Essential English phrases

London's nickname, from the tree canopy that survived the nineteenth century here when it did not elsewhere in southwestern Ontario. It is used unironically, it appears on municipal signage, and the state of the canopy is a live council argument every budget cycle.

Richmond Street north of Oxford — the bar, restaurant and shopping strip between downtown and the university gates. It is the student drinking strip on a Thursday and an ordinary high street the rest of the week.

The London Knights, the Ontario Hockey League team, at Canada Life Place downtown — the arena that was the John Labatt Centre, then Budweiser Gardens, and took its current name in October 2024. Junior hockey here draws crowds that would embarrass some professional teams.

Where the north and south branches of the Thames join at the western edge of downtown, by Harris Park. It is the reason the city is here at all — a colonial administrator picked the spot off a map in 1793 — and it is the default outdoor meeting point.

How people here write the address, and how you should too. Booking systems, couriers and recruiters route to England otherwise. Locals say 'London, Ontario' in full to anyone outside a two-hour radius, and are entirely used to the joke.

Two things at once: Fanshawe College in the east end, and Fanshawe Lake and Conservation Area north of it, on the dammed Thames. Context tells you which. The college end of Dundas Street is what the East London Link rapid transit corridor is being built to reach.

The small commercial crossroads at the heart of Old South, a ten-minute walk over the river from downtown. A village inside the city, with the price premium that implies. If a Londoner says 'the Village' with no qualifier, this is it.

Old East Village — the Dundas Street strip east of Adelaide, the old working commercial main street, now the cheapest walkable address in the city and the one changing fastest. The Western Fair District and its year-round farmers' market sit at the end of it.

Lake-effect snow blowing in off Lake Huron. Not a storm passing through — a stationary band that can drop thirty centimetres on one township and nothing five kilometres away, and reduce the 401 or 402 to zero visibility in minutes. London averages about 194 cm of snow a year because of them.

Under City by-law CP-19 most small rental properties — buildings of four or fewer rental units the owner does not live in — must hold a residential rental unit licence, and it has to be posted near the front entrance. Apartment buildings and townhouses are exempt. Asking to see it is the single most useful question at a London viewing.

Western University, on the hill north of downtown. Formerly the University of Western Ontario and still legally that, but nobody says UWO out loud any more. Around 10,000 jobs and tens of thousands of students, which is most of why the rental market moves the way it does.

Social Insurance Number. No employer can put you on payroll without one. Free, from Service Canada, and usually issued during the visit if you attend in person. It comes before the bank account and before the health card.

Police, fire and ambulance. 811 is Health811, the provincial nurse line; 519-661-5670 reaches London Police for anything non-urgent, and 519-661-2489 is the City. London runs its own police service; public health is the Middlesex-London Health Unit, shared with the county.