Welcome to Ward 7
We are continuing our journey through London’s wards in this summer series. We started in the southeast, and now we’re crisscrossing the city and taking you to the northwest corner of London. It’s time to visit Ward 7.
A note on recent events: Our thoughts are with those affected by the incident at Sherwood Forest Mall on Friday, June 12, in which a vehicle crashed through the wall and into a gym. At the time of writing, seven people had received medical attention and the police were investigating further. A 59-yea-old woman has been charged in connection with the crash. For legal reasons, we will limit our comments. It’s notable, however, that we recorded our podcast at the same mall a few days before the incident. The noise of the traffic in the background lands differently now.
Ward 7 contains communities such as Hyde Park, Fox Hollow, and Medway.
You may be familiar with this ward if you’ve driven along Hyde Park to the Wal-Mart or Wonderland Road to the Aquatic Centre in bumper-to-bumper traffic. Maybe you’ve been to Pondfest in the past. Or your kids went to school here, or you yourself attended places like Banting, Emily Carr, Wilfrid Jury, St. Andre Bessette, among others.
The area, in general, is ground zero for a lot of the growing pains London has experienced over the last several years. The ward’s population increased to nearly 50,000 before the ward boundary review, causing an imbalance in representation compared to some other wards in the city that were underpopulated by comparison.
In order to rebalance population among wards, Ward 7 has been redistricted to a smaller area, containing some of London’s newest subdivisions, which drew the ire of current councillor Corinne Rahman.
New subdivisions, and population growth can mean that many of the residents are among London’s newest residents. And we have wondered, how do they figure into the story of London, Ontario, among those who have been here for a long time?
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.
In this article
Introducing Ward 7
Around the ward by neighbourhood
A guide to the politics
Ward 7 in the news
And there’s more…
Cedric says:
To come back to Northwest London is always a treat. I always look forward to seeing how it has evolved over the last few decades, and now I get to write about it. In this article, Mike and I will be touring you through Ward 7 and profiling the places and neighbourhoods in it. Since I went to high school here nearly 20 years ago, I have biked the area, walked it extensively, and rode the bus along Aldersbrook Road and Limberlost Road. I’m proud to help give you a perspective on Ward 7 in advance of October’s municipal election in London.
Mike says:
This is something of a homecoming for me, because I lived in Ward 7 for nine years. I was a Fox Hollow resident and, while I grew to love my neighbourhood walks and made friends among my neighbours, I found it a dull place to live, at least until they finally opened the school. Other than visiting a retail store or walking around under no trees, there isn’t much to do. But it has its treasures, especially those samosas, and I feel lucky to have lived in an area that, despite some of the news stories below, is safe and pleasant.
Ward 7: Cedric and Mike at Sherwood Forest Mall
Every week, we’re having a chat in the ward itself. Here are our musings together in Ward 7, where we sat outside Sherwood Forest Mall to record. As noted above, that feels different in the aftermath of the crash there last week. We’re sharing our conversation as recorded, noting this additional dimension, with all respect to those involved.
Part 1: Introducing Ward 7
Ward 7 - Hyde Park, Fox Hollow, Medway
Population - 35,955
Cedric writes
Ward 7 has always oriented itself to the northwest corner of London, created in 2006 from the former Ward 1. Until this upcoming election, Ward 7 has generally consisted of communities such as Hyde Park, Sunningdale, and Masonville.
The ward for the 2026 municipal election will see one substantial change, and a small change. Ward 7’s eastern boundary will now be Wonderland Road North, with the Masonville and Sunningdale neighborhoods being transferred to Ward 5. Chapman Court, which contains a townhouse community and high rise near Sarnia and Wonderland, will be transferred to Ward 7, from Ward 8.
Corrine Rahman, the current Ward 7 councillor, had insisted during the ward boundary review that a new Ward 7 cannot consist of primarily new subdivisions. Rahman cited challenges from an “advocacy perspective” regarding communicating with constituents who are new to the city about the quality of municipal services (see In The News, below). Rahman herself opted to run in Ward 5 after redistricting placed her residence in Ward 5, and the incumbent Jerry Pribil decided not to run again.
I have been taking a look at census data in London over the past year, and the demographic mix in this corner of the city is interesting. Our city has 42 planning districts that are essentially used to track demographic trends at a community level. Four of these districts are minority-majority districts, in which more than 50% of the population identifies as a visible minority. Two of those four minority-majority districts, Hyde Park and Fox Hollow, are located in Ward 7. They are also in the top half of median incomes in London. But not everybody here is affluent. The Medway district west of Wonderland Road is also in this ward, and has one of the highest low-income populations in the city.
