Byron, Ontario

Byron is a neighbourhood in the City of London, Ontario, Canada.

Located downriver (west) from London on the outer fringes of the city, Byron was originally called Westminster, then renamed Hall's Mill, and then finally Byron. The Byron area was settled in 1800 and first became a village in 1804. The village of Byron was annexed by the City of London in 1961 and the population grew substantially with the development of large subdivisions around the original village.

To this day, some long-time residents of Byron refuse to call it anything but Byron, Ontario, but most people use the term as a point of reference within the city of London.

The current boundaries of Byron are generally regarded to be the land south of the Thames River and west of Colonel Talbot Road. Recent housing developments have expanded Byron southward to Southdale Road and westward to Wickerson Road. Outside of the urban area, Byron is surrounded by farmland and forested areas. On the eastern border of Byron is the Byron Gravel Pit, the sixteenth-largest gravel pit in Canada. Historically, Byron also consisted of some land north of the Thames River in the area known today as Oakridge Park, including the Byron Bog (now Sifton Bog).

Education

Elementary schools

There are five publicly-funded elementary schools in Byron:
* Byron Northview Public School
* Byron Somerset Public School:Opened in the early 1990s, this school has 337 students in JK to Grade 8. It was built in a former gravel pit, excavated by AAROC Aggregates. Its architecture was by the firm Lamb, Jorden and Jensen, which later became Carsten Jensen.
* Byron Southwood Public School
* St. George Catholic School
* St. Theresa Catholic School.

The first three schools are under the jurisdiction of the Thames Valley District School Board and the latter two are part of the London District Catholic School Board.

econdary schools

There are no secondary schools located in Byron (a source of some consternation to residents, as a secondary school was originally promised by the city of London when Byron was annexed). Two publicly funded secondary schools serve the needs of Byron students. The nearest is St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Secondary School in the London District Catholic School Board, to the north across the Thames River. This school primarily serves the needs of Roman Catholic students, though, as it is publicly funded, students of any religious denomination may attend. The majority of secondary school age students in Byron choose to attend Saunders Secondary School in the Thames Valley District School Board in the Westmount suburb of London. Though they do not live within the drawing area, several secondary school age children from Byron currently attend Oakridge Secondary School, located in the Oakridge suburb of London.

Private schools

There is one private school in Byron. This is a Montessori pre-school, located on Commissioners Road between Grand View Ave and Chestnut Hill.

Tourism

Byron is home to Springbank Park, a picturesque urban park and the largest in London. It is also home to Storybook Gardens, a popular children's attraction open year-round. Byron also has Boler Mountain, a small co-operative that offers skiing, snowboarding, snow-tubing, and mountain bike terrains.

Byron hosted two cycling events during the 2001 Canada Summer Games; the mountain biking event on Boler Mountain, and the road cycling event, where cyclists raced through the heart of the village.

Byron Telephone Company

Byron was served until August 1960 by the Byron Telephone Company, when it was sold to Bell Canada. A manual telephone exchange continued to operate until September 15, 1963, and in 1962 or 1963, the short code 471 was introduced to London exchange customers for the convenience of immediately reaching the Byron operator to complete a call. Upon dial introduction, 471 became the exchange prefix.

However, some two or three years before 1960, the Byron Telephone Company converted its Lambeth-area customers to a dial exchange, the OLiver 2 exchange.

"Tim Hortons" controversy

In 2000, "Tim Hortons", which had 44 locations throughout London, sought to open its first full-service location in Byron. At the time, Tim Hortons's presence in Byron was limited to a kiosk inside the A&P grocery store with no seating, limited hours, and a limited menu.

Tim Horton's was met by bitter opposition from a small group of members of the community, which had also stopped an entry by Tim Hortons into Byron in 1998. Some members of the group claimed building a Tim Hortons would ruin the "small-town atmosphere" that they claimed Byron to have by generating too much traffic and noise.

London City Council sided with local residents and refused to rezone a parcel of land along Commissioners Road to permit Tim Horton's to build a store there. TDL Group Ltd. appealed the decision to the Ontario Municipal Board (OMB), and the OMB sided with TDL and ordered the City to permit the required rezoning. [http://www.omb.gov.on.ca/e%2Ddecisions/pl001383%5F%231011.pdf] Tim Hortons opened its Byron location in December 2001.

Notable Byronites

*Rob Ramage, professional hockey player
*Joshua Workman, Canadian political consultant