Old City Hall - The Architect's Stone Revenge

A stop on Toronto Downtown Walk, a free self-guided tour.

Toronto spent ten years and more than 2.5 million dollars on this sandstone fortress, and by the time it opened in September 1899, city council and architect E. J. Lennox were barely on speaking terms. The style is Richardsonian Romanesque: rough-cut stone, deep round arches and a clock tower about 104 metres tall.

The delays and cost overruns left councillors so angry that they refused Lennox a plaque. He got the last word anyway. Look up under the upper eaves, where his stonemasons carved his name and the date 1898 into the corbels around the building.

There is a legend about the grotesque faces near the main entrance, too. Tradition says Lennox modelled them on the councillors who gave him grief, mocking them in stone, and he slipped in his own face as well, recognizable by its handlebar moustache.

The building held city council until 1965 and courtrooms until 2023. At the foot of the steps stands the Cenotaph, Toronto's main war memorial, unveiled in 1925.

Getting here: Walk west along King Street to Bay Street, then north up Bay to Queen Street; Old City Hall fills the northeast corner of Queen and Bay. On a cold day you can make much of this trip underground in PATH.

Did you know?: Council has voted to turn the empty building into a museum of Toronto's history, but in 2024 city staff estimated that about 190 million dollars of work would be needed first.

Photo op: Stand beside the Cenotaph on Queen Street and look up past the arched entrance to the clock tower.

More on Wikipedia: Old City Hall · E. J. Lennox · Richardsonian Romanesque

Old City Hall - The Architect's Stone Revenge

Stops on this tour