the London Research and Development Centre, a property owned by the federal Ministry of Agriculture and Agri-Food.
Across from the Northland Mall, now in Ward 4, is the Huron Heights Plaza, which predates that mall by a few years. Its most prominent tenant was the Huron House. This was a restaurant founded by Jimmy Agathos, an immigrant from Greece who sponsored community groups and sports teams in London. The restaurant anchored the plaza from 1963 to 2014, with Agathos’ children running the place during the final years. Agathos died in 2023, but his legacy lives on, in a way, just a few kilometres north. Agathos Street is named after the late, great restaurateur.
Airport
Cedric writes
This district is Ward 3’s industrial district. There’s a lot of gray in this area, whether it is the concrete, the sidings of buildings, or the smoke coming from chimneys.
The most prominent place in the Airport district is the London International Airport. Surrounding the airport are industrial parks with large setbacks on each property. These are the places that many people do shift work, serve people, and make things. For a while, several years ago, I was one of those people.
But, there is more to do than just work. There are museums such as the Jet Aircraft Museum and the Secrets of Radar Museum at the north end of Crumlin Side Road. On Robins Hill Road, there is The Beach Hangar, which has filled the beach volleyball void left by Spikes. And, there is the Katana Kafe located on Blair Boulevard, which is a good place to eat.
There are a few people who live here. They are peppered along quiet roads like Evelyn Drive, Rebecca Road, and Robin’s Hill Road. Related to that, Airport has a unique distinction in London: this is London’s only district with address numbers with five digits.
Part 3: Politics of Ward 3
2014 results
2018 results
2022 results
Mike writes
Ward 3 sees Peter Cuddy seeking to be returned as a councillor for the first time, following two terms where it was held by Mo Salih. Last time, Cuddy beat Bob Wright (who’s one of the nine people running in Ward 4 this time around) although, as with so many wards, low turnout means it wasn’t decided by huge sacks of votes: on paper, Cuddy has a majority of just 407, though the reshaped ward will affect that, of course - and soon we shall see how.
And, he has a packed field of challengers who are definitely getting in each others’ way. Leroy Osbourne, Riya Philip, Ben Durham, Harkirat Kaur and Zak Rahim all seem to be running active and visible campaigns, with notably similar ones from some. School trustee Osbourne and video blogger Durham (who had that disagreement - LFP link - with Councillor Susan Stevenson) have some name recognition, while Rahim seems to have plenty of signs out.
Cuddy, a local business owner, has some relationships to repair, at least according to the Free Press in this story about apparent first-term mis-steps, but still seems to be well-funded, at least based on the incidence of large signs at intersections. Between that, the crowd of opponents splitting the vote, and the usual incumbent advantage, Cuddy may be safe.
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
Welcome to a ward with some prominent newsmakers amid its somewhat-anonymous neighbourhoods. Let’s take a look.
First, Fanshawe College: working through change, including significant job cuts. Here’s a summary from CTV. And, the college continues to be a vital local employer and a vibrant part of our city, getting up to all kinds of great things such as the successful aerospace school described in this CBC story.
And London International Airport brings its own vibrancy, having just launched some new destination services and hosting events, though two music festivals just switched to downtown due to traffic management issues at the airport.
Here’s a nice media release about Fanshawe Conservation Area winning a community spirit award.
Let’s not forget Fanshawe Pioneer Village. Here’s a story about their blacksmith leaving.
Also in Ward 3, there is a much-needed EnviroDepot. You need to ensure you have the correct kind of waste, as the website shows. Here’s a CTV London story about queues and even a crash near a depot in a different part of town - Oxford Street West - showing the need for these facilities.
As with all parts of the city, Ward 3 has infill planning issues, but here the residents won, convincing councillors to say no to an eight-story building on Fanshawe Park Road.
And here’s a lovely story about Stoney Creek Public School students reading letters to themselves, eight years later.
This is another busy, churning, amazing part of London - and we’ve seen plenty of them this summer.
Part 5: And there’s more…
Our restaurant pick
I wanted to pick Thuan Kieu Vietnamese Restaurant in Northland Mall, but that’s technically in Ward 4 now. For Ward 3, however, Johnny’s Restaurant is my pick for the restaurant to visit in this ward. I love myself a good diner, and got to visit this place many times as a student, dining in before classes.
The unmissable landmarks
Fanshawe Conservation Area
Fanshawe Conservation Area is acres upon acres of wilderness in the far northeast corner of London. Currently operated by the Upper Thames River Conservation Authority, you can enter the area off of the intersection of Clarke Road and Veterans Memorial Parkway. The wayfinding signs are a bit overwhelming, but that’s a function of so many fun things to do here. The conservation area and the lake were created just after the end of the Second World War. When you first enter along the service road and across the dam, it’s important to take a second and think about all of the floods that have been controlled over the years because of the dam. This is public works in action.
As I mentioned above, I bicycled around the 21 kilometres of trails that loop around Fanshawe Lake. It took about two hours, but it was two hours well spent. Much of it was in wooded areas, but the trail takes you to other places, too. About the first third of the loop took me through the parking lot of Fanshawe Golf Course and Rebecca Road. Of course, you return to the woods where you either pass cyclists or you are passed by them. I was in the latter column, because I was so focused on being present on the lake.
London International Airport
London International Airport, sometimes referred to by its airport code YXU, has been London’s way to fly since it opened in 1940. It superseded the former London Airport that existed from 1928 along modern-day Wonderland Road South, near Exeter Road. The terminal is a non-pretentious building, and its interior has been spruced up in recent years.
For now, the domestic flights out of London are Toronto, Calgary, and Winnipeg with international flights reaching Mexico, Jamaica, and Cuba. This will change over the next two years as Porter Airlines has announced a new roster of international flights, with at least one flight departing every day of the week. The airline has also announced plans for a comprehensive domestic network to be unveiled in 2027.
That’s Ward 3
And that’s how we see it. We went to my old stomping grounds at Fanshawe, did some kayaking on Fanshawe Lake, filled up with gas on Fanshawe Park Road, and we offer you this guide to what it’s all about.
And that is the 13th ward of the 14 Wards of London, Ontario. We saved the central ward for last, and we will let you know later this week where you can join us. 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!
The Irish street names are likely because 200 years ago, there was a village called The Grove which was formed by mostly Irish immigrants. The houses and cemetery that look out of place on Huron St are from that era.