Byron: 3rd in a series

This is a duplex. Did you notice that the garage is attached to the neighbouring home?

There is a lot of talk about building tighter, more compact neighbourhoods. This talk is quickly becoming nothing more than background noise as the city planning department has started a move to get everyone onside for the next expansion of London onto surrounding farmland.

We hate sprawl the London city planners tell us. Then they turn around and argue that in order not to sprawl too much, they will sprawl just a little. Don't they understand: Sprawl is sprawl. (Actually they do. They are not stupid, just sneaky.)

Once the public, the ReThink London members, accept a little sprawl, they will be asked to accept just a little more. After some years have passed, the community will look about and realize that it has been bamboozled and a massive amount of new sprawl surrounds the city.

One answer to sprawl is the building of duplexs and the ones in Byron are a good introduction to how to build duplexs that don't shout "duplex."

Byron: 2nd in a series

When I look at this home I see a maturing of the suburban homes I knew back in the '60s. Builders loved big bay windows at that time. The two smaller windows on both sides, called flankers, often open for ventilation. This bay window has a copper roof which has developed a lovely green patina over time.

The shutters are suburban classics: purely decorative. They clearly have no function other than visually framing the upstairs windows as they are too narrow to protect the windows if they actually could be closed. Because of their purely decorative nature, some people in the neighbourhood have removed the faux shutters that once bordered some of their windows. I think this is sad. The original look of the neighbourhood is being lost. These modified homes are being moved visually from the '80s into today.

This front door has sidelights with glass matching that in the door itself. In Byron this glass is usually decorative with a frosted look or stained glass appearance. This makes the large foyers bright but private.

The home has a lovely front porch. Long and sensibly deep, front porches like this are not uncommon in the area and are often used. That said, I have found in my strolling about the area that even smaller, less traditional porches are also often used by residents. I have a porch just barely big enough for two big chairs and a much smaller child's chair. That porch is often in use.

The garage is on the side of the home and not jutting out in front. Until that late '80s in London, this was the common approach. After that, lots became narrower forcing garages to the front. The so called snout house was born. (I hate the term. It sounds insulting. City planners should never use the term.)

The front yard plantings are almost de rigueur in this neighbourhood. A beautifully maintained front lawn seems to be socially obligatory. A well-tended flower garden, a row or two of bushes, a front yard island, all are almost demanded. These beautifully maintained front yards give this lovely area a park like feel which is much enjoyed by walkers. The neighbourhood is a walking destination in itself and its beauty expands the concept of a walkable neighbourhood.

Tomorrow I will post another picture of a Byron home.

Byron: A London, Ontario, subdivision

I love this modern home with a little balcony off what I assume is the master bedroom.

Subdivision is a dirty word in London, Ontario. I don't know why as most Londoners live in a subdivision.

The local paper likes to talk about London subdivisions as if they were the same as Toronto developments. They aren't. For instance, I can drive downtown in 15 minutes or less at almost any time of day. Heck, once I walked home from downtown London on account of late night car trouble.

Byron, where I live, was an independent little place southwest of the city before it was annexed half a century ago. My subdivision was designed and constructed more than thirty years ago by Eadie and Wilcox, a local developer.

There is a small commercial mall in the north end of the development. Farther north is the old, former core of Byron which is still a commercial hub with a grocery store, liquor store, drug store and more. Immediately to the south of the E and W subdivision is a new and rapidly expanding box store like mall. I can easily walk to all three commercial shopping areas

The street layout is classic North American subdivision with lots of crescents and courts mixed in with the roads. Major traffic carrying streets have sidewalks on both sides, minor traffic carrying streets have a sidewalk on one side and cul-de-sacs with low traffic flows have narrow roadways and no sidewalks at all.

The London planning department makes quite a big deal out of some of the older, heritage subdivisions in town. Wortley Village in Old South comes to mind. There is a move to protect the Wortley Village neighbourhood.

I like old as much as the next person. Yet, I find it sad that we ignore the new in favour of the old. I believe we should respect the whole city. The city planners should strive to protect what is good everywhere in the city and try to ensure that commercial spaces are as dense and productive in new subdivisions as in older, heritage ones.

And so, starting to day, I am going to run some pictures of homes in the Eadie and Wilcox developed subdivision in the south west end of London, Ontario.

