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About London, Ontario, Canada

London is a city in Southwestern Ontario, Canada along the Quebec City-Windsor Corridor with a metropolitan area population of 457,720; the city proper had a population of 352,395 in the 2006 Canadian census.

London is the seat of Middlesex County, at the forks of the non-navigable Thames River, halfway between Toronto and Detroit, Michigan. It is located at 43°0′N 81°15′W. London and the surrounding area (roughly, the territory between Kitchener-Waterloo and Windsor) is collectively known as Southwestern Ontario. The City of London is a single-tier municipality, politically separate from Middlesex County though it remains the official county seat.

London was first settled by Europeans in 1826 and was incorporated as a city on January 1, 1855. Since then, London has grown into the largest Southwestern Ontario municipality and the city has developed a strong focus towards education, health care, tourism, manufacturing, economic leadership and prosperity.

Prior to European contact in the 18th century, the present site of London was occupied by numerous Algonquin and Iroquois villages; the Algonquin village at the forks of Askunessippi (now called the Thames River) was called Kotequogong.

This location was selected to be the site of the future capital of Upper Canada in 1793 by Lieutenant-Governor John Graves Simcoe. It was Simcoe who named the settlement after London, England and also renamed the river, however, his choice was initially rejected by Guy Carleton, (Governor Dorchester), who made the comment that "access to London would be limited to hot-air balloons".

In 1814, there was a skirmish during the War of 1812 in what is now southwest London at Reservoir Hill, formerly Hungerford Hill.

The village itself was not founded until 1826 and never became the capital envisioned by Simcoe. It was part of the Talbot Settlement, overseen by Colonel Thomas Talbot, who oversaw the surveying of the land and built the first government buildings for the administration of the Western Ontario region. With the rest of Southwestern Ontario which was part of this settlement, it benefited from Talbot's provisions for building and maintaining roads and for assignment of priority for access to main roads to productive land (rather than to Crown and clergy reserves, which received preference in the rest of Ontario).

In 1832, the new settlement suffered an outbreak of cholera. London remained a centre of strong Tory support during the Upper Canada Rebellion of 1837, with a large British garrison stationed there, although there was a brief rebellion led by Dr. Charles Duncombe, who was forced to flee to the U.S.

On April 13, 1845, a large fire destroyed much of London, which was at the time filled with mostly wooden buildings. One of the first casualties of the fire was the town's only fire engine. In the 1860s, sulphur hot springs were discovered at the forks of the Thames River while industrialists were drilling for oil. The springs became a popular destination for wealthy Ontarians, until the turn of the 20th century when a textile factory was built at the site, replacing the spa.

In 1875, London's first iron bridge, the Blackfriars Street Bridge, was constructed. A rare example of a bowstring through truss bridge, it remains open to vehicular traffic today. The bridge was produced by the Wrought Iron Bridge Company of Canton, Ohio; however, a local contractor, Isaac Crouse (1825–1915), was the contractor who undertook the actual erection of the bridge. Isaac Crouse was responsible for portions of the construction of many bridges in London. Although many repairs and modifications have been made to the Blackfriars bridge, the structure remains an historic relic designated under Part IV of the Ontario Heritage Act, still serving its original purpose.

While other Protestant cities in Ontario (notably Toronto) remained under the sway of the Orange Order well into the 20th Century, London abandoned sectarianism in the 19th Century. In 1877, Catholic and Protestant Irish in London formed the Irish Benevolent Society, which was open to both Catholics and Protestants and forbade the discussion of Irish politics. The influence of the Orange Order (and of Catholic organizations) quickly waned. The Society survives to this day.

On May 24, 1881, the ferry SS Victoria capsized in the Thames River, drowning approximately 200 passengers, the worst disaster in London's history. Two years later, on July 12, 1883, the first of the two most devastating floods in London's history killed 17 people. The second major flood occurred on April 26, 1937, which destroyed more than 1000 homes and caused millions of dollars in damages, particularly in West London. After repeated floods the Upper Thames River Conservation Authority built Fanshawe Dam to control the level of the Thames; it opened in 1952. Financing came from the federal, provincial, and municipal governments. Other natural disasters include a 1984 tornado that led to damage on several streets in the White Oaks area of South London.

London's role as a military centre continued into the 20th Century during the two World Wars, serving as the administrative centre for the Western Ontario district. Today there is still an active Garrison Support Unit in the city at Wolseley Barracks.

London annexed many of the surrounding communities in 1961, including Byron and Masonville, adding 60,000 people and more than doubling its area. After this amalgamation, suburban growth accelerated as London grew outward in all directions, creating expansive new subdivisions such as Westmount, Oakridge, Whitehills, Pond Mills and White Oaks.

In 1993, London annexed nearly the entire Town of Westminster, a large, primarily rural municipality directly south of the city. With this massive annexation, London almost doubled in area again, adding several thousand more residents. London now stretches south to the boundary with Elgin County.

The 1993 annexation has made London one of the largest urban municipalities in Ontario. Intense commercial/residential development is presently occurring in the southwest and northwest areas of the city. Opponents of this development cite urban sprawl and transportation concerns as major issues facing London. The City of London is currently the fifteenth-largest city in Canada and the sixth-largest city in Ontario.

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