Theatres

Elgin and Winter Garden Theatre Center

189 Yonge Street, Toronto
Seating capacity: Elgin: 1,561  Winter Garden: 992
416.314.2901 | seating plan | map | street view | official website

Built in 1913, the Elgin and Winter Garden theatre complex located at Yonge and Queen Streets in Toronto originally opened as Loew's Yonge Street Theatre (part of a chain of vaudeville houses). The upper theatre, the Winter Garden, was closed and sealed off in the late 1920s. The lower theatre, The Elgin, remained in operation as a movie theatre.

With two completely separate and distinctive theatres, the Elgin and Winter Garden Theatre Centre is the last operating double-decker theatre in the world. Now a National Historic site owned and operated by the Ontario Heritage Trust, the Theatre is located in the heart of downtown, in close proximity to shopping, accommodations, public transit, and ample parking facilities. Dedicated to providing theatre-goers with the best in Canadian and international entertainment, the productions featured here range from musicals, comedies, and concerts, to dramas, operas, and Toronto International Film Festival screenings.

The Elgin and Winter Garden Theatres are more than just a preserved example of building design. Their designs reveal changes in entertainment trends and their architectural styles provide links between the nickelodeon, vaudeville, and movie palace eras. During the restoration, 28 layers of paint were removed from the original surface of the Thomas Lamb Lobby. During that same restoration, moreover, the world’s largest collection of vaudeville scenery was discovered, including hand-painted flats and drops dating from 1913.