Canada Day fireworks in London, Ontario

Monday was Canada Day. When I was a boy it was known as Dominion Day. The name changed in 1983. One thing hasn't changed: the fireworks. Almost every community in Canada annually puts on a large fireworks display every July 1st.

Colourful bursts filled the sky at the Forks of the Thames in downtown London, Ontario, while those in the south west of the city enjoyed fireworks at the Optimist Sports Complex. Thousands of Londoners took advantage of the two shows while still more celebrated with small, private displays held in hundreds of backyards throughout the city.

I thought I had a great spot to photograph the display but when the fireworks started, sometimes with two launch sites active at once, I found some of the bursts were marred by the silhouette of a lamp post. (It's right in the middle of this picture. Notice?)

Most hail I have ever seen fall at one time

The storm clouds were impressive last Sunday. My wife an I watched them roll over the city from the back porch of a condo in the north end of London. The biggest and baddest clouds seemed to be passing over south London, our home. (I took a quick picture as soon as we arrived home.)

When we returned home we discovered the ground around our home deep in hail stones. It was simply amazing. In some places the hail was five inches deep.

Many of our plants were destroyed. Our hostas took an especially hard beating. The next day my granddaughter thought the hostas had been attacked by caterpillars - very voracious caterpillars.

I picked up a few samples of the hail and took a quick picture. As you can see, some of the hail was larger in diametre than an American dime. I'm sure some of the hail, not much but some, was as large as a quarter.

Like I said, this was the worst hail storm that I have personally ever experienced.

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It has been a wet spring.

It has been a wet spring but a bit dry photographically. Heart has been acting up, or more accurately my ICD has been acting up. Three shocks in the past month goes a long way to killing my enthusiasm for getting out and shooting daily pictures.

But I see so many good photos on Google+ that I felt downright inspired. I strolled all the way to my front lawn and found this oh-so-wet hosta.

The London area is well known for its fine farmland and successful agriculture. Everyone is praying that the rain dials back the clouds and storms, letting the sun shine through. Summer is just days away and its time to get down to some serious growing.

The asparagus liked the rain but it is almost done. The strawberry patches are just about ready for picking. The berries should be bigger than usual but not as sweet. They will be puffed with water and their flavour diluted. My granddaughter won't care. She'll still love getting out into the pick-your-own fields and filling quart basket after quart basket with the red berries.

Fleetwood Cruize Weekend: come and gone

John heads off in his completely restored Morgan roadster.

Steve Plunkett has again hosted his Fleetwood Cruize event. Plunkett has a large estate in the far west end of London and holds what may be the largest outdoor car show in North America and possibly the world and its held in what may be thought of as his backyard.

The owner of the Morgan spent years restoring his roadster.

The money raised goes to charity and he raises a lot. Plunkett is one cool dude.

The show is just five or ten minutes from my west London home and in past years I have shown my Morgan Plus 4. Not this year.

My heart has been acting up and my ICD has been busy pacing it and shocking it into line. My Morgan is parked for the time being and may be sold.

But my neighbours still got to enjoy the sight of a Morgan, actually two, gracing our suburban streets. Some members of the Morgan Sports Car Club of Canada stopped by to say hello while in the neighbourhood.

Tell me again, Mr. Urban Planner, why shouldn't I like driving?

Graham Arboretum

According to the local paper, the Graham Arboretum has been a feature of Springbank Park since the 1920s but most folk in London are totally unaware of its existence. This isn't all that surprising as an arboretum is simply an assortment of trees and shrubs grown for exhibition or scientific study. Before the present feature, a small gazebo took centre stage here.

The Memory Wall, partially visible on the left, features granite tablets personalized with individual messages. Londoners are using the Memory Wall to honour or remember friends and loved ones with an engraved granite plaque.

Each plaque costs $1,500 with a portion of the money going toward the purchase of new trees. The arboretum was originally conceived by park superintendent Ernie Graham in 1926 and today the collection includes 300 trees encompassing 75 species: Red oak, Serbian spruce, weeping beech, purple beech, an entire magnolia grove . . .

London, ON: World class medical research centre

London, Ontario, likes to think of itself as a world class medical research centre. And you know, it might be true. There is so much puffery surrounding claims made by cities that one has a tenancy to pooh-pooh the claims and write them off as so much hollow bragging. But London has the facilities and the history to back-up their claims of world class status.

