Live in Carlington
Two thousand wartime houses on the hill between Carling Avenue and the Experimental Farm, cheaper than anything else this close to downtown, and now the site of the largest redevelopment on Ottawa's west side.
Carlington is a hill, a reservoir and about two thousand small houses built for men coming home from the Second World War. Settlement began in the early 1920s, but the neighbourhood as it stands was laid out in the late 1940s on the rise above Carling Avenue, and the street names have never let anyone forget why: Viscount, Admiral, General. The hill itself was quarried for limestone, then capped by the Carlington Heights Reservoir and Pump Station, which still supplies roughly a third of the city's drinking water, and between 1965 and 1990 it carried the Anne Heggtveit ski hill, the only lift-served skiing inside the city. What has changed since is at the edges rather than in the middle. The Royal Ottawa Mental Health Centre rebuilt itself at 1145 Carling in 2006 as Canada's first public-private-partnership hospital; Ottawa Community Housing and the Carlington Community Health Centre put 42 seniors' homes over a health clinic at Coldrey Avenue in 2019; and Westgate, which opened on Carling in 1955 as Ottawa's first shopping centre, closed at the end of October 2025 and came down in the spring of 2026, with five towers and 1,146 homes approved to replace it over the next fifteen to twenty years. The counts disagree about how many people live here. The Ottawa Neighbourhood Study's Gen 2 estimate is 10,099; the 2016 census counted 11,363 over the same 3.26 square kilometres.
Houses built for men coming home from the war, on a hill that used to be a ski resort
Bounded by Clyde Avenue to the west, Carling Avenue and the Queensway to the north, Fisher Avenue to the east and the Central Experimental Farm pathway to the south, in River Ward. Merivale Road runs through the middle and is the neighbourhood's commercial street. The Ottawa Neighbourhood Study's Gen 2 boundary for Carlington covers substantially the same ground, running from Carling Avenue south towards Baseline Road, and this guide's point is its area-weighted centre.
Settlement started here in the early 1920s, but the neighbourhood was made in the late 1940s, when about 2,000 houses went up for men coming home from the war. They are still called war homes and they are still most of the stock: small, plainly built, on a grid of streets called Viscount, Admiral and General. Behind them is the hill, quarried for the limestone that went into cement and now capped by the Carlington Heights Reservoir and Pump Station, which supplies roughly a third of the city's drinking water. From 1965 to 1990 the same slope carried the Anne Heggtveit ski hill, named for the skier who won Canada's first Olympic alpine gold. It ran twenty-five seasons, closed after 1990, and is now an approved City sledding hill.
What a buyer is choosing here is price. This is cheap ground for how close it is to downtown, and the reason is the housing: postwar bungalows and semis on small lots, many never renovated past the 1970s, alongside a large amount of social and non-profit housing. Carlington gets called an area in transition often enough that the phrase has stopped meaning anything. The concrete version is that the interior streets are quiet and low-traffic while Merivale Road and Carling Avenue either side are not, and that W. E. Gowling and Saint Elizabeth are both inside the neighbourhood.
The edges are being rebuilt, and that is the story to watch. Westgate, which opened on Carling in 1955 as Ottawa's first shopping centre, lost its last tenants except the pharmacy on 31 October 2025 and came down between April and June 2026. RioCan is approved for five towers, 1,146 homes and 8,230 square metres of commercial space in three phases over fifteen to twenty years. Along the same road, the Royal Ottawa Mental Health Centre rebuilt itself at 1145 Carling in October 2006 as an eight-storey, 284-bed hospital and the first P3 hospital procured in Canada, and at 1291 Coldrey Avenue in February 2019 Ottawa Community Housing put 42 homes for low-income seniors above the Carlington Community Health Centre, twelve of them barrier-free. Housing over a clinic is rare anywhere in Ottawa.
What is not settled. The population is not agreed: the Ottawa Neighbourhood Study estimates 10,099 and the 2016 census counted 11,363 over the same 3.26 square kilometres. The redevelopment has no completion date anyone should plan around, and for the next several years the Carling frontage is a construction site while the shopping it replaced has already gone. Ottawa taxes property against an assessment frozen at 1 January 2016, so the published rate of about 1.26% overstates the bill on a market price by roughly half: use 0.83% of market value instead.
- War homes date from the late 1940s: check wiring, insulation, the panel and whether the basement has ever been dry
- Westgate is gone and Carlingwood is now the nearest enclosed mall; the replacement runs fifteen to twenty years
- Merivale and Carling carry the traffic and the noise, and the interior grid genuinely does not
- Carlington Hill is fenced at the crest because the reservoir is up there, so the sledding run is shorter than it looks
- Rapid transit is a bus and a change: Bayview is the nearest place the two rail lines meet
- Use roughly 0.83% of market value for property tax, not the published rate against the frozen 2016 assessment
How Carlington got here
- Early 1920sSettlement begins on the high ground south of Carling Avenue, on land quarried in part for the limestone that went into cement.
- Late 1940sAbout two thousand houses go up for returning veterans, small and plainly built, on a grid of streets named Viscount, Admiral and General. They are still called war homes here, and they are still most of the housing stock.
