Downtown Ottawa is the central area of

Ottawa Ottawa (, ; Canadian French: ) is the capital city of Canada. It is located at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River in the southern portion of the province of Ontario. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the c ...

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

, Canada. It is sometimes referred to as the Central Business District and contains Ottawa's financial district. It is bordered by the

Ottawa River The Ottawa River (french: Rivière des Outaouais, Algonquin: ''Kichi-Sìbì/Kitchissippi'') is a river in the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec. It is named after the Algonquin word 'to trade', as it was the major trade route of Eastern ...

to the north, the

Rideau Canal The Rideau Canal, also known unofficially as the Rideau Waterway, connects Canada's capital city of Ottawa, Ontario, to Lake Ontario and the Saint Lawrence River at Kingston. It is 202 kilometres long. The name ''Rideau'', French for "curtain", ...

to the east, Gloucester Street to the south and

Bronson Avenue Bronson Avenue ( Ottawa Road #79) is a major north-south arterial road in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. It starts as a continuation of the Airport Parkway, which is an expressway to the Macdonald-Cartier International Airport. It continues past Carl ...

to the west. This area and the residential neighbourhood to the south are also known locally as 'Centretown'. The total population of the area is 4,876 (2016 Census).(Census tract number 5050048.00) http://www12.statcan.gc.ca/census-recensement/2016/dp-pd/hlt-fst/pd-pl/Table.cfm?Lang=Eng&T=1601&SR=51&S=94&O=A&RPP=25&PR=0&CMA=505&CSD=0

Characteristics

Downtown Ottawa is dominated by government buildings, including

Parliament Hill Parliament Hill (french: Colline du Parlement, colloquially known as The Hill, is an area of Crown land on the southern banks of the Ottawa River in downtown Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Its Gothic revival suite of buildings, and their archit ...

and the

Supreme Court A supreme court is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts in most legal jurisdictions. Other descriptions for such courts include court of last resort, apex court, and high (or final) court of appeal. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...

. Most prominent buildings are situated along

Wellington Wellington ( mi, Te Whanganui-a-Tara or ) is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the second-largest city in New Zealand by ...

, Sparks and Elgin streets. Most of the buildings are office towers containing the various government departments. While most of Ottawa's

high tech High technology (high tech), also known as advanced technology (advanced tech) or exotechnology, is technology that is at the cutting edge: the highest form of technology available. It can be defined as either the most complex or the newest te ...

industry is based elsewhere it also has a significant presence in the downtown core. The downtown also contains a number of

apartment An apartment (American English), or flat (British English, Indian English, South African English), is a self-contained housing unit (a type of residential real estate) that occupies part of a building, generally on a single story. There are ma ...

hotel A hotel is an establishment that provides paid lodging on a short-term basis. Facilities provided inside a hotel room may range from a modest-quality mattress in a small room to large suites with bigger, higher-quality beds, a dresser, a re ...

s, and

condominium A condominium (or condo for short) is an ownership structure whereby a building is divided into several units that are each separately owned, surrounded by common areas that are jointly owned. The term can be applied to the building or complex ...

s as well as the older single family homes and townhouses along its edges. From Wellington to

Laurier Sir Henri Charles Wilfrid Laurier, ( ; ; November 20, 1841 – February 17, 1919) was a Canadian lawyer, statesman, and politician who served as the seventh prime minister of Canada from 1896 to 1911. The first French Canadians, French Can ...

, Elgin Street is the site of several landmarks, the

Château Laurier The Fairmont Château Laurier is a hotel with 429 guest rooms in the downtown core of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, located near the intersection of Rideau Street and Sussex Drive and designed in a French Gothic Revival Châteauesque style to compleme ...

, the

National Arts Centre The National Arts Centre (NAC) (french: Centre national des Arts) is a performing arts organisation in Ottawa, Ontario, along the Rideau Canal. It is based in the eponymous National Arts Centre building. History The NAC was one of a number of ...

Lord Elgin Hotel The Lord Elgin Hotel is a prominent hotel in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. With 355 guest rooms, it is located at 100 Elgin Street at Laurier Avenue, across from Confederation Park in Downtown Ottawa. The twelve-storey limestone structure was n ...

, Place Bell Canada, the

Ottawa Courthouse The Ottawa Courthouse () is an courthouse in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. It is the main provincial court for the Ottawa area, and as such handles most of the region's legal affairs. The building is home to the civil, small claims, family, crimina ...

