South West

South West is everything south of Highway 401 and west of Harwood Avenue South: the Duffins Creek valley and marsh on the Pickering side, Lake Ontario on the south, and the CN corridor and the highway on the north. Bayly Street West splits it into the station and civic core above, with the GO station on Westney Road South, town hall and the main library at Harwood and Bayly and the industrial lands along Fairall Street and Clements Road West, and the residential streets below, running down to Lake Driveway West and the waterfront parks. Locals use Lakeside, Duffins Bay and, for the 1940s core near Harwood, the wartime streets.

The wartime houses come first: one-and-a-half-storey and bungalow plans from the 1940s on Kings Crescent, Exeter Road, Admiral Road and the surrounding streets west of Harwood, small but on deep lots, and many have been enlarged, topped up or replaced outright. South of Bayly Street West the 1960s and 1970s subdivisions of Lakeside and Duffins Bay hold bungalows, splits and two-storey plans on roomy lots, with the largest homes on the streets nearest Lake Driveway West and on the ravine lots along the Duffins Creek valley; 1980s and 1990s infill filled the last pockets toward the marsh. Condominium apartments stand near the waterfront and along Bayly Street West, joined since 2018 by the high-rise towers at Pat Bayly Square. Around the GO station, three-storey and stacked townhouses have gone up on Westney Road South and the side streets off Bayly for commuters. Expect original-era mechanicals in untouched wartime houses, well-kept but dated interiors on the lakeshore streets, and modern finishes with small footprints in the station-area builds.

The GO station sits inside the community at 100 Westney Road South, with Lakeshore East service to Union and to Oshawa all day and Durham Region Transit's western hub beside it: PULSE 915 leaves here for Taunton Road and north Oshawa, PULSE 917 follows Bayly Street from Pickering Parkway Terminal through here to Oshawa Centre, and the local 216 on Harwood, 224 on Salem and 211 through Pickering Village all terminate at the platform. The seasonal 224C follows Lake Driveway in summer, and DRT's overnight On Demand service covers Ajax after the fixed routes stop. Drivers reach the 401 at Westney Road or Harwood Avenue, and because the tracks and the highway seal the north side, both crossings queue at rush hour. The Waterfront Trail is the cycling spine, paved and separated from traffic, running west over Duffins Creek to Frenchman's Bay and east along the shore to Whitby; the streets south of Bayly are flat and easy to ride.

The public elementary schools (Durham District School Board) here are Lakeside Public School and Duffin's Bay Public School, with Southwood Park Public School reportedly nearby, and secondary students are generally assigned to Ajax High School, across Harwood on Bayly Street East. Catholic families (Durham Catholic District School Board) reportedly have St. James Catholic School in the wartime streets near Harwood, then Archbishop Denis O'Connor, the Catholic secondary school on Mandrake Street north of the 401. Public-board immersion is hosted at designated schools that have moved over the years, while French-language schooling under Viamonde and MonAvenir comes from Pickering and Whitby. The boards draw and redraw the lines, so check the current assignment for an address rather than the nearest building. Ontario Tech University, Durham College's two campuses and Trent Durham are all east on the 401, and PULSE 900 reaches the University of Toronto Scarborough campus.

The waterfront is the reason people choose South West. Ajax Waterfront Park and Rotary Park along Lake Driveway West have the splash pad, playgrounds, picnic shelters and the paved trail, Veterans' Point Gardens holds the memorial to HMS Ajax and the town's veterans, and the Duffins Creek marsh at the western end is a birding spot inside conservation land. The Ajax Community Centre's arenas on Centennial Road are just north of Bayly, and the library's main branch and town hall face Pat Bayly Square, where summer concerts and, reportedly, a winter outdoor rink happen. Shopping is along Harwood: Harwood Place Mall and the plazas near Bayly for groceries and pharmacies, Ajax Plaza near Hunt Street, and the Durham Centre big boxes across the 401. Lakeridge Health Ajax Pickering, the hospital on Harwood Avenue South, is a few minutes away, and Volkswagen's Canadian head office on Bayly Street West reportedly anchors the industrial belt.

South West suits three kinds of buyer: commuters who intend to reach the GO platform on foot from a condo or townhouse, families and retirees who want a lot on a quiet street a few minutes from the lake and the trail, and renovators drawn to the deep lots of the wartime core. It is the part of Ajax where a car is optional. Anyone who wants a new detached subdivision or a big garage should look north, and the blocks nearest the CN tracks, the 401 and the Bayly Street industrial lands carry train, highway and truck noise that the lakeshore blocks do not; the marsh edge can be buggy in summer.