Originally published in August 2021. Learn more about Faces of Bowness here.
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Clare and John have lived in Bowness for 31 years.
“We like our neighbours, we like the street we live on… we always remark on how many trees are in the area, it’s a beautiful environment. Access to Bowness Park is terrific, we really do feel like we’re privileged to have that within walking distance, all of the bike paths and the river valley, it’s pretty wonderful. What you find about Bowness in particular is that the spring comes early because of the neighbourhood being so old, and then you have a late fall, which you don’t really get anywhere else in Calgary.”
Clare and John’s favourite location to spend their time at is Bowness Pub – they love the live music events which occurred regularly before the pandemic.
“We’re involved with the Irish Club in Calgary, they have an awful lot of events. We organize events, we have a golf tournament that we’re involved with, and then we’re involved with the Pub Night which occurs on the last Friday of every month. We bring in local musicians from Bowness to play. Bowness has a village sense that there’s a Mainstreet, and we use a lot of the businesses. We shop at The Bownesian, and we have Bowness Auto, which has come in handy a lot.
It’s a very stable community, both of our neighbours were living there; they stay. When we moved here 31 years ago, there weren’t a lot of children on this block, and now that has completely changed – a lot of young people are coming in, it’s great. Bowness is going to be vibrant for a long time.
It’s like the bike capital of Canada… and dogs… that shows you what the area is like. I could never see Bow Cycle moving out of here. Cadence has also been around for a long time; great coffee, great breakfast. There’s lots of social places.”
Their house, the Wallace house, was built in 1912 and is one of the oldest in Bowness.