In a way, I grew up in this ward. I went to high school at Sir Frederick Banting Secondary School, graduating in 2009. Although I lived and went to elementary school closer to the core of London, we lived in the catchment area of Banting. Throughout the 2000s, my daily life pulled into Northwest London like a magnetic force, and over time, I got to know the area very well.
Unlike Ward 1, which was covered last week, there is little chance that you will be stopped by a train in Ward 7. The west half of London is entirely covered by grade separations at CN and CPKC’s rail lines. Transit service in the area is not great. Although it has slightly improved over the years, I learned early on in life to not make plans there during the evenings or weekends unless I brought my bike or walked quite a bit to a more frequent bus route.
Cycling in the ward is hit or miss. I like the in-boulevard bike lanes on Fanshawe Park Road near Stanton Drive or on Wonderland Road in the Medway area, but a lot of the painted bike lanes produce some very dangerous situations. Some of these bike lanes, like on Wonderland near Aldersbrook and Sarnia Road near Wonderland, are sandwiched between through lanes and right-turn lanes.
This ward is essentially the leadership capital of London. Two councillors who were elected in this ward, have since been elected mayor by substantial margins.
Part 2: Around the ward
Hyde Park
Cedric writes
Hyde Park is a very interesting duality in this city: it has a very historic core at Hyde Park and Gainsborough, and it is surrounded by so much new development in which most homeowners can remember Hyde Park before all of the sprawl.
Much of Hyde Park’s newer development seems to centre on high-rise and low-rise subdivisions, the big box complex among them, with little in the middle.
But it’s not all urban sprawl and big-box centres. I’ve always enjoyed visiting Unger’s Market and the ice cream stall beside it when it was open during the summer months. There’s a nice high-rise apartment building called “The Villages of Hyde Park” which has some great businesses on the ground floor, most notably Basha Restobar which is popular among a lot of my friends.
West of Hyde Park Road lies the rare industrial zoning in West London, and a long standing industrial area that predates the city’s annexation of Hyde Park. The streets are largely named after birds like Seagull, Woodcock, Blue Heron, and Mallard.
Off of the end of Woodcock Street there is a connection to a trail known as the Hyde Park Rotary Link, a former section of railroad track that has been converted to a multi-use trail. It starts near Sarnia Road and continues through Fanshawe Park Road. A parallel trail on the same former track also exists in Ilderton.
Fox Hollow
Cedric writes
Fox Hollow is located in the far northwest corner of London, containing the city’s newest neighbourhoods. In a testament to growth in the northwest, the area bounded by Sunningdale, Wonderland, Fanshawe Park, and Hyde Park is almost fully built out, with likely more plans of subdivisions to come in the years ahead.
In an indictment of that growth, Sir Arthur Currie Public School had as many as 22 portable modular classrooms on its school grounds to accommodate all the students living in its catchment area. The school opened in 2017 and within five years, had an enrolment of twice its capacity. The then-ward councillor, Josh Morgan, helped broker a deal in which Auburn Developments proposed a land swap. Auburn would give a parcel of land on the south side of Sunningdale Road to the Thames Valley District School Board to build a school to alleviate overcrowding. In exchange, Auburn would be permitted to build houses along the north side of Sunningdale, just on the outside of Urban Growth Boundary, a line demarcating where development is permitted. The swap took place, with Northwest Public School being constructed and opening for students this past September.
Medway
Cedric writes
The west part of Medway has always been contained in Ward 7. It consists of Sherwood Forest Mall, Banting Secondary School, Canada Games Aquatic Centre, surrounded by the Whitehills neighborhood.
Slithering around Medway is Aldersbrook Road. Beginning at Sarnia, the street makes subtle curves through the area, first traversing Whitehills north-south, then east-west around Aldersbrook Gate. Fun fact: Aldersbrook Road’s address numbers reach 2100 at the strip plazas at Wonderland Road North. East of Wonderland, in another ward, Aldersbrook ends in the 2000s. It’s one of the four streets in London with address numbers that are out of order.
In the backyard of Banting, is Limberlost Road, a collector road that runs from Lawson Road to north of Gainsborough Road. Most of the road consists of single-family homes. At the corner with Gainsborough is a townhouse complex owned and operated by London Middlesex Community Housing, located at address number 1481. It’s the rare low-income spot in a very affluent corner of the city. I remember learning about Limberlost during high school. The mentions of “1481” and “Limberlost” always conjured up feelings or mentions of crime among other anti-social activities. I recall residents successfully petitioning city council to change the name of Limberlost Crescent to Scotchpine Crescent. Early on in high school, I learned about perceived tensions between students who lived in the complex and school administration. Many residents, my classmates among them, were Somali and Sudanese, and did not feel a sense of belonging from fellow students and faculty. Although it was an indirect feeling for me, I totally sympathize with the sentiment, and perceived feelings of racism. It was not until 2008 when I was in Grade 11, when for the only time, I had a Black teacher.
