South East

South East runs from Highway 401 and the rail corridor down to Lake Ontario, between Harwood Avenue South on the west and Lake Ridge Road at the Whitby line on the east. Bayly Street East divides its employment lands and the civic edge near Harwood from the residential streets that reach south along Salem Road South, Shoal Point Road and Audley Road South to Lake Driveway East and the waterfront. The Carruthers Creek marsh and the old cottage streets of Pickering Beach form its southeastern corner, and where the Ajax Community Centre and Town Hall lands are counted varies by guide.

Nearest the Harwood and Bayly corner, the streets around Falby Court, Clements Road East and Kings Crescent hold 1950s and 1960s bungalows, storey-and-a-halfs and splits on generous lots, with low-rise rental and condominium apartments along Harwood and Bayly. South of Clements the 1970s and 1980s subdivisions along Salem Road South and toward Shoal Point Road bring two-storeys with three or four bedrooms, back-splits and sidesplits, each with a single garage, and the late 1980s through early 2000s phases nearest Lake Driveway East, Audley Road South and the Carruthers Creek marsh carry the largest houses in the community, four-bedroom layouts over double garages on crescents that end in parkland. Pickering Beach, at the southeastern corner, is a grid of former cottages on small lots, many rebuilt as year-round houses or replaced with new custom builds facing the lake or the marsh. Townhouses appear as 1980s and 1990s condominium rows along Bayly Street East and Salem Road and as freehold blocks in the newer phases, and infill townhouse projects have been added near Bayly and Harwood.

Ajax GO lies five to ten minutes west by car along Bayly Street, and the buses make it a single ride from most of the community: route 216 comes down Harwood to the station, route 224 runs Salem Road to the same platform, the 917 PULSE line travels Bayly Street, Pickering Parkway Terminal at one end and Oshawa Centre mall at the other, and a seasonal branch of the 224 reportedly reaches Lake Driveway on summer weekends. Drivers use the Harwood or Salem interchanges to join the 401 and Lake Ridge Road or the Whitby ramps to reach the 412 and the 407. Bayly Street East continues into Whitby as Victoria Street toward Whitby GO. The Waterfront Trail runs the full length of the shore along Lake Driveway East, connecting west to the station area and east toward Whitby, and the Carruthers Creek trail leads north through the valley, so cycling to the lake or the platform is realistic.

Ajax High School, the town's original secondary school and a public board (Durham District School Board) school, stands on Bayly Street East inside the community and takes most of its public students. Public elementary schools reportedly serving South East include Bolton C. Falby, Southwood Park and Carruthers Creek public schools. Catholic students get Durham Catholic District School Board assignments, reportedly St. Francis de Sales or St. James Catholic School through grade eight and then Archbishop Denis O'Connor Catholic High, across the 401 on Mandrake Street, or else Notre Dame Catholic Secondary School, for high school. The public board's French immersion lives at designated schools that shift with enrolment, and Viamonde and MonAvenir serve French-language families from schools in Pickering and Whitby. Boundaries are set and revised by each board, so verify the school for a given street. One exit east on the 401 is Durham College's Whitby campus.

The waterfront is the community's main asset: Ajax Waterfront Park runs along Lake Driveway East with the paved trail, picnic shelters and lookouts over the lake, Paradise Park reportedly holds the beach and playground toward the eastern end near Pickering Beach, Rotary Park sits at the foot of Harwood on the community's western edge, and the Carruthers Creek marsh is a provincially significant wetland under TRCA management with a boardwalk and a birding trail. Centennial Road's Ajax Community Centre holds the town's main arenas and, reportedly, a fitness centre, and Town Hall, its library and the Pat Bayly Square plaza sit at Harwood and Bayly on the community's edge. Errands run to the plazas along Harwood Avenue South, Harwood Place Mall among them, plus the Ajax Plaza, and to Costco and its Durham Centre neighbours over the 401 on Kingston Road East. Lakeridge Health Ajax Pickering, reportedly at 580 Harwood Avenue South on the community's western boundary, is the hospital for all of Ajax and Pickering.

South East suits families after a detached house with a proper lot, a bike ride from the lake and minutes from the GO station, commuters who work along the 401 or in Whitby and Oshawa, and long-term owners who value the hospital, the arenas and the high school being close. It also suits buyers of converted cottages in Pickering Beach who want water views and are prepared to pay for a rebuild. It is a poorer fit for someone hunting a brand-new subdivision house with a triple garage, someone who prefers a main street to walk along, or someone who dislikes the trucks and traffic on Bayly Street East and Salem Road near the industrial lands, and low-lying lots near the marsh need floodplain diligence.