- 12 May 1955Westgate Shopping Centre opens at 1309 Carling Avenue with Freiman's as its anchor, parking for more than 1,200 cars and music piped through the stores. It is considered Ottawa's first shopping centre, and for two generations it is where Carlington shops.
- 9 December 1965The Anne Heggtveit ski hill opens on Carlington Hill after five years of construction, named for the skier who won Canada's first Olympic alpine gold. It is the only lift-served hill inside the city.
- 1990The 1989 to 1990 season is the hill's last, after twenty-five years. The tows come out and the slope becomes what it is now, an approved City sledding hill that draws hundreds of people on a good snow day.
- October 2006The Royal Ottawa Mental Health Centre reopens at 1145 Carling Avenue: an eight-storey, 284-bed teaching hospital of about 400,000 square feet, built for $143 million as the first public-private-partnership hospital procured in Canada.
- February 2019Ottawa Community Housing and the Carlington Community Health Centre open a four-storey building at 1291 Coldrey Avenue with 42 homes for low-income seniors above the clinic, twelve of them barrier-free, on what had mostly been a car park. Primary care and housing in one address is unusual anywhere in the city.
- 2025 to 2026Westgate's remaining tenants except the pharmacy close on 31 October 2025 and demolition runs from April to June 2026. RioCan is approved for a phased replacement: five towers, 8,230 square metres of commercial space, 1,146 homes and a central green, over fifteen to twenty years. The City funds an $8-million expansion of the Alexander Community Centre in the same budget year.
A quarry, a water tank and a decommissioned ski hill, all in one park
Carlington Park is the neighbourhood's open space and it is an odd one: ball diamonds and sports fields at the bottom, a steep grass slope in the middle where the ski tows used to run, and the Carlington Heights Reservoir fenced off on top. The southern boundary is the Central Experimental Farm pathway, which is a flat, continuous cycling and running route to Dow's Lake in one direction and Hog's Back in the other. North of Carling, Hampton Park adds a ravine and an off-leash area, and Westboro Beach is seven minutes further for the nearest supervised swimming.
What the map does not show: the hill is the best thing here. It is the only real elevation inside the Greenbelt, the view from below the reservoir fence covers most of the west end, and it fills with children within a day of the first snow. What it is not is a groomed facility: no lift, no lighting, no snowmaking, and the City approves it for sledding rather than operating it.
Elsewhere in Ottawa, not Carlington
22 places, with real drive times
Road-adjusted distance and drive time from the centre of the community to each destination, nearest first. Filter by category.
Showing 1–12 of 22 places, nearest first.
Method: distances and drive times are estimated from the Ottawa Neighbourhood Study's area-weighted centre for Carlington, near the hill, using straight-line distance multiplied by a road factor and a tiered speed model: honest ranges, not routed times. Nothing here is a rail commute, and the bus trips that matter are slower in practice than the drive column suggests.
Every gym within reach
The neighbourhood's own facility is the Alexander Community Centre at 960 Silver Street, which has been small for a long time and is about to stop being: the City funded an $8-million expansion in the 2026 budget, adding a 6,243-square-foot gymnasium about three times the size of the current one and converting the existing gym into community space. For a pool, the nearest option is Dovercourt in Westboro.
- A hall, programme rooms and a small gymnasium, with the expansion funded through the 2026 City budget
- Dovercourt Recreation Centre in Westboro is the nearest 25-metre pool and sells public memberships
- Churchill Seniors Recreation Centre on Richmond Road runs the older-adult programme for this side of town
- Carleton's 50-metre pool and fitness centre are ten minutes away across the Farm and take public members
| Facility | What it is | Drive |
|---|---|---|
| Alexander Community Centre open | 960 Silver Street: the neighbourhood's own City centre, with a hall, programme rooms and a small gymnasium. The City funded an $8-million expansion in the 2026 budget that adds a 6,243-square-foot gymnasium, about three times the size of the current one, and converts the existing gym into community space. It is in detailed design. | 3–5 min |
| Carlington Park and the old ski hill open | Not a gym. Ball diamonds and fields at the bottom, a steep grass slope in the middle and the reservoir on top. Approved for sledding in winter, and the closest thing to a hill workout inside the Greenbelt. | 3–4 min |
| Dovercourt Recreation Centre open | The non-profit centre on Dovercourt Avenue in Westboro, with a 25-metre pool, a fitness centre and courts. Public memberships, and the nearest indoor pool worth planning a week around. | 6–8 min |
| Churchill Seniors Recreation Centre open | The City's older-adult centre on Richmond Road, with fitness classes and courses on a membership aimed at people over 55. Worth knowing about here, where the newest housing built in the neighbourhood is seniors' housing. | 6–8 min |
The free option is the hill. A loop from the fields at the bottom to the reservoir fence and back is the only real climb inside the Greenbelt, and the Farm pathway along the southern boundary runs flat and uninterrupted from there to Dow's Lake.
