Live in Queensway Terrace
Two Campeau-era subdivisions cut in half by the Queensway, with O-Train platforms going in at both ends and a dead shopping mall between them approved for towers of up to forty-five storeys.
Queensway Terrace is a single post-war subdivision that a highway turned into two. The Campeau Corporation bought 114 acres of the Arkell farm on Pinecrest Road in 1956 and had it subdivided by 1958, putting single-family houses on more than three hundred lots north of the Canadian National line: long, low, red brick, picture windows, carports. When the Queensway was built along that rail corridor the northern half was severed from the streets laid out on the south side in the early 1960s, and the two halves have been Queensway Terrace North and Queensway Terrace South ever since. What is happening now is the reverse of that severance. Lincoln Fields, the transitway hub that opened in 1982 and closed in 2020, is being rebuilt as the only O-Train station in the city with three train platforms, and the shopping centre beside it, dead since October 2019, carries a secondary plan Council approved in November 2024 that allows one building of forty-five storeys and ten more between nine and forty. A neighbourhood of 1950s bungalows is about to have a district built on its doorstep, and nobody yet knows how that lands.
A subdivision a highway split in two, about to be rejoined by rail
Queensway Terrace North sits between Carling Avenue to the north, Pinecrest Road to the west, Highway 417 to the south and the Transitway to the east; Queensway Terrace South sits directly across the highway, between Highway 417, Baseline Road, Southwood Drive and Greenbank Road. The Ottawa Neighbourhood Study unit is much wider than either name. This guide covers Whitehaven – Queensway Terrace North (106), which reaches east to Woodroffe Avenue and takes in Whitehaven, and Iris – Queensway Terrace South (54), which runs from Highway 417 down to Baseline and takes in Kenson Park, Parkway Park, Pinecrest Terrace, Ridgeview, Redwood and Qualicum. The 17,438 residents counted here are those two ONS neighbourhoods together, not the two subdivisions the guide is named for.
In 1956 the Campeau Corporation bought 114 acres of the Arkell farm on Pinecrest Road, and by 1958 it was subdivided. Robert Campeau's firm put houses on more than three hundred lots north of the Canadian National line: long, low, red brick, picture windows, a carport. The lots were generous and many have since been split. South of the tracks the same decade produced Queensway Terrace South, Ridgeview, Parkway Park, Redwood and Qualicum, and east of it, on farmland people still call the Fox Farm, Whitehaven filled in. Then, in 1967, Highway 417 was built along the rail corridor and cut the whole thing in half. Two community associations, two school catchments and two housing markets date from that year.
What the name covers, and what the number covers. The two subdivisions held 4,800 people between them in 2021. The figure at the top of this page, 17,438, is the Ottawa Neighbourhood Study's: Whitehaven with Queensway Terrace North, Iris with Queensway Terrace South, reaching east to Woodroffe and south to Baseline and taking in the 1970s apartment towers along Carling. The ONS is the only published neighbourhood tier Ottawa has, and out here it is far wider than the local names. Both figures are honest, and neither is measuring what the other measures.
The thing that decides it is Lincoln Fields. The station opened in 1982 as the western hub of the Transitway, and for nearly forty years every bus out of Kanata, Barrhaven and Bells Corners passed through it. Walmart left the mall beside it for Bayshore in 2016, the mall closed in October 2019, and the station closed in 2020 to be rebuilt. What comes back is the only station on the network with three train platforms: Line 1 east to downtown and southwest to Algonquin, Line 3 west to Moodie. Iris station is eight hundred metres away. The expectation is 2027, and that date has moved.
What is coming with it. On 26 November 2024 Council approved the Lincoln Fields Station Secondary Plan, which permits up to 45 storeys on the mall site and ten further buildings between nine and forty, stepping down towards Edgeworth Avenue. The Woodpark Community Association argued that 24 storeys on a street of low-rise houses was too much, and that nobody had studied whether the local water and sewer mains could carry it. Both things are true at once here: you are buying a 1958 bungalow, and a front seat at a district built from nothing over twenty-five years.
The honest version. This has never been a destination neighbourhood and it is not one now. No high street, retail that is IKEA and two regional malls, and real traffic on the streets nearest Pinecrest and Carling. What it has is position: Britannia Beach and Mud Lake within a walk, Algonquin College three kilometres off, the Queensway Carleton hospital eight minutes out, rail at both ends. Ontario freezes assessments at 2016 values, so Ottawa's published tax rate is levied against a decade-old valuation rather than a market price, and the province takes its land transfer tax at closing with no municipal one on top.
- The extension is expected in 2027, and that date has moved. Check it before you price it in
- Iris station is about 800 m away; Lincoln Fields, at 1.6 km, is the Line 1 to Line 3 transfer
- The November 2024 secondary plan allows 45 storeys on the mall site. Check where your street sits
- The 17,438 figure is the two ONS units; the subdivisions themselves held 4,800 in 2021
- Most detached stock dates from 1956 to 1967. Price the windows, wiring and furnace age
- Lots were large and many severed. Check the survey, not the streetscape
How Queensway Terrace got here
- Before 1950Farmland in Nepean Township, ten kilometres west of Parliament Hill. Two farms give the neighbourhood its two halves: the Arkell farm on Pinecrest Road, and the property remembered locally as the Fox Farm, on what is now Whitehaven.