I personally have benefited from the solid medical treatment available in London, albeit on an experimental basis. I was the first person in Canada to have a failed mitral valve in the heart repaired robotically.

Think of my operation as open heart surgery but with the accent on "heart surgery" and not on "open." No cracking open the chest for me. All I have to show for my surgery is a small scar  hidden in the fold of skin below my right nipple. (I had to check in a mirror to be sure.) Oh, and I have a repaired mitral valve as well. It's been ten years and the repair is holding.

I also benefited from the research being done by Dr. John White in high powered MRIs. Thanks to Dr. White an error in my genetic code was discovered that explained a runaway heart episode, a V-tach event, that I suffered in the States while on vacation.

After Dr. White's discovery it was clear I was a prime candidate for another V-tack event and possibly sudden death. I now have an ICD and I'm on proper meds to minimize my heart rate problems. I won't live forever but I won't die as soon as I surely would have without the intervention of the London doctors.

Note the name on the building in today's photo: Lindros. On his retirement from hockey, the former NHL star Eric Lindros marked his exit from professional sports with a $5-million donation to London Health Sciences Centre. The gift was the largest known one-time charitable donation from a Canadian sport figure.

Lindros is a native of London, he was born at the London Health Sciences Centre facility. It was probably known as University Hospital at that time. Anyone who follows hockey knows that Lindros had more than his share of injuries suffered during play.

I was at the press conference where he announced his gift and he said one reason for the size of the gift to the hospital was that he credited the excellent health care he was given in London over the years with allowing him to play as long and as successfully as he did.

London's facilities are definitely world class. Don't believe me? Ask Della Reese. This is what Wikipedia says:

"In 1979, after taping a guest spot for The Tonight Show, she suffered a near-fatal brain aneurysm, but made a full recovery after two operations by neurosurgeon Dr. Charles Drake at University Hospital in London, Ontario."

Yes, there's no question. London's has a world class medical centre.

Do wild flowers make a better lawn?

Spring daisies.

Herbicides, at least those for home lawns, are illegal in Ontario. The result has been more dandelions, more daisies and just generally more weeds. Personally, I don't think the result is so bad. My neighbour says we're just going to have to rethink lawns and what makes a good one. Perhaps, in the future, a good lawn will have lots of pretty wild flowers.

Hurry-up and wait, uh, weight

This gentleman was spotted taking a walk for his health in Springbank Park in London, Ontario. To pump-up the benefit, the chap is pumping a couple of small barbells.

Thai Cusine or why folks like their cars

A Thai take on won ton soup.

The little restaurant is simply called Thai Cuisine. The food is fresh, delicious and inexpensive. The restaurant, frequented by Londoners, is in Mt. Brydges — a little town to the west of the big city. It is a drive of about 20 km for many of its London customers.

This soup, with its coconut milk base, is yummy.

It takes me 20 minutes to drive there and it costs me about $1.10 in fuel. Thai Cuisine my be located in another community but thanks to my ownership of a VW Jetta TDI, the cost in time and money to enjoy a meal there is quite reasonable.

Urban planners in London talk a good line about the need for mass transit and they are right but they are only addressing a part of the transportation story. People like to drive when neither their feet nor their local bus will do.

Our urban planners appear to hate the car. If you want to hear about bikes, they are eager to talk but if you want to talk about how to make the car more successful, well, you are barking up the wrong freeway.

I have been to some cities that are heavily dependent on mass transit: Toronto, Paris, New York. Yet, there is a place for the car in all three cities and that place is fraught with attendant problems. That is why Paris is experimenting with the best way to get folk out of their cars — offer them another car. Think autolib', the electric-car sharing scheme being tested in Paris, France. And here is a link to an article: 100,000 rentals!

More links to Thai Cuisine, Mt. Brydges:

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Asparagus growing in suburbia

I took this shot just the other day. Two pounds for $5.00 is a very fair price.

It is asparagus season and the little asparagus farm near my suburban home is open. For just a few short weeks each spring the little farm has freshly-picked asparagus for sale. It is just about the only crop grown on the little plot of land beside a gravel pit and surrounded on every other side by suburban homes.

