Medical Aesthetics in Wortley Village, London

Wortley Village is one of the most storied and deliberately preserved neighbourhoods in London, Ontario. Originally a suburb of the city, it was annexed to London in 1890 and has operated since as a self-contained village within a city, with its own commercial main street, deep community infrastructure, and a population that actively maintains the character of the place. In 2013, the Canadian Institute of Planners voted Wortley Village the best neighbourhood in Canada, a distinction that recognized not just its physical attributes but the quality of its community life. The neighbourhood is part of the Wortley Village-Old South Heritage Conservation District under the Ontario Heritage Act, protecting its stock of Victorian, Ontario cottage, craftsman, and Gothic Revival homes from the turn of the 20th century, many carrying Heritage Designation Plaques, Heritage Sites Committee Plaques, or Original Homeowners Plaques designating their historical significance.

The central landmark of the neighbourhood is the London Normal School, built in 1899 at 165 Elmwood Avenue, an Ontario Heritage building and former teachers’ college that now serves as the regional headquarters of the YMCA in Southwestern Ontario. Beside it sits The Green, the open park at the heart of the village where the annual Gathering on the Green brings vendors and residents together, the Wortley Village Jazz and Blues Festival fills summer evenings, and Indigenous Solidarity Day and Halloween in the Village mark the seasons through the year. Thames Park, to the north along the Thames River, offers tennis courts, an outdoor swimming pool with a diving well and wading pool, a community garden, and direct connections to the Thames Valley Parkway trail system. Farquharson Arena provides two ice pads for year-round recreation within the neighbourhood. Smaller parks on Duchess Avenue and Victor Street add green space throughout the residential streets.

Wortley Road is the commercial heart of the village, running through a strip of independent businesses that has no real equivalent elsewhere in London. Black Walnut Bakery Cafe at number 134, Old South Village Pub at 149, Plant Matter Kitchen, Sweet Onion Bistro, Sagi, Locomotive Espresso, Quarter Master Natural Foods at 176, Curiosities at 174 1/2, Impressions of Wortley Village at 148, Grooves Records, and Westland Gallery form a walkable commercial district that residents use almost entirely on foot. A Valu-Mart, Pharmasave, and Home Hardware complete the everyday essentials. Yoga Shack operates from a house on Bruce Street just off the main strip. The Idlewyld Inn and Spa, a Victorian mansion at 36 Grand Avenue built in 1878 as the home of then-London mayor Charles Hyman, sits several blocks east and serves as a landmark boutique hotel for the area. Elementary students in the neighbourhood attend Wortley Road Public School, Tecumseh Public School, Victoria, Mountsfield, Holy Rosary Catholic School, or St. Martin Catholic School. London South Collegiate Institute is the local secondary school, with Catholic Central Secondary and St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Secondary also serving older students from the area. The Old South Community Organization has represented the neighbourhood’s interests since 1975.