Oakridge, London Ontario

Oakridge Acres is the original — the heart of what "Oakridge" means to London. Sifton Properties broke ground here on October 12, 1950, building 1,649 homes across 74 acres in what would become the defining residential development of West London's postwar era. The street names carry a deliberate Irish identity — Dolway, Donegal, Dunedin, Kildare, Solway — and they give the neighbourhood a cohesive character that still feels intentional seven decades later. The Optimist Club of Oakridge Acres was chartered in 1957, just seven years into the neighbourhood's life, and has been the organizational heartbeat of community life here ever since.

The homes south of Oxford Street are the original Sifton builds — 1950s and 1960s single-family detached homes on genuinely wide lots with the spatial logic that came standard in that era: large basements, deep backyards, proper street setbacks, and room to live. Bungalows, cape-cods, and split-levels are the dominant styles. Many have been substantially updated over the decades while maintaining their footprints and lot lines. What buyers find here is the combination that is hard to manufacture in newer developments: established character on large land at prices that still represent real value in the West London market.

The community anchor is Oakridge Optimist Community Park at 825 Valetta Street — one of the most complete neighbourhood parks in London. The park has two baseball diamonds with a batting cage, an outdoor pool, a spray pad, tennis and pickleball courts, a renovated arena, and playground structures for all ages. The Optimist Club runs baseball and soccer programs serving over 2,000 youth each year, making it one of the most active neighbourhood clubs in the city. For nature, Sifton Bog ESA sits on the south side of Oxford Street west of Hyde Park Road: 2.8 kilometres of trail with a 370-metre boardwalk to a viewing platform over Redmond's Pond. Formed 13,000 years ago as the last glacier retreated, Sifton Bog is the most southerly large acidic bog in Canada — home to carnivorous plants and rare ecosystems found almost nowhere else in southwestern Ontario.

Hunt Club sits at the northwest corner of Oakridge, bordering the London Hunt and Country Club — one of Canada's oldest private golf clubs, established in 1885. The neighbourhood takes its name and character directly from that adjacency. This is where some of London's quietest and most coveted streets meet genuinely distinctive real estate: homes with fairway views, mature canopy trees, and a privacy that is rare within a city of this size.

Hunt Club divides naturally into two pockets. Old Hunt Club — the southern portion — carries the best of the original postwar stock: 1950s single-family homes on large, mature-treed lots with the hushed street character that buyers spend years looking for. Promenade Hunt Club, Kingspark Crescent, Fitzwilliam Boulevard, and Northumberland Road back directly onto the golf course, making them among the most unique residential addresses in London. The northern portion of Hunt Club offers late-20th-century detached homes and townhouses — newer construction with the same prestigious address at more accessible price points.

Two neighbourhood parks serve Hunt Club directly: Oak Park and Cheltenham Park, each offering playgrounds, swings, and walking paths suited to the community's family character. The London Hunt and Country Club itself — with its private 18-hole course, tennis courts, and large clubhouse — has defined this neighbourhood's identity for 140 years and anchors its western edge. Elementary students attend Clara Brenton, John Dearness, or St. Paul Catholic elementary schools; French immersion is available at École élémentaire Marie-Curie. Secondary students attend Oakridge Secondary or St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Secondary School.

Hazelden is the smallest and most quietly prestigious of Oakridge's four communities. It occupies the southeast corner of the broader neighbourhood, tucked between the Thames River Valley and the established residential streets around Riverside Drive. Riverside Drive itself acts as a natural dividing line: the older section to the south carries the original character of the area, while newer streets to the north reflect development that followed as the neighbourhood filled in through the latter half of the 20th century. The result is a community that feels curated rather than planned — intimate, mature, and unhurried.

The homes in Hazelden skew toward mid-century modern and postwar construction — the same era as Oakridge Acres, but with a different architectural feel given the topography and lot configurations closer to the river valley. The standout property in the area is Hazelden Manor at 1132 St. Anthony Road: a heritage-designated residence built in 1892 that predates the surrounding neighbourhood by decades. Its presence gives Hazelden a historical depth that the other Oakridge pockets do not share. Buyers in Hazelden are typically looking for something quieter and more private than the more active street life of Oakridge Acres — and they find it here.

Two parks anchor Hazelden's green space: St. Anthony's Park at Hampton Crescent, which features a tennis court and open space, and Hazelden Park, which has a baseball diamond, soccer field, playground structures, and swings. The Thames River Valley trail network is accessible from the southern edges of the neighbourhood, offering off-road walking and cycling into the broader Sifton Bog and Thames Valley system. For daily conveniences, residents are well placed between two commercial nodes: Boler Road at Commissioners Road to the south, and Hyde Park Road at Oxford Street to the north.