This asparagus farm is a short walk from my suburban home.

I so hope the family that owns the land continues to farm it well into the future. There is something quite wonderful about strolling from one's home to an asparagus farm. To make everything just that much better, the green stalks are delicious. The asparagus is far better than the stuff in the supermarket shipped in from Peru.

Thousands of trilliums blanket forest floors

There are a number of place in the London area to view the spring spectacle of thousands of trilliums in bloom: Warbler Woods, Meadowlily Woods, and Longwoods Conservation Area west of Delaware.

Warbler Woods is mostly the classic white trilliums. That is where I took my granddaughter Saturday to view the flowers. I understand there are more of the red variety of trilliums to be found on a walk through the Meadowlily area. The last time I was at Longwoods, there were a lot of the green striped white trilliums. The green striped flowers are actually infected with a virus. Eventually the diseased plants will die from the infection but it is a long process.

Pink trilliums are found everywhere as these are simply white blooms showing their age.

The trillium is the official provincial flower and often appears on government stuff in a number of stylized forms. 

There is a myth that it is illegal to pick a trillium. It isn't. That said, it is often illegal to pick any flower on land that is not your own. This rule goes double for provincial parks and for the many conservation areas that dot the province.

Years ago my daughter picked some trilliums that were growing on the land beside a  nearby gravel pit. The land was soon to be savagely disturbed by a bulldozer clearing the land for commercial purposes. It was not illegal for the gravel pit owner to rip out hundreds of trilliums growing on his land and I'm sure he did not mind my daughter rescuing a few.

Fiona, my granddaughter, loved her "first walk in the woods." She asked for my camera and took a few pictures to remember the day. She got a nice shot for a three-year-old. See below:

Photographer: Fiona Blair (three-years-old)

I love it when Fiona drops to her knees to find a better angle. It is so cute to see a little three-year-old with more sophisticated photography skills than shooters ten times her age. I'm quite impressed with the enthusiasm for life shown by little kids. We could all learn from the little tykes.

Warbler Woods, more than trilliums: mushrooms!

My wife and I took our granddaughter for a walk in Warbler Woods yesterday. My wife and I thought it would be nice to show her the thousands and thousands of trilliums that blanket the forest floor at this time of year. The trillium is the provincial flower. Tomorrow I will post a photo of the flowers but today I will post a picture of something my granddaughter discovered — mushrooms. She discovered that damp forest floors contain "yots and yots" of different mushrooms — all very exciting to a three-year-old.

Sprawl: What exactly is sprawl

Saying this neighbourhood sprawls does not seem accurate.

Urban planners like to toss about the word "sprawl" to describe suburban living. Yes, the new homes are being built on former farmland. And yes, someday we may miss that farmland. But, maybe a good argument could be made that there is no more sprawl to be found in suburbia today than went down a hundred years ago in the older downtown neighbourhoods.

I used Google map, satellite view to compare housing density in the old neighbourhoods of London and the new suburban ones. The neighbourhoods that I compared indicated that there is no more sprawl today than in the past.

In fact, in some cases it appears the old neighbourhoods with their huge back yards, big front yards, laneways and wide streets don't seem to be anywhere near as densely built as many newer suburban neighbourhoods.

Clearly, if we are to save our farmland and halt the expansion of our cities, we have to do more than attack sprawl.

For some perspective on the problem, consider this:

Between 1971 and 2011, urbanization consumed an area of farmland almost three times the size of Prince Edward Island. By 2001, about half of Canada’s urbanized land was located on the country’s “most productive farmland,” according to Statistics Canada.

—  source: NDACT 

A Jane magnolia?

I'm believe this is a Jane magnolia tree bloom on a tree in my backyard.

My wife wanted a magnolia tree. We bought one. We planted it on our hill. It died. We bought another. Planted it on our hill. It too died. Finally we bought one that promised not to grow too big. This one would fit in our small backyard without reaching either the roof of our home or the steep slope at the back of the yard.

It's a beautiful tree. It has lasted a number of years. It has survived both summers, dry, and winters, cold. But the blooms are not quite what we envisioned. The flowers are long, thin, magenta pedals that spread out from a core in an almost loose star shape.

