Ajax Waterfront Park
Three kilometres of unbroken lakefront trail with the water on one side the whole way. One of the best-kept public spaces in Durham.
Ajax
Named after a warship and laid out around the munitions plant that built it, which is why so many streets carry the names of HMS Ajax's crew. Now one of the most diverse towns in Canada, with three unbroken kilometres of lakefront park along the bottom of it.
Stock photograph. Not Ajax.
Young, diverse, on the lake
Feels like
40 min by GO
To Union Station
Waterfront, and a short commute
Go for
How to say it
AY-jax. And yes: the streets really are named after the sailors of HMS Ajax. Every local tells every newcomer this within a fortnight, so get in first and enjoy it.
Heads up
It is squeezed between Pickering and Whitby, and the 401 is the only quick way across. Highway 2 (Kingston Road) is the local alternative and it is not quick at all.
The parts of it
What people here actually call it.
Names you would hear said out loud, not subdivision marketing.
Lakeside
Central Ajax
North Ajax
South Ajax
Who to go and watch
The clubs, and which ones you can actually get in to see.
Quarter horse racing
Ajax Downs
Canada's only quarter-horse track. Races are short, loud and over in about twenty seconds, admission is free, and it makes for a genuinely odd good afternoon.
Where to actually go
5 things worth knowing about Ajax.
Public places, parks, markets and the streets the independents are actually on. Nothing here is invented, and nothing here is a photograph of somewhere else.
St. Francis Centre
A converted 1920s church that is now the town's arts venue: concerts, theatre and family shows in a room that seats a few hundred.
Pat Bayly Square
The town's central square, with a rink in winter and free concerts on summer evenings. Everything civic in Ajax happens here.
Harwood & Kingston Road
Guyanese, Trinidadian, Sri Lankan, Nigerian and Filipino kitchens across the plazas. This is the best eating in Ajax and almost none of it is downtown.
Rotary Park
The park at the lake end of Harwood with a beach, a pavilion and a café or two on the approach. Where the town goes on a Sunday.
The year
What comes round every year.
Keyed to a month, never to a date. Dates move, and a page that prints last year's is worse than one that says “September”.
July–August
Summer in the Square
Free Tuesday evening concerts at Pat Bayly Square all summer. Bring a chair and turn up at seven.
Summer
Ajax Rotary Ribfest
Ribs, bands and a midway over a long weekend. Free entry, and it draws from the whole of west Durham.
July
Canada Day at the Fairgrounds
Cultural performances, food stalls and fireworks after dark. Ajax does this one on a scale that surprises people.
HelloGTA.com
The GTA is enormous and most of it is unknown to everybody.
Including the people who have lived here twenty-five years. That is the whole brief: twenty-nine guides, and a question a week put to the region.