London Heritage Awards 2025

Architectural Conservancy Ontario – London Region
&
Heritage London Foundation

are proud to present the 18th annual London Heritage Awards

Congratulations to the 2025 honourees!

COMMENDATION – Annie Biddle

Annie Biddle did not set out to preserve a heritage building, but in an era when the average homeowner stays five to seven years, she lived in her home on Boulee Street for an astonishing hundred years. Under her stewardship, her home has aged into a heritage house. This is, indeed, something rare and extraordinary. We are delighted to honour her this evening.

RESTORATION PROJECT AWARD – 839 Queens Avenue

Barb Penner

Built circa 1881, in what is now Old East Village, this house is noted for its intricate woodwork, which includes elaborate stencil-cut semicircular barge boards in the roof gable. More is to be found on the semicircular arches that surround the double window. Another row of brackets adorns the space above the bay window. There is much more; the house is a feast for the eyes. Barb Penner has lovingly preserved and maintained this Victorian masterpiece. Her restoration efforts include refurbishing the double-leaf front doors with their carved panels, as well as the porch’s handrail, spindles and flooring. She has repointed the brick foundation, refinished the original pine floors, and had custom wooden storm windows built and installed. To restore the staircase, Barb even sourced materials from salvage yards to ensure the bottom matched the top. Contrasting yet harmonious paint colours highlight the exterior features.

LOCAL HISTORY AWARD – Cheryl Radford

With her detailed illustrations of streetscapes and local architecture, Cheryl Radford documents and celebrates the built heritage of London, Ontario. Cheryl has an art degree from Georgian College, and since the mid ’eighties has lived in and illustrated the buildings of the Forest City. A nonprofit administrator by day, Cheryl spends evenings and weekends creating exquisitely rendered portraits of heritage buildings; she can often be spotted sitting and sketching in a downtown doorway. Cheryl’s art appears in personal collections, in local galleries, on greeting cards, in books she has co-authored about London’s brewing heritage, and on medals for the 2024 Ontario Summer Games. “When I look at historic architecture,” Cheryl says, “I see the authentic craftsmanship, the beautiful façades, the character, culture, and charm from days gone by. I imagine the stories of the people who lived and worked there. I feel the creative energy within the walls.”

COMPATIBLE DESIGN AWARD – 54 Duchess Avenue

Conrad and Kasey Bedard
Designer/Builder/Consultant: Jerome Macko of Macko Consulting, Ailsa Craig

Without being an ersatz copy of a 100-year-old house, this newly built (2024) dwelling sited in a heritage neighbourhood demonstrates the ability of contemporary houses to fit comfortably into an historic streetscape. The massing is evocative of a turn-of-the-nineteenth-century house of the Queen Anne style, with a complex roofline consisting mainly of three gable roofs seen on the front elevation. The front gable over the porch and first storey has faintly articulated half-timbering. The three-bedroom house is of a similar footprint to the older houses around it, except that it extends further to the rear. The construction is wood frame with cladding of painted composite boards called Hardiboard. The gabled roof is composed of asphalt shingles, and all the porch posts are painted wood.

RESTORATION PROJECT AWARD – 538 Colborne Street

Ken Madlener

After Ken Madlener purchased the 1909 Dutch Colonial style house in 2023, extensive renovations were required to turn this large single-family home into a three-unit building, but Ken went a step further. He restored the covered front porch to its appearance in the 1960s, rebuilding the wood pillars and their stone bases. He also restored the Juliet balcony which is accessible from doors on the top floor. When addressing the damaged woodwork around the upper windows, the original leaded glass and stained-glass windows were carefully restored and reused. The previous owner writes, “what impressed me greatly was that when I first stopped by our old family home and introduced myself, Ken asked for any old pictures of the original porch so he could refer to them for the refurbishment and also invited the family to visit throughout the project and gave us a tour when it was complete.”

LOCAL HISTORY AWARD – Lorraine Tinsley

Lorraine Tinsley’s in-depth scholarship and research on West London –– specifically Oxford Park, but also including Kensington Village, Blackfriars, and Petersville –– has substantially increased awareness and knowledge of the richness of local heritage. Jumping off from the wealth of existing published local and regional history, her research took a deep dive into a wide variety of resources including books, newspapers, maps, photographs, paintings, scrapbooks, city directories, genealogy, land records, and personal interviews with long-time and past residents. Pulling together all these untold stories and revealing undiscovered history has resulted in a publication that will help guide current and future historians and Londoners in enriching our understanding of our city as it continues to evolve. The research project was funded by a Neighbourhood Decision-Making grant from the City of London. The Oxford Park community felt that the resulting scholarship was so significant that it should be published as a book.