Thanks to the Internet, I think I've figured out what we have. It's a Jane magnolia. A member of the "Little Girl" group of hybrid magnolias, it promises to remain smallish. Some call the Jane magnolia, developed in the mid '50s at the U.S. National Arboretum, a shrub rather than a tree.

The Jane magnolia blooms later in spring than many other magnolia varieties and this is good for a tree in London, Ontario. This late blooming lessens the risk that it will lose its flower buds to frost damage.

With luck our tree/shrub will not get taller than 15-feet or less and its spread may not be more than six-feet in any direction. It sounds perfect.

For London, this is a dense development

Just driving by this area one might be tempted to call this a snout nosed subdivision. In my opinion, that would be wrong. These are examples of the garage forward look. There is a difference. One, the snout, is a subset of the other, the garage forward.

Think of the old dictum form follows function dictum.This style of housing offers short driveways, no laneway behind the home to be cleared in winter and ample parking inside the garage and on the driveway. This is a very functional design. It is no wonder it is popular with new home buyers.

These homes are placed well forward on relatively narrow lots. Many of the homes have small, but covered, porches. Critics, who think a porch must wrap around a home on a least two sides, would not be satisfied. I say, "Forget the critics." The look is good and one stays dry while looking for the house keys in wet weather.

If you look carefully, you will see a young woman sitting on the top step of the second home in on the right. I also saw people sitting on their little front lawns. It is a pleasant and inviting neighbourhood. I'm not surprised folk like to sit outside, enjoy the evening, and greet their neighbours as the stroll by.

Critics don't know walkable

Many new subdivisions are pleasant places for an evening stroll.

Today was possibly the warmest day of year. It hit at least 22-degrees centigrade. Nice.

I live in a rapidly expanding area of London. New homes are springing up like proverbial weeds. Originally the area where this picture was taken was going to be London's first foray into new urbanism. The plan collapsed.

The little community centre with traditional shopping, that the local paper had claimed was so important to the area's success, mutated into a common neighbourhood shopping centre. It is just where you'd expect it, at a nearby major intersection. Although one could walk to shop, and some folk do, most people drive. No surprise here, unless you are a believer in new urbanist myths.

Londoners want walkable neighbourhoods and the suburban developments are not answering that need, or so the local paper is always telling its readers. I'm flummoxed. Why do they say such stuff when reality so clearly is proving these claims wrong?

The new neighbourhood streets had lots of people out strolling, enjoying the warm spring evening. Young couples were everywhere, some with children and some without. New streets, new homes, new dreams. A few of the young people living here today will still be living here when they retire, I'd bet on it. This is a neighbourhood.

What the critics don't seem to understand is that give people a safe, clean street, lined with good housing and people will walk. In the short time I was taking pictures, I said hello and got smiles from half a dozen area residents. Yes, this is a neighbourhood, and a good one.

Male grackles fighting

Two male common grackles exhibiting their aggressive nature.

It was quite the battle: fast, vicious and long. Two male grackles pecked, clawed and beat their feathers as they struggled to get the best of the other combatant. No clear idea why these two were going at it but it might have been a dispute over food, they were under a bird feeder stocked with corn — a favourite grackle food. Or, it might have been a mating display. A female was watching from a safe distance.

Is this a good neighbourhood?

Recently a fellow I rather admire, claimed Londoners want condos like the ones shown above. He says they are selling very well — so well that the developer has applied to city council’s planning committee for permission to begin construction of the second phase. This is ahead of schedule.

This building actually looks quite good — better than in my picture, that's for sure. Still, it has a problem, a big problem. Location. It sits on the edge of a highrise jungle that may be the largest, densest grouping of apartment towers in the entire city.

For a more in depth look at this area of London and an introduction to the Palmer Park Historic Apartment District, please click the following link: Maybe ReThink London should remember Detroit.

Neighbours

When I see apartment towers almost in the backyards of nearby homes, I wonder if the home owners knew tall apartment buildings were planned for their neighbourhood. Is this apartment building too close to the one story homes? What do you think?

Cardinals return to southwestern Ontario

It has been a colder and wetter spring than normal but that hasn't stopped birds, like the bright red cardinals, from returning to southwestern Ontario. The nice thing about a spring like this year's is that the buds on the fruit trees are not seduced by warm weather into bursting into flower too early. Last year was a warm spring and the almost inevitable late frost killed the blossoms, just about destroying the fruit crop.