- 1956–1958The Campeau Corporation buys 114 acres of the Arkell farm and subdivides it north of the Canadian National tracks. Robert Campeau's firm completes single-family houses on over 300 lots: mid-century modern detached brick, long and low, with picture windows and attached garages or carports. The lots were large by later standards, and many have been split since.
- 1950s–1960sWhitehaven is built out east of the new subdivision, on farmland remembered as the Fox Farm, and the streets on the south side of the tracks go in during the early 1960s alongside Ridgeview, Parkway Park, Redwood and Qualicum.
- 1967Highway 417 is completed along the rail corridor, and Queensway Terrace becomes Queensway Terrace North and Queensway Terrace South. The two halves have separate community associations, separate school catchments and, from here on, separate housing markets.
- 1970sThe apartment towers arrive. The large rental buildings along Carling and around Pinecrest are added to a neighbourhood that had been almost entirely detached, and they are the reason the ONS population is nearly four times the two subdivisions themselves.
- 1982Lincoln Fields station opens at Carling, and becomes the main western hub of the Transitway. For nearly forty years every bus from Kanata, Barrhaven and Bells Corners passes through it.
- 2016–2019Walmart leaves Lincoln Fields Shopping Centre for Bayshore in 2016, and the mall closes in October 2019 with little left trading but a Metro and a pharmacy. Lincoln Fields station follows in 2020, closing for the rail rebuild.
- 2024–2027Council approves the Lincoln Fields Station Secondary Plan on 26 November 2024, allowing up to 45 storeys on the mall site and a graded step down towards Edgeworth Avenue that the Woodpark Community Association argued was still too tall. The rebuilt station, the only one on the network with three train platforms, is expected to open with the western extension in 2027.
The best urban birding in Ottawa is a walk from here
The open space here is arranged in rings. Inside the neighbourhood are Frank Ryan Park and Elmhurst Woods, carrying the sports fields, the winter rink and wooded paths that link to the National Capital Commission pathways. North of Carling the land runs down to the Ottawa River: Britannia Beach, supervised through the summer, and beside it the Britannia Conservation Area, which everyone calls Mud Lake. A shallow lake, a ridge trail, and the best urban birding in the city. Further west is Andrew Haydon Park, and beyond that the Greenbelt and Stony Swamp.
What the map does not show: the riverside pathway is the underrated part. It runs unbroken from Britannia to downtown, which makes a bicycle the fastest way out of here in summer. What the rings do not include is a village green. No high street, no square, and a shopping mall as the social centre for fifty years, which is the gap the Lincoln Fields plan says it will fill.
Elsewhere in Ottawa, not Queensway Terrace
21 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 21 places, nearest first.
Method: distances and drive times are computed from a representative point between the two halves of the neighbourhood, using straight-line distance multiplied by a road factor and a tiered speed model. Honest ranges, not routed times. Iris and Lincoln Fields stations are still building sites, so those figures describe reaching the site, not a service you can use today.
Every gym within reach
There is no municipal recreation complex inside the neighbourhood, which is the honest starting point. The nearest City pool and gymnasium are at the Bayshore Community Centre, five to eight minutes west. The deepest programme list in the west end belongs to Dovercourt Recreation Centre in Westboro, a non-profit that prices its membership separately from the City's, and the Nepean Sportsplex carries the arenas, the pools and the indoor track.
- Bayshore Community Centre is the closest City pool and gymnasium, about 2.6 km west
- Dovercourt is a non-profit, not municipal pricing, and its autumn registration fills quickly
- Commercial gyms cluster in the Bayshore and Carlingwood plazas rather than on the residential streets
| Facility | What it is | Drive |
|---|---|---|
| Bayshore Community Centre open | The City centre inside Accora Village on Woodridge Crescent, with a gymnasium and a pool at municipal prices. The nearest public indoor pool to most of Queensway Terrace. | 5–8 min |
| Dovercourt Recreation Centre open | The non-profit centre on Dovercourt Avenue in Westboro: a pool, a gymnasium, a fitness floor and the largest children's programme list in the west end. It is not a City facility, so the membership is priced separately from the City's. | 8–11 min |
| Nepean Sportsplex open | The City's multiplex on Woodroffe at Hunt Club: arenas, two pools, a track, a gymnasium and a fitness centre. The default booking for anything the smaller west-end centres cannot hold. | 10–15 min |
| Mud Lake open | The free option. The Britannia Conservation Area's ridge and lake trails run year round, are dry underfoot most of the year, and are a half-hour walk from the north end of the neighbourhood. | 5–8 min |
The free option is Mud Lake. The ridge and lake trails at the Britannia Conservation Area run year round and are a half-hour walk from the north half of the neighbourhood, and the river pathway beside them is flat and cleared in winter.