You hear about how this place is a scary, no-go zone, and then you visit it for the first time. It is full of people who look out for one another, uplift each other, and care about the community around them.
Part 3: Politics of Ward 7
Mike writes
Ward 7 is an interesting mix of established and newly-arrived Londoners, many of them in suburban settings, and is one of those parts of the city strongly influenced by the university, especially in socioeconomic terms. Amid its unending subdivision construction, this area has a stash of well-educated, well-resourced people with opinions and the desire to express them, so it contributes a great deal to the city’s discourse. It just doesn’t have much in the way of an identity (with some localized exceptions such as Hyde Park) and is less a community than a collection of disparate parts. It’s a line on a map. A different line now.
And, it also contributes mayors. The current incumbent, Josh Morgan, was previously the councillor for Ward 7, as was Matt Brown, our colleague at the Loon, who moved from Ward 7 to the mayor’s seat in 2014. Those links to Western University and the wider education sector are strong, especially in the political science department, where Morgan used to work. Current incumbent Corrine Rahman - herself a professor at Fanshawe College - has held Ward 7 since 2022 with the kind of centrist, fact-based politics that has suited this seat for decades.
Rahman, as mentioned elsewhere, is running again, but not in this ward. In that interesting outcome from boundary changes, her home is now in Ward 5 instead of 7, so she’s switching to 5, where incumbent Jerry Pribil is stepping down. And, it seems to make little difference to Rahman’s prospects, because those are both fairly sleepy commuter wards without much personality, and she’s a well-known and respected councillor with a city-wide view.
As for Ward 7 in 2026, it’s a crowded field of no fewer than seven candidates for Ward 7, the most notable among them being former London Free Press reporter Jonathan Sher and Fanshawe professor German Gutierrez.
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.
Finishing with the official results of the last three elections. We might note the diminishing turnout in a ward with an exploding population, and the rising number of candidates: five, two, four - and, in 2026, seven.
2022 results
2018 results
2014 results
Part 4: In the news
Mike writes
Stories around the ward
Here’s Ward 7 candidate Jonathan Sher with his candidacy. He’s a former London Free Press reporter. London Free Press story here.
And Corinne Rahman wasn’t keen on the boundary changes, speaking up for communities during this City Hall debate.
We’ve noted the shocking crash at Sherwood Forest Mall on Friday, June 12. Here’s a recent report about it.
Of course, the attack on the Afzaal family in 2021 is the most notable Ward 7 reporting. Here’s a story from CBC London about the recent fifth anniversary.
In this excellent CBC story from 2024, there’s examination of ward boundaries and a special focus on Ward 7, with its higher population. That quotes current Ward 7 councillor (and Ward 5 candidate) Corrine Rahman.
Rahman also speaks in this London Free Press story, calling for a strong voice for residents in planning decisions.
If you want to get to know Limberlost and some of its people, this special feature from CBC is the place to go. It’s a superb multimedia piece by Isha Bhargava and Kate Dubinski.
In Hyde Park, there’s been a lot of discussion about this high-rise development and the future of the Crossings Pub, which will apparently continue to be a pub for the time being.
And the area has the same development pressures as the rest of London. Here’s a recent London Free Press story about 189 affordable housing units.
The north of the city has been the location for this story about pipeline costs, which caused concern at City Hall and rumbles on behind the scenes.
And up on the edge of the city around Sunningdale, there are many roads and many stories like this road crash from earlier this year.
Part 5: And there’s more…
Our restaurant pick
Nemat’s is a South Asian restaurant located in Sherwood Forest Mall. It was a favourite when I was in high school and I still return to it whenever I’m in the neighbourhood. You have to try the butter chicken samosas.
The unmissable landmarks
Every week we are profiling some landmarks in the ward. I’d like to share two of them with you that you may be familiar with, both located in Hyde Park.
The southwest corner of Hyde Park Road and South Carriage Road is home to the Our London Family memorial dedicated to the victims of the 2021 terror attack, the Afzaal family. Created by local artist Wajeha Chams, organization Youth Coalition Combatting Islamophobia, and firm Arthur Lierman Landscaping Architecture, the monument intends to offer a place to reflect and remember. Throughout both the monument and adjacent crosswalk, green and purple symbolizes the fight against Islamophobia and the favourite colour of Yumnah Afzaal, respectively.
Hyde Park Village Green is a public park that opened in 2023, located along Hyde Park Road just north of Gainsborough. I remember when this place just consisted of a storm water management pond with a trail that connected to Kimball Crescent. That pond essentially begat the annual community celebration known as Pond Fest which takes place every June.
That’s Ward 7
And that’s how we see it. We’ve moved through its traffic and sampled its samosas, and we offer you this guide to what it’s all about.
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!