Even mini urban cores losing businesses

The TD Canada Trust in downtown Lambeth has closed.

Some years ago, Lambeth was a separate little town on the south edge of London. It liked to be known as "Lovely Lambeth." Well, the little place isn't quite so little anymore, nor is it as lovely, nor is it an independent little town. It has been annexed into the expanding London urban monolith.

Within walking distance of many Lambeth homes, it still closed.

London's downtown is suffering. And the former commercial core of Lambeth is also suffering, and for some of the same reasons: For example, competition from suburban development is killing the old main street businesses.

London lost a number of its bank branches in the core. As businesses left, I imagine a lot of the commercial business also left.

Driving through Lambeth I noticed that one of the few banks in the town core has closed. It has moved to a suburban outdoor mall a couple of kilometres away.

I wonder what a dying downtown in a real small town says about the new urbanism theories? The Lambeth downtown is located in the middle of an older, grid patterned neighbourhood. The TD Canada Trust bank that has closed was within a short walk of lots of homes, and it had adequate parking at the side. Yet, it closed.

The new bank has a drive-thru but is more than two kilometres distant.

The new Sarnia Rd. Bridge

Yesterday I posted a view from the new Sarnia Rd. bridge. Until recently an heritage bridge built around 1890 in St. James, Manitoba, and relocated to London in 1909, was the span carrying traffic across the CP railway in northwest London.

The new bridge is clean and modern.

The old truss bridge was removed and put into storage, a move heritage groups supported. Pin-connected truss bridges are exceedingly rare in Ontario, yet London has one in storage and another in use — the restored King St. pedestrian bridge in the city core.

If you'd like to know more about the old, single lane iron bridge that until recently spanned the rail line, click on the link, "old truss bridge", above.

Today the crossing is so wide, the approach so long and gently curved, one hardly notices that one is on a bridge crossing the tracks. I miss the old bridge but with all the subdivisions being built in the area, the old bridge had to go.

CP rail line in northwest London

It looks quiet now, but this lone track carries rail traffic 24-hours a day. This is the Canada Pacific  main line in northwest London. Note the arc of an interesting wooden bridge spanning the tracks in the distance.

Heritage gas station has a new life

This heritage gas station on Main Street in Lambeth has seen a number of uses since it ceased pumping gas. Today it is the Jubilee Kafe — a cafe serving gluten free foods.

Stations like this were once common but most have been demolished. This one keeps being reborn but one must wonder how long until it too is history.

Lambeth was once a separate small town but was annexed an is now a part of London.

Time to remove the snow tires.

Londoners are yearning for spring and eager to leave winter behind. The temp hits 10 degrees Centigrade Saturday and the walking trail at Springbank Park was packed. Folks were walking, jogging, cycling and skate boarding along the wide, paved roadway. And not only was the pathway crowded. The playground was filled, the swings and slides all in use.

It is time to remove the snow tires.

A palace worthy of the Roman Catholic Bishops

When I moved to London, I lived in an area once known as Petersville. It was a suburb of London built on the low lying land across the Thames River from London proper.

When I went for a walk about the neighbourhood I would cross the North Branch of the Thames River at the Blackfriars Bridge. Above the large wrought iron span, overlooking the Petersville and Blackfriars neighbourhoods, there was a large and somewhat rundown looking white home with massive columns gracing the front.

I have since learned that the magnificent home was designed by a local architect, William Robinson, and it originally presented a less grandiose appearance. The massive columns were added before the home was donated to the Roman Catholic Church to be used as the new Bishop's Residence.

Reportedly, the donor, John Donally of Buffalo, New York, didn't find the original Italianate look regal enough for the bishops of London.

Today, thanks to some creative thinking, the old home has been converted into four condominiums and the structure may be around for many years to come.

Spring!

The blur in the image is caused by shooting through the kitchen window.

Robins, cardinals, mourning doves: they have all returned. This afternoon my wife and I saw our first chipmunk. I don't think there can be any argument. Despite the snow that still dots the city, I think it's safe to say, "Spring is here!"

Blackfriars Bridge: Hasn't it earned its retirement?

Pedestrian walkway is original, the second railing is a modification.

