Apartments for Rent in New Edinburgh

Ottawa's oldest village

New Edinburgh was laid out in the 1830s by Thomas MacKay, the stonemason-turned-industrialist whose estate became Rideau Hall, and the street names — Crichton, Stanley, Dufferin, Avon, Ivy — still follow his family tree. The neighbourhood is a designated heritage conservation district, which keeps its scale low, its lots green, and its Victorian and Edwardian homes intact. Walking it feels closer to a small Ontario town than to a capital city five minutes away.

How the village came to be

MacKay built his fortune constructing the Rideau Canal locks, then harnessed Rideau Falls for lumber and grist mills and laid out a workers' village beside them. His stone mansion, Rideau Hall, was bought by the Crown in the 1860s and has housed every Governor General since Confederation. The village itself stayed independent until the growing city absorbed it late in the nineteenth century, and its early street grid survived intact — which is why New Edinburgh's blocks feel shorter, greener, and older than the city around them.

That history is not just decoration. The heritage designation that flows from it is the reason the neighbourhood still looks as it does, and the reason new rental supply is so limited.

Beechwood Avenue, the daily main street

Beechwood Avenue carries the neighbourhood's everyday life: a Metro for groceries, pharmacies, banks, cafés, and a row of restaurants that have made the strip a quiet dining destination. It is the kind of main street where staff recognize regulars — small in footprint, complete in function. At its east end, Beechwood Cemetery, the National Cemetery of Canada, doubles as one of the city's most beautiful walking grounds.

A few chef-owned restaurants tucked onto the side streets draw diners from across the city, but the strip's real character is its scale: everything a household needs within a five-minute walk, and nothing that requires leaving the village unless you choose to.

Parks, the river, and Rideau Hall

The Rideau River wraps the neighbourhood's west side, with Stanley Park — New Edinburgh's riverside green — offering a pool, playing fields, and river paths that connect north to Rideau Falls, where the river drops into the Ottawa. Rideau Hall's grounds, the Governor General's estate, are open to the public year-round and function as the neighbourhood's grandest park, with skating and tobogganing in winter. Rockcliffe Park's embassies and lookouts border the neighbourhood to the northeast.

Getting around

Downtown is about ten minutes away: buses run along Beechwood and Sussex Drive into the core, and cyclists follow the river pathway past the Prime Minister's residence and the National Gallery. Global Affairs and the other Sussex Drive institutions are close enough that many of their staff walk to work. For drivers, the Vanier Parkway connects quickly to the Queensway.

Winters are easier here than the postcard image suggests. The commute into the core is short enough that weather rarely dictates the day, Beechwood's shops cover essentials without a drive, and Rideau Hall's grounds and the Stanley Park rink put outdoor skating within a few minutes' walk of every address in the village.

Living here

Rental options in New Edinburgh are scarce — heritage protection limits new construction, and most of the housing stock is owner-occupied. Our buildings at 53 & 59 Crichton Street sit on one of the district's original streets, a short walk from both Beechwood Avenue and Stanley Park, and they are among the few purpose-built rental addresses inside the heritage district. Details below.