, and Ottawa City Hall. Other prominent buildings include

World Exchange Plaza The World Exchange Plaza is an office and retail complex in Downtown Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Consisting of two towers and an outdoor plaza, it covers an entire city block between Metcalfe and O'Connor Streets south of Queen and north of Al ...

office and retail complex, encompassing a whole city block on the south-west corner of Queen and Metcalfe, featuring the 'clock ball' on top, and Place de Ville, a complex incorporating four office buildings and two large hotels on two city blocks, with all buildings interconnected through an underground retail concourse. There are also many prominent heritage buildings along Sparks Street. The towers of downtown Ottawa are not as tall as those in other cities, as legislation prevented buildings being built taller than 150 feet until the 1960s, so as not to overshadow the Parliament Buildings and the

Peace Tower The Peace Tower (french: link=no, Tour de la Paix) is a focal bell and clock tower sitting on the central axis of the Centre Block of the Canadian parliament buildings in Ottawa, Ontario. The present incarnation replaced the Victoria Tower af ...

(similar to Washington, D.C.'s Heights of Buildings Act). Today, several buildings are taller than the Peace Tower, with the tallest being the 29-storey Place de Ville (Tower C) at , which was built above the height limit, and several hotels being slightly shorter but with 30-35 stories. The downtown employs about 100,000 people and currently holds around of office space.

Surrounding areas

East of the canal, but west of King Edward Avenue, including the Rideau Centre and the ByWard Market, is also normally considered downtown, and is referred to locally as 'Lowertown' or

Lower Town Lower Town (also spelled "Lowertown" (french: la Basse-Ville) is a neighbourhood in Rideau-Vanier Ward in central Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, to the east of downtown. It is the oldest part of the city. It is bounded by Rideau Street to the south, ...

. The residential neighbourhoods around the central business district are also generally referred to as being downtown. These include

Centretown Centretown is a neighbourhood in Somerset Ward, in central Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. It is defined by the city as "the area bounded on the north by Gloucester Street and Lisgar Street, on the east by the Rideau Canal, on the south by the Quee ...

to the south and Sandy Hill and

to the east. North of the Ottawa River the centre of

Gatineau Gatineau ( ; ) is a city in western Quebec, Canada. It is located on the northern bank of the Ottawa River, immediately across from Ottawa, Ontario. Gatineau is the largest city in the Outaouais administrative region and is part of Canada's Na ...

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirte ...

can be considered an extension of Ottawa's downtown.

Landmarks

Religious

* City View International Church * First Baptist Church * Christ Church Cathedral * Church of St. John the Evangelist *

Dominion-Chalmers United Church Dominion Chalmers United Church is a large United church, located in downtown Ottawa, at the corner of Cooper and O'Connor Streets (with access from Lisgar Street). It is a 1962 merger of two key congregations from both the Methodist and Presbyte ...

* Knox Presbyterian Church * St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church * St Patrick's Basilica * St. Peter's Lutheran Church * St. Theresa's Catholic Church

Demographics

''According to the

2016 Canadian Census The 2016 Canadian census was an enumeration of Canadian residents, which counted a population of 35,151,728, a change from its 2011 population of 33,476,688. The census, conducted by Statistics Canada, was Canada's seventh quinquennial census ...

. Area defined as the part of Ottawa north of Gloucester Street, east of Bronson, south of the Ottawa River and west of the Rideau Canal.'' *Population: 4,876 *Change (2011–2016): +18.3% *Total private dwellings: 3,965 (up from 3,256 in 2011) *Land area: *Population density: Politically, it is within the federal and provincial ridings of

Ottawa Centre Ottawa Centre (french: Ottawa-Centre) is an urban federal electoral district in Ontario, Canada, that has been represented in the House of Commons of Canada since 1968. While the riding's boundaries (mainly to the south and west as the north a ...

Transportation

Roads

Prominent streets

Downtown Ottawa has a

grid Grid, The Grid, or GRID may refer to: Common usage * Cattle grid or stock grid, a type of obstacle is used to prevent livestock from crossing the road * Grid reference, used to define a location on a map Arts, entertainment, and media * News ...

pattern of streets, aligned either east-west or north-south with a number of the streets being one way. From east to west, the prominent streets are Elgin Street, Metcalfe Street,

O'Connor Street O'Connor Street is a downtown arterial road in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. It is a north-south route, operating one way southbound, providing a key thoroughfare parallel to Bank Street. The roadway begins at Wellington Street, at Parliament Hill ...