It's time to put the Blackfriars Bridge out of its misery — and make no mistake about it, the beautiful, heritage structure is suffering. The passing years, 137 to be exact, have taken their toll.

Decorative caps are missing from fasteners on the walkway barrier, original iron bracing is bent and distorted, the structure has been modified for pedestrian safety and overall bridge integrity.

Some decorative caps covering fasteners are missing.

London's Blackfriars Bridge is a bowstring through-truss bridge built in 1875 by the Wrought Iron Bridge Company (WIBC) of Canton, Ohio. With a main span of 225 feet, the bridge in London can brag it sports the longest span of any remaining bowstring truss bridge in North America.

Bowstrings are among the rarest types of truss bridges today but they enjoyed a brief period of popularity from about 1855 into the 1880s.

During that period, thousands of wrought iron bowstring truss bridges were produced by numerous American bridge builders but two Ohio-based manufacturers stand out: WIBC of Canton and King Iron Bridge, King Manufacturing Company, Cleveland. The bowstring was the most commonly erected all-metal bridge of the 1870s and both Ohio companies sold their own patented bowstring designs.

In 1875 not one but two WIBC designed and fabricated bridges were erected over the Thames River in London, Ontario: The Blackfriars Bridge and a sister bridge, the Victoria, at the southern end of Ridout Street. The Victoria was replaced in 1926.

Replacement support for upper handrail is a serious mismatch.

Both bridges were manufactured in Ohio and transported by rail to London. These were the first metal bridges to be erected in London.

Using some 9000 lbs. of wrought iron and cast iron, a bridge like the Blackfriars gives a whole new meaning to the warning "some assembly required." Often the factory sent along an engineer to assist with construction.

Contrary to local folklore, the London bridge is not the only wrought iron bowstring truss bridge still carrying vehicular traffic in North America. There are at least six others but not one carries the amount of daily traffic endured by the hard-working London span.

I believe asking a century old, and then some, bridge to carry 4000 vehicles a day 365 days a year is foolish. Think of the damage that winter road-salt alone inflicts on this treasure. And make no mistake, the London bridge is a treasure. The Boner Road Bridge in Indiana, built in 1869, has been completely restored. Yet, it is only asked to carry limited traffic.

Boner Bridge, a three span bowstring truss, has been completely restored.

And the Boner Bridge is not the only bowstring that has been lovingly restored. There are others but with one big difference: Most were restored and then retired to a future of pedestrian traffic only. I know of 20 bowstring truss bridges that have been re-purposed for pedestrian/cyclist use only.

Restored Rodrick Bridger relocated to university campus.

The Rodrick Bridge, built in 1872, was removed from its original location over Wills Creek, Coshocton County, to be restored and relocated in 1998 to Ohio State University-Newark Campus where it has been re-purposed for pedestrians and cyclists.

One of my favourite stories is the one surrounding the Old Richardsville Road Bridge in Kentucky. The old road, and thus the bridge, receives only limited use. Why: There is a new Richardsville Road.

Old Richardsville Rd. Bridge still carries vehicular traffic.

A gentleman living on the old road, David Gavin, assumed the upkeep of the beautiful, neighbourhood bridge. He has spent $175,000 of his own money replacing the deck with treated pine and replacing deteriorating iron rivets. A three span bridge made in 1889 by the King company, it's a beauty. David Gavin can take a well-earned bow.

The Blackfriars Bridge, with its 225-foot clear span, eliminated the intermediate supports required by the previous wooden bridges. In theory, the river-spanning length minimized the risk of a wash out caused by spring floods. It was a good theory; The Blackfriars Bridge is entering its 139th year of service.

It's time to find our beautiful, heritage bridge a new home. At the very least, let's move it a few feet up or down river — which ever makes the most sense. Let's restore our wrought iron work of art and craft. Let's give our now-rare-beauty another century or more of life.

Remember the five Rs:

1. Remove it
2. Restore it
3. Relocate it
4. Re-purpose it
5. Reuse it

Remove it, restore it and reserve it for walkers and cyclists only.

Below

The first three pictures (below) show the wooden bridges that once served the area. Note the mid river supports required by all the wooden structures.The last picture is an early image of the Blackfriars Bridge still in use today.

Note the in-river supports required by the wooden bridges at this location.

Ivey Family London Room, London Public Library, London, Ontario, Canada