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Westboro

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The former Nepean Town Hall on Richmond Road in Westboro, built in 1896.
Photo: P199, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Fast Facts

  • Population: 20,212 (City of Ottawa Neighbourhood Study (sum of the two combined boundaries))
  • Size: 5.86 km² (Computed from the combined City of Ottawa Neighbourhood Study boundary polygons)
  • Distance from Parliament Hill: About 5.5 km west (straight-line distance)

Overview

Westboro is a trendy inner-west Ottawa neighbourhood along the Richmond Road corridor, known for its outdoor-gear and boutique retail strip, its beach on the Ottawa River, and its origins as the streetcar-era village of Skead's Mills. The Richmond Road post office was renamed Westboro in 1899, and the area has transformed since the 1990s and 2000s from a modest streetcar suburb into one of Ottawa's most popular shopping and dining districts.

Boundaries

The City of Ottawa Neighbourhood Study covers this area with two separate boundaries, merged here: Westboro proper, closer to the Ottawa River and Westboro Beach, and Laurentian to the south, taking in most of the Richmond Road commercial strip and several schools.

Map

History

Westboro's origins trace to ribbon development along Richmond Road in the mid-1800s. All Saints Anglican Church was built in 1865, and a post office named Skead's Mills opened in 1874, after Senator James Skead, a lumber baron who built a mill near present-day Westboro Beach in 1869. The post office was renamed Westboro in 1899.

An Ottawa Electric Railway streetcar line began running through the area in 1900, along the route now preserved as the Byron Avenue linear park, spurring the area's growth from cottage community to suburb. Westboro held police-village status from the early 1900s until its annexation by the City of Ottawa around mid-century.

Mid-20th-century Westboro was a modest streetcar-suburb retail strip. Since the 1990s and 2000s, Richmond Road has been rebranded into an outdoor-recreation and boutique shopping district, anchored by outdoor-gear retailers, and is now one of Ottawa's most popular independent shopping corridors.

Maplelawn Garden, at 529 Richmond Road, is a National Historic Site centred on a country estate built between 1831 and 1834 for farmer William Thomson, predating most of the surrounding neighbourhood by decades.

Claim to Fame

Westboro's defining feature is the Richmond Road retail corridor, transformed since the 1990s and 2000s into one of Ottawa's best-known outdoor-gear and boutique shopping districts, alongside Westboro Beach on the Ottawa River.

Surrounding Neighbourhoods

Wellington West-Hintonburg-Mechanicsville lies east, Civic Hospital-McKellar Heights lies southeast, and the Ottawa River forms the neighbourhood's northern edge.

New Developments

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Architecture

Westboro's residential streets retain early-20th-century streetcar-suburb housing alongside newer condominium and high-rise development along Richmond Road, while the retail strip itself mixes low-rise heritage storefronts with more recent commercial buildings.

Restaurants

  • Aahar The Taste of India — Indian

    Indian restaurant at 727 Churchill Avenue North.

    Visit website
  • Karara - The Indian Takeout — Indian

    Indian takeout restaurant at 356 Richmond Road.

    Visit website
  • Lexington Smokehouse & Bar — Barbecue

    Barbecue restaurant and bar at 344 Richmond Road.

    Visit website

Bars

  • The Clocktower Brew Pub — Brewpub

    Brewpub at 418 Richmond Road, part of Ottawa's Clocktower Brew Pub chain.

  • Churchill's Pub — Pub

    Pub at 356 Richmond Road.

Grocery Stores

  • Real Canadian Superstore — Supermarket

    Large supermarket at 190 Richmond Road.

  • Natural Food Pantry — Health food store

    Health food and natural grocery store at 205 Richmond Road.

    Visit website

Pedestrian and Cycling

The Byron Avenue linear park, built along a former streetcar right-of-way, provides a car-free walking and cycling route through the neighbourhood, connecting to the National Capital Commission's riverside pathway network at Westboro Beach.

Schools

  • Broadview Public School — Ottawa-Carleton District School Board

    Elementary school at 535 Dovercourt Avenue.

    Visit website
  • Churchill Alternative School — Ottawa-Carleton District School Board

    Alternative elementary school at 345 Ravenhill Avenue East.

    Visit website

Amenities

Transit Options

OC Transpo bus routes run along Richmond Road and Byron Avenue. The neighbourhood does not have its own O-Train station. Check octranspo.com for current route numbers, since the network is periodically redesigned.

Nearby on This Site

No listings yet in this area.

Official Information

Last verified: August 27, 2026