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Lower Town (also spelled " Lowertown" () is a neighbourhood in Rideau-Vanier Ward in central Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, to the east of downtown. It is the oldest neighbourhood of the city, with construction beginning in 1826. It includes the commercial Byward Market area in the south-western part, and is predominantly residential in the north and east.
It was historically French Canadian and Irish people, and is to this day home to many Franco-Ontarian families, businesses and institutions.
For much of its history, it was home to a large working class French Catholic population, but was also home to Irish Catholics, Jews, and Italians. When the neighbourhood was settled, many of the French settlers were timber workmen, while the Irish helped build the Canal. In distinction to the wealthier Uppertown, properties in Lowertown could only be leased for 30 years, a restriction not lifted until the 1860s. Uppertown would be home to the city's wealthier Protestant populations of English and Scottish descent.
After World War II, Lowertown East was targeted by the city for urban renewal projects, with the first homes being expropriated by the National Capital Commission in 1962. Following the construction of the Macdonald-Cartier Bridge in 1965, King Edward Avenue was expanded in an attempt to accommodate increased traffic volumes. From 1967 to 1977 the city continued to expropriate hosing in Lowertown East, and built community housing in its stead. Approximately 1,400 families were forced to move as a result.
Beginning in the 1980s, developers began renovating and reselling homes in Lowertown West for much higher prices, and attracted more English speaking residents with higher incomes, causing that section of the neighbourhood to gentrification. The construction of the Rideau Centre in 1983 also caused property values to increase. Urban renewal in the east and gentrification in the west caused the neighbourhood's Francophone character to severely diminish during this time, as much of the Francophone middle class population moved to the suburbs.
The Francophone population of Lower Town has declined significantly since the end of World War II. According to the 1961 Canadian census, there were 14,680 Francophones in Lower Town, compared to just 4,257 Anglophones. Anglophones began to outnumber Francophones in around the 1980s. In 1971, the neighbourhood was 68 per cent Francophone, dropping to 39 per cent by 1991.
Lowertown's population is rather diverse. Its main stretch along Rideau Street is very bustling and includes many African Canadian, , South Asian, Caribbean, and Lebanon businesses, a large grocery store, the Rideau Branch of the Ottawa Public Library, and an Orthodox Jewish synagogue.
In combining the four census tracts that roughly correspond to the neighbourhood, the 2021 Canadian census reported that 21.7% of the population identified as ethnically French, French Canadian or Franco-Ontarian, 16.5% Irish, 13.2% English, 12.5% Scottish, 8.7% Canadian, 6.7% German, 5.2% Chinese, 3.7% Italian, 2.9% Indian, 2.1% Dutch, 1.9% Ukrainian, 1.8% Russian, 1.6% Welsh, 1.4% Somali, 1.4% Iranian, 1.3% Jewish, 1.3% Haitian, 1.2% Congolese, 1.2% Spanish, 1.2% Hungarian, 1.2% Lebanese, 1.1% Romanian, and 1.0% Rwandan. In terms of languages, 53.0% of the neighbourhood reported their mother tongue as being English, while 26.1% reported it being French. Other prevalent languages in Lowertown include Mandarin (3.2%), Arabic (3.0%), and Spanish (2.5%). About a quarter of the neighbourhood (25.5%) remains Catholic, 2.9% is Anglican, 1.9% Pentecostal, 1.4% Christian Orthodox, 1.4% United Church, 11.0% Other Christian, 8.4% Muslim, 1.5% Jewish and 1.4% Hindu. Four-in-ten (42.0%) reported no religion.
The street is so large and so busy that it exists as a major barrier between the east and west halves of Lowertown. Since it is the main truck route between Ottawa and Gatineau there are large numbers of tractor trailers travelling through the core of Ottawa daily, along with tens of thousands of commuters in cars. It is one of the highest accident sites in Ottawa.
The road from the bridge was intended to connect to a new Vanier Parkway to the north of the neighbourhood, across Green Island and Maple Island. This connector was never built because of political opposition, and instead St. Patrick Street east of King Edward was built into a major four-lane thoroughfare cutting through the neighbourhood. The end of the connector from the bridge instead connects to King Edward at a sharp turn where the connector would have continued directly to the east.
King Edward was itself rebuilt into a six-lane major thoroughfare from Sussex Drive to Rideau Street, and the plan was to continue the six-lane through Sandy Hill to connect to the Queensway (417) highway. This also was never built.
The Byward Market, to the north of Rideau Street has consistently thrived throughout ongoing development in surrounding areas. To the south, the Rideau Centre development, a four-level shopping centre, began construction in 1981 continuing through 1982 and upon completion, provided a shopping mall atmosphere upon its official opening on March 16, 1983, as retailers moved inside.http://webcast.ottawa.ca/plan/All_Image%20Referencing_Site%20Plan%20Application_Image%20Reference_Rideau%20Centre%20Planning%20Rationale.PDF As part of the construction, the section of Rideau Street between Sussex Drive & Dalhousie Street was turned into a major bus interchange, which would undergo many major changes in the decades to come, seeing the originally constructed enclosed bus shelters replaced for covered shelters in the 1990s.
Further development began once a 230,000 ft expansion of the Rideau Centre was undertaken by Cadillac Fairview on September 26, 2013. The transit shelters underwent another major change during this time, including their relocation and modernization, as construction of Rideau Station, one of 13 stops announced as part of O-Train Line 1, named the Confederation Line, began in August 2013, as part of Ottawa's existing light-rail system built and operated by OC Transpo. Rideau Street stretches throughout the traditional Lower Town district of Ottawa, of both commercial and residential areas which in the past was predominantly Franco-Ontarian, but now has one of Ottawa's largest immigrant populations, notably including many Francophone Africans and Somali people. North of Rideau and west of King Edward is typically considered the commercial Byward Market area.
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