Byron, Ontario
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Byron is neighbourhood in the City of London, Ontario, Canada.
Located downriver (west) from London on the outer fringes of the city, Byron was originally called Westminster, then renamed Hall's Mill, and then finally Byron. The Byron area was settled in 1800 and first became a village in 1804. The village of Byron was annexed by the City of London in 1961 and the population grew substantially with the development of large subdivisions around the original village.
To this day, some long-time residents of Byron refuse to call it anything but Byron, Ontario, but most people use the term as a point of reference within the city of London.
The current boundaries of Byron are generally regarded to be the land south of the Thames River and west of Colonel Talbot Road. Recent housing developments have expanded Byron southward to Southdale Road and westward to Wickerson Road. Outside of the urban area, Byron is surrounded by farmland and forested areas. On the eastern border of Byron is the Byron Gravel Pit, the sixteenth-largest gravel pit in Canada. Historically, Byron also consisted of some land north of the Thames River in the area known today as Oakridge Park, including the Byron Bog (now Sifton Bog).
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[edit] Education
There are five government-funded elementary schools in Byron, namely Byron Northview Public School, Byron Somerset Public School, Byron Southwood Public School, St. George Catholic School, and St. Theresa Catholic School. The first three schools are under the jurisdiction of the Thames Valley District School Board and the latter two are part of the London District Catholic School Board. There are no secondary schools in Byron: the three main secondary schools attended by Byron students are St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Secondary School, Saunders Secondary School, and Oakridge Secondary School. There is also a Montessori private school, on Commissioners Road between Grand View Ave and Chestnut Hill.
[edit] Tourism
Byron is one of the most scenic parts of London and is home to Springbank Park, one of the most picturesque urban parks in Canada. It is also the home of Boler Mountain, a small co-operative that offers skiing, snowboarding, snow-tubing, and mountain bike terrains. The hill has been in operation since 1946 and is Canada's most southerly ski hill.
The ski hill began as a single run on the southeastern-most section of the modern hill, accessed by a gravel road from Boler Road, just south of today's Gatineau Road. The small ski club property expanded westward over the years, and the current chalet was built in 1972. The original Boler Road access was closed off around the same time to permit the building of a subdivision, and the entrance moved to the newly extended Griffith Street where it met the original road.
Boler Mountain was served by three T-bar lifts throughout the 1970s and 80s, the western-most of which was replaced by a quad-chairlift in the early 1990s. The other two T-bar lifts were replaced by a single quad-chairlift in 2003. A fourth T-bar lift had been partially constructed in the early 1980s on a then-newly acquired acreage of land immediately west of the chalet that came to be known as Hill 2000. The lift never was completed, and was mostly dismantled in 1997. Building of Hill 2000 has progressed slowly since 1978, and has yet to be completed. The tubing hill was added at the base of Hill 2000 in January 1998.
The summer venue was home to the 2001 Canada Summer Games mountain biking event. Byron was also home to the Games's road cycling event, where cyclists raced through the heart of the village.
[edit] Byron Telephone Company
Byron was served until August 1960 by the Byron Telephone Company, when it was sold to Bell Canada. A manual telephone exchange continued to operate until September 15, 1963, and in 1962 or 1963, the short code 471 was introduced to London exchange customers for the convenience of immediately reaching the Byron operator to complete a call. Upon dial introduction, 471 became the exchange prefix.
However, some two or three years before 1960, the Byron Telephone Company converted its Lambeth-area customers to a dial exchange, the OLiver 2 exchange.
[edit] Tim Hortons Controversy
In 2000, Tim Hortons, which had 44 locations throughout London, sought to open its first full-service location in Byron. At the time, Tim Hortons' presence in Byron was limited to a kiosk inside the A&P grocery store with no seating, limited hours, and a limited menu.
Tim Hortons was met by bitter opposition from a small group of members of the community, which had also stopped Tim Hortons' entry into Byron in 1998. Some members of the group claimed building a Tim Hortons would ruin the "small town atmosphere" that they claimed Byron to have, by generating too much traffic and noise.
London City Council sided with local residents and refused to rezone a parcel of land along Commissioners Road to permit Tim Hortons to build a store there. TDL Group Ltd. appealed the decision to the Ontario Municipal Board (OMB), and the OMB sided with TDL and ordered the City to permit the required rezoning. [1] Tim Hortons opened its Byron location in December 2001.
[edit] Notable Byronites
- Rob Ramage, professional hockey player
- Joshua Workman, Canadian political consultant
