GUELPH | THE ROYAL CITY
Established in 1827 Guelph is considered to be one of the first planned towns in Canada. The city was chosen as the headquarters of a British development firm known as the Canada Company. The location was picked by the Company’s Superintendent in Canada, a popular Scottish novelist named, John Galt, who designed the town to attract settlers to it and the beautiful surrounding countryside. Galt’s plan was unlike most grid like city structures we see today, but rather was quite imaginative; based on a series of streets radiating from a focal point at the Speed River. The heart and centre of the city today resembles a European city centre complete with squares, broad main streets and narrow side streets. Named “Guelph” after a member of the British royal family, leading to the moniker, The Royal City, still used today.