Elgin and Winter Garden Theatre Centre
189 Yonge Street,
Toronto,
ON
M5B 1M4
189 Yonge Street,
Toronto,
ON
M5B 1M4
12 people
favorited this theater
The Elgin and Winter Garden Theatre Center is a fully-restored double decker theater, which is a combination of two previously separated theaters: the Elgin Theatre and the Winter Garden Theatre.
The Elgin Theatre opened on December 15, 1913 as a Loew’s theater and was used for vaudeville. The theater was remodeled in the late-1920’s for sound movies.
The Winter Garden Theater opened with 1,422 seats, on February 16 1914 and closed in 1928, when it became part of the Elgin Theatre.
The theaters were restored and reopened on Dec 15, 1989, 76 years to the day of their original opening on Dec. 15, 1913. One theater has 1,563 seats, while the other has 981.
Guided tours are held Thursday
at 5 pm, and Saturday at 11 am. Special tours can be arranged and booked through the theater at 416-314-2871 or 416-597-0956
Contributed by
Jason R, Bryan Arseneau
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Recent comments (view all 30 comments)
Here is another 1982 photo.
The Winter Garden is one substantial theatre. It boggles the mind to think that it’s atop another. According to my guide, there is actually a glorified crawl space between the two theatres. The only indication that there is a massive structure above it in the Elgin auditorium are a couple of substantial columns toward the rear of the orchestra. The current main lobby is actually more ornate than it was originally. According to the guide the way it is now is the way it was designed, but not executed.
Check out a fang-tastic ad from 1978 for a Hammer Dracula triple-bill at the Elgin!
Once the Uptown shut its doors back in 2003 this ended up becoming my most frequented theatre for the toronto film festival just to sheer volume of the great programming and the historic and prestine nature of the theatre itself. It is just absolutely gorgeous. Rivals the El Captitan in my opinion in terms of viewing experience and wish there were more opportunities to watch films here *fingers crossed.
Photo of the Winter Garden’s side boxes:
View link
Elgin/Winter Garden prior to restoration: View link
Here’s an updated link to the 1929 photo I posted on June 4, 2008: View link
Here are links to a few posts at Silent Toronto involving the