, Bank Street, Kent Street and

. Starting from the east: * Elgin Street, a ceremonial route for the daily Changing of the Guard and site of many prominent buildings and landmarks, and a restaurant district south of Laurier Avenue, * Metcalfe and O'Connor (which includes a bidirectional separate bike lane), both of which are busy multi-lane one-way streets, * Bank Street runs through the heart of downtown and is a prominent retail centre, * Kent Street, another busy multi-lane one way with high traffic volumes, * Lyon, the edge of the central business district, with a wall of towering office buildings and hotels to the east and shorter buildings and parking lots to the west, * Bay and Percy, are one way local residential streets, and, *

is a major avenue that forms the western edge of downtown. Sparks Street, Ottawa (14579934199)

The northernmost east-west street that crosses downtown is Wellington Street, site of the parliamentary precinct, National Library and Archives, and

. It is a major four-lane thoroughfare. To the east, it connects to

Rideau Street Rideau Street (french: Rue Rideau) is a major street in downtown Ottawa, Ontario, Canada and one of Ottawa's oldest and most famous streets running from Wellington Street in the west to Montreal Road in the east where it connects to the Vanier ...

, and to the west, the

Sir John A. Macdonald Parkway The Sir John A. Macdonald Parkway, formerly the Ottawa River Parkway, is a four-lane scenic parkway along the Ottawa River in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. It runs from Carling Avenue near Connaught Avenue, to Booth Street at the Canadian War Museum ...

. South of Wellington is Sparks Street, most of which is a pedestrian mall closed to vehicles. The heritage district runs from Bank to Elgin, with CBC broadcast studios at Metcalfe and Sparks. The streets to the south are dominated by office and hotel towers: Queen Street, Albert Street, Slater Street, Laurier Avenue and Gloucester Street. The City of Ottawa zoning restricts and regulates development to allow high-rises north of Gloucester St. and affords heritage designation to some areas and buildings.

Other streets

Other streets in Downtown Ottawa which go east-west (from north to south) include: * Wellington Street * Sparks Street * Queen Street * Albert Street *

Slater Street A slater, or slate mason, is a tradesperson who covers buildings with slate. Tools of the trade The various tools of the slater's trade are all drop-forged. The slater's hammer is forged in one single piece, from crucible-cast steel, and has ...

Laurier Avenue Laurier Avenue ''(French: Avenue Laurier)'' (Ottawa Road #48) is a central east west street running through Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Originally known as "Maria Street" (west of Waller) and "Theodore Street" (east of Waller), it was renamed ...

Gloucester Street Gloucester Street is a major urban street in central Christchurch in the South Island of New Zealand. It runs for approximately from a junction with Rolleston Avenue, directly opposite Christ's College at its western end to the suburbs of Li ...

Other streets in Downtown Ottawa which go north-south (from west to east) include: *

Percy Street Percy Street is a street in the London Borough of Camden that runs from Rathbone Street in the west to Tottenham Court Road in the east. At its western end it is joined by Rathbone Place and Charlotte Street. Nearby Percy Mews is off Rathbone Pla ...

(runs north until Laurier) *

Bay Street Bay Street is a major thoroughfare in Downtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is the centre of Toronto's Financial District and is often used by metonymy to refer to Canada's financial services industry since succeeding Montreal's St. James ...

* Lyon Street * Kent Street * Bank Street *

* Metcalfe Street * Elgin Street

Transit service

Albert and Slater carry the Transitway through downtown. A new light rail line, called the

Confederation Line The Confederation Line (french: Ligne de la Confédération), also called O-Train Line 1 (french: Ligne 1 de l'O-Train), is a light rail line operated by OC Transpo in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, as part of the city's O-Train light rail system. I ...

opened in September 2019. Part of it is a tunnel under downtown's Queen Street and travel east to

and turn south under

Nicholas Street Nicholas Street is an arterial road in the central area of Ottawa, Ontario which connects Highway 417 with the downtown core. Despite being a municipal road, the street is designated as part of Canada's National Highway System, as part of an int ...

to eventually resurface south of Laurier Avenue East. Construction of the 2.1 billion dollar line, including the subway tunnel did not end in time for the 2017 celebration of Confederation's 150th anniversary. It includes three subway stations; one between Lyon and Kent Streets, integrated with Place de Ville, the next station was built between

and Metcalfe Street and one under Rideau Street with multiple entrances in the Rideau Centre.

Transitway stations

* Metcalfe Transitway Station * Bank Transitway Station * Kent Transitway Station * Bay Transitway Station

References

External links

Downtown Ottawa East (K1P) Sort by StreetName, Num Centretown Community Design PlanDowntown Ottawa history: Virtual Museum of Canada ExhibitOttawa past & present
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Neighbourhoods in Ottawa Shopping districts and streets in Canada