The catchment secondary is inside the neighbourhood
Woodroffe High School on Georgina Drive sits inside the Whitehaven half of the neighbourhood rather than a bus ride away, and draws from Pinecrest and D. Roy Kennedy among others. Severn Avenue Public School is the elementary on the north side, with a French immersion stream, and Pinecrest Public School serves the south. The Catholic elementary is St. Rose of Lima in Bayshore.
| School | Board | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Woodroffe High School | OCDSB | The catchment secondary, at 2410 Georgina Drive inside the Whitehaven half of the neighbourhood rather than a bus ride away. Pinecrest and D. Roy Kennedy are among its feeder schools. |
| Severn Avenue Public School | OCDSB | The elementary in Queensway Terrace North, with a French immersion stream and an English partner arrangement with Woodroffe Avenue Public School. |
| Pinecrest Public School | OCDSB | The elementary on the south side of the Queensway, and one of Woodroffe High School's feeder schools. |
| St. Rose of Lima School | OCSB | The Catholic elementary a few minutes west in Bayshore, kindergarten to grade 6 with English and French immersion streams. It was formerly Bayshore Catholic School. |
| Collège catholique Franco-Ouest | CECCE | The French-language Catholic secondary at 411 Seyton Drive in Bells Corners, grades 7 to 12, with an International Baccalaureate programme. It is the French Catholic secondary for the whole west end. |
| École secondaire publique Omer-Deslauriers | CEPEO | The French-language public secondary at 159 Chesterton Drive in Nepean, grades 7 to 12. French public schooling in the west end is thin, and this is the closest option. |
French-language schooling is the thin part. The French Catholic secondary for the whole west end is Collège catholique Franco-Ouest in Bells Corners, grades 7 to 12 with an International Baccalaureate programme, and the French public secondary is Omer-Deslauriers in Nepean. Confirm the current catchment for a specific address with the board before you buy, because the lines on both sides of the Queensway have been redrawn as the apartment stock grew.
Month by month, what living here looks like
Not a highlights reel: the actual annual rhythm, including the dates residents have to remember.
- The Transitway detour is at its worst: with Lincoln Fields closed, west-end buses run on surface streets and a snow morning shows it
- Carling and Pinecrest are arterials and get cleared first; the crescents inside the subdivisions wait
- Mud Lake's ridge trail is packed down within a week of the first real snow and stays walkable all month
- The coldest stretch of the year, and the month that decides whether a 1958 bungalow has had its windows done
- Outdoor rinks run at Frank Ryan Park and the smaller neighbourhood parks when the cold holds
- The groomed ski trails in Stony Swamp are a quarter of an hour away
- The Ottawa River comes up at Britannia and Andrew Haydon, and the pathway floods in the usual places
- March break, and the Bayshore and Carlingwood food courts fill up
- Potholes on Pinecrest and Baseline, which carry more truck traffic than they look like they should
- Migration at Mud Lake, which is why people drive across the city to a pond in Britannia
- Construction restarts on the rail extension, and the Carling detours come back with it
- Yard work on lots that were subdivided decades ago, which is why the tree cover here changes street by street
- Andrew Haydon Park's ponds and paths come back into use and the bandshell season starts
- The riverside pathway is continuous from Britannia to downtown, and it is the fastest bicycle commute out of this neighbourhood
- Garage sale season across the north half, which is the honest way to see what a Campeau bungalow looks like inside
- Sunset near 8:50pm, and Britannia Beach is usable after work
- School ends, and the morning queues around Woodroffe High and Severn Avenue disappear
- Community association meetings on the Lincoln Fields plan, which is the local argument that has not stopped since 2022
- Britannia Beach is supervised through the summer and is the closest swimming to the neighbourhood
- Humidex days in the thirties, and the older apartment towers along Carling are the buildings that feel them
- The Queensway is quiet enough that a downtown drive actually matches the free-flow estimate
- The month a 1958 house tells you whether its air conditioning was sized for the addition someone put on it
- Blue-green algae advisories occasionally close Britannia Beach; the City posts the water testing daily
- Back-to-school traffic returns on Pinecrest in the last week
- Algonquin College's term starts three kilometres away and the buses along Baseline fill up
- The best cycling weeks of the year on the river pathway
- Autumn registration at Dovercourt and the Nepean Sportsplex, both of which sell out quickly
- Mud Lake and the Britannia ridge are at their best, and the parking at the trailhead fills by nine
- First frost, usually in the first half of the month
- Leaf collection, and the reminder that the mature trees are on the older Whitehaven streets rather than the newer infill
- Dark by half past four, and the walk from a Carling bus stop is the part of the commute people complain about
- The overnight winter parking ban starts, which matters to the apartment blocks far more than to the houses
- Snow tires, and on Pinecrest Road they are not optional
- Bayshore's car park becomes the argument for shopping at Carlingwood instead
- Outdoor rinks go in at Frank Ryan Park and the smaller parks once the cold holds
- The first serious storm, and the first test of whether your street is on an early plough route
1 more photograph of the community and its surroundings
All freely licensed, via Wikimedia Commons. Filter by category.
Showing 1–1 of 1 photographs.
About these photographs. Openly licensed images geotagged in or near Queensway Terrace, 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.