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Kitchener - Waterloo - Cambridge Map

Many people would be surprised to learn that Kitchener is Canada's tenth largest city, clocking in with a metropolitan area over half a million. In fact, the urban area consists of three cities arranged north to south - a swath of Waterloo in the north, Kitchener in the middle, and Cambridge in the south, all threaded through by the Grand River. Cambridge itself resulted from an amalgamation of three towns: Galt, Hespeler and Preston. The result is that you have a single urban area with five downtowns (or really, downtowns for Galt, Kitchener and Waterloo, one village centre for Hespeler, and one sort of nothing for Preston). 

I would like to like the Kitchener area better. There is some lovely modern architecture associated mostly with the universities here, Galt downtown has a very well preserved core, people are moving into apartment buildings in the three larger centres, increasing density and interest. The city is building an LRT that will run from the north of Waterloo to the south of Kitchener, with a future extension into Cambridge, and this seems to touch almost all the parts of the city that matter. Despite much to admire, there is something about this urban agglomeration that just doesn't work for me. But there is certainly enough to photograph in this spread out city of separate cores.  

 

Photo List (Total 328 Photos)

Click bolded headers below to view, or click "just the best" for quick tour

  • Kitchener (108 photos) - This gallery starts on the southern edge of Kitchener's downtown, at its market. It continues past the main intersection of King and Frederick and captures the institutional buildings in the area and some of the commercial streets. It continues into Victoria Park, and back into town via the City Hall and more of the commercial core of the city. It switches north to an area they call the "Innovation District", with repurposed industrial buildings and the striking Health Sciences Campus. It ends with the Mouth Hope Cemetery. All photos with the exception of a few around City Hall, are from 2015.   

  • Waterloo (76 photos) - This gallery starts on Waterloo's main commercial drag of King Street. It continues through the Seagrams redevelopment, past the Canadian Clay & Glass Gallery, and then has perhaps too many photos of the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics. It continues through Waterloo Park, and then a few photos in the north of the city, at the University of Waterloo. A few photos from 2007 are included, such as the interiors of the Canadian Clay and Glass Gallery and the Perimeter Institute.      

  • Galt (61 photos) - The largest of the three former cities that now make up Cambridge, Galt's centre city is lined with stone buildings. There is a handsome arrangement of churches and a library across the Grand River which surrounds Queen's Square. There is a modern new theatre, and repurposed heritage buildings. These photos are almost all from a 2015 visit, but a few are from a shorter cloudier visit in 2007.     

  • Hespeler (26 photos) - Hespeler has maintained its small village feel, tucked beside the Grand River up in the north east part of Cambridge. Downtown is dominated by a single street, Queen, perched on the hillside by the river. The river has a large industrial complex, now vacant and intended to be repurposed for condos. Though the main street was mostly ripped up when I was there, there was a charm to this village-in-a-city.     

  • Preston (7 photos) - Preston is the lesser of the three former municipalities that now make up Cambridge. Yvon refused outright to get out of the air conditioned truck to see the place, and I could not blame him, for it was very hot. There is a large old hotel, now closed, that was opened to take advantage of some natural springs, but apart from this, there is little to recommend Preston at all, unfortunately. 

  • St. Jacobs (11 photos) - This small settlement on the northern edge of Waterloo is famous for its market. These photos, all from 2007, show some scenes from the market, and from an architectural salvage store that Yvon and I used to like very much.     

  • LRT in Kitchener in 2019 (39 photos) - Yvon and I went to Kitchener in the summer of 2019 to see the new Ion LRT system. These photos show a walk around the city, a visit to the Canadian Clay and Glass Gallery, a ride on the LRT, a visit to St. Jacobs, and other stuff.