Two boards inside the neighbourhood, which is unusual at this price
W. E. Gowling Public School at 250 Anna Avenue and Saint Elizabeth School are both inside Carlington, so most streets here can choose between the English public and English Catholic boards on foot. Grades 7 and 8 go north to Fisher Park on Holland Avenue, which carries English, French immersion and gifted immersion streams alongside the Summit alternative programme. For French, the CEPEO secondary is Omer-Deslauriers on Chesterton Drive, a few minutes west, and the nearest CECCE elementary is Saint-François-d'Assise on Melrose Avenue, which is a bus rather than a walk.
| School | Board | Note |
|---|---|---|
| W. E. Gowling Public School | OCDSB | 250 Anna Avenue, inside the neighbourhood. The English public elementary most Carlington children walk to, and one of the few schools here that is a walk rather than a bus. |
| Saint Elizabeth School | OCSB | The English Catholic elementary in the neighbourhood, and the Catholic half of a two-board arrangement that most streets here can choose between on foot. |
| Fisher Park Public School and Summit Alternative | OCDSB | 250 Holland Avenue, north of Carling. Grades 7 and 8 with English, French immersion and gifted immersion streams, sharing a building with the Summit alternative programme. |
| École secondaire publique Omer-Deslauriers | CEPEO | 159 promenade Chesterton, a few minutes west. The French public secondary for this side of the city, admitting on the board's attendance area rather than a municipal catchment. |
| École élémentaire catholique Saint-François-d'Assise | CECCE | 35 avenue Melrose in Hintonburg, over the Queensway. The nearest French Catholic elementary, and a drive or a bus rather than a walk from here. |
| Algonquin College | Post-secondary | The Woodroffe campus, straight down Baseline Road, and the closest large post-secondary institution to the neighbourhood. |
Having both English boards represented inside a neighbourhood this small is genuinely unusual, and it is worth more to a family here than the equivalent premium would buy elsewhere. French-language families should expect a commute in at least one direction. Confirm the current catchment for a specific address with the school board before you buy.
Month by month, what living here looks like
Not a highlights reel: the actual annual rhythm, including the dates residents have to remember.
- Carlington Hill is an approved City sledding hill and draws hundreds of people on the first good snow after a thaw
- The reservoir on top means the crest is fenced, so the run is shorter than it looks from Merivale Road
- War homes are small, and a 1948 house with original windows tells you about it on the first cold week
- The coldest fortnight of the year, and the hill is at its fastest and its most crowded
- Merivale Road is salted and plowed early because it is a transit and truck route; the war-home side streets are not
- The Alexander Community Centre carries most of the neighbourhood's indoor winter programming
- The hill turns to mud and gets closed off in patches while the grass recovers
- March break, and the Carlington Community Health Centre's programme calendar changes with it
- Potholes on Merivale and Clyde, which are among the worst-surfaced arterials on this side of the city
- Construction season restarts on Carling Avenue, where the Westgate site came down through April to June 2026
- Hog's Back Falls, twenty minutes away down the Farm pathway, is at its loudest
- The first cycling weeks on the Experimental Farm pathway that forms the southern boundary
- Ball diamonds and sports fields at the bottom of the hill open, and they fill most evenings
- The Tulip Festival at Dow's Lake is a ten-minute drive across the Farm
- The slope dries out and the walk to the reservoir at the top becomes the best short view in the west end
- Sunset near 8:50pm and the sports fields at the bottom of the hill run until the light goes
- Westboro Beach is seven minutes north and is the nearest supervised swimming
- Carling Avenue construction traffic is at its heaviest through the summer
- The war-home streets have a real canopy now, but the Merivale corridor does not, and the difference on a hot afternoon is obvious
- The top of the hill is the best free view in this part of the city and catches whatever breeze there is
- Municipal splash pads and the Alexander Community Centre's summer camps carry the month
- The federal public service empties out and Carling Avenue is briefly driveable at five o'clock
- Peak humidity, and the month a small house without central air is at its least forgiving
- The Farm's fields are at their fullest along the southern pathway
- W. E. Gowling and Saint Elizabeth fill up, and the school-run traffic on the interior streets is short but sharp
- The best cycling weather of the year on the Farm pathway
- Algonquin College's term starts, which is felt on Baseline Road and on the buses
- The slope and the Farm pathway are the reason to walk here in October
- First frost usually lands in the first half of the month
- Leaf collection on narrow war-home streets makes parking briefly difficult
- Dark by half past four, and the month an uninsulated postwar wall shows up on the gas bill
- The overnight winter parking ban begins, and most war homes have a driveway, which is one of the quiet advantages here
- The Royal and the health centre are both at their busiest as the light goes
- The hill is watched all month and the first real snowfall fills it within a day
- Carlingwood carries the neighbourhood's December shopping now that Westgate has gone
- The Carlington Community Health Centre at Coldrey Avenue runs its heaviest weeks of the year
6 more photographs of the community and its surroundings
All freely licensed, via Wikimedia Commons. Filter by category.
Showing 1–6 of 6 photographs.
About these photographs. Openly licensed images geotagged in or near Carlington, found on Wikimedia Commons and served from there with full attribution. Inline photos elsewhere on the page may still come from the site's shared Ottawa library.