CULTURAL LANDSCAPE AWARD – Elmwood Lawn Bowling Club

The Elmwood Lawn Bowling Club is a charming green oasis in Old South located in the centre of the block bounded by Edward, Elmwood, Bruce, and Brighton Streets. Formed in 1911 as a men’s only club, the original charter provided for a range of sports. Now dedicated solely to lawn bowling, the club welcomes men and women of all ages and abilities. Land for the bowling green, including space for a clubhouse, was assembled over time from the backyards of homes surrounding the green, either by leasing, purchasing, or having land donated. The original clubhouse, constructed in 1916, featured a verandah along the entire length of the building facing the green. In 1965, major renovations altered the front portion and overhauled the kitchen, washrooms, and furnace room. In the 1980s further improvements included air conditioning and new roof. Much of the work was done by members and generous volunteers.

SMALL-SCALE RESTORATION PROJECT AWARD – 527 Princess Ave

Slate work by Serge Fugère: New Era Slate and Copper Design

Built in 1899 -1900 for well-known photographer Frank Cooper, this house is considered one of London’s finest examples of the late Victorian Queen Anne style. Located in the East Woodfield Heritage Conservation District, it has a number of special architectural attributes. It has an imposing capped tower on one side, balanced by an elaborate front gable and a wraparound verandah. The dentil work under the gable pediment matches the work on the front entrance, and the decorative work in both features has been methodically repaired and maintained. The house is considered one of London’s architectural stunners. The award is given for the recently completed work to replace the fish-scale pattern slate roof, copper trim and finial of the tower which was meticulously carried out.

HERITAGE PROFESSIONAL AWARD – Museum London Project Team for London: a History

Ross Bell, Janette Cousins-Ewan, Devon Elliott, Krista Hamlin, Andrew Kear, Dr. Amber Lloydlangston, Brianna McArdle, Kristen Odegaard, Alex Walker, Kevin Zacher, Surface Impression

London: A History was launched In November 2024 after over a year of work. This initiative involved digitizing 6,750 objects in the Museum’s vast material culture collection. A studio was built inside the Museum’s largest vault, and over the following months a professional photographer created the high-resolution digital images now featured online. Many long-hidden artifacts are now accessible via a searchable database. Newly-designed and free curriculum-linked resources extend exhibition themes into local classrooms. These include modules called: “Marching Through Time: A Guided Exploration of London’s Military Legacy” (Grade 10), “Decoding the Evolution of Advertising: Exploring Historical and Modern Perspectives” (Grades 4 and 5); and “My Neighbourhood” (Grades 1, 2, and 3). Oral histories feature prominently in the section called “Stories of London” and link our present to the past with inspiring video portraits of five diverse contemporary Londoners. This is London history in the making.
https://londonhistoryonline.museumlondon.ca/en/

RESTORATION PROJECT AWARD – Banting House

Grant Maltman: Director
Tim Finch, a+LiNK

This late Victorian house is known as the “Birthplace of Insulin.” While residing at the house from 1920 to 1922 Dr. Frederick Banting conceived an idea for research that led to the discovery of insulin. Now owned by the Canadian Diabetes Association, it has become the Banting House Museum. The restoration, done in three phases, followed the conservation principles established in the “Standards and Guidelines for the Conservation of Historic Places in Canada.” It required complete masonry repointing, foundation repairs, slate roof replacement, window refurbishment, and restoration of heritage porches, including railing and column replacement. Repointing of the existing brick entailed the use of custom-batched mortar and recreating the unique penciling detail at the masonry arches above the windows. Research found that the porch railings were not, in fact, original, so railings were re-created by producing profiled sections to make templates for the top and bottom rails as well as curved profile pickets.

COMMENDATION – 119 Elmwood Ave East

Jamie Tedesco & Abelardo Lopez

The original white brick of this Victorian former 9 PLEX in Old South, has recently been revealed by its new owners. Major work was done to remove the shabby and deteriorated covering of grey stucco and then to repoint, grout, and clean the brick. The cleaning revealed all manner of former windows and doorways that had been filled in over the years, posing a challenge to passersby to observe the evolution of the house. The interior of the building has been gutted and now has seven spacious units brought up to code. The house has been thoughtfully updated with handsome contemporary railings so that what was a local eyesore has become an enthusiastically welcomed improvement to the local streetscape.

Congratulations to all honourees, and thank you so much for your tremendous work to keep London’s roots alive and on display. Preserving our heritage is not always an easy task, but it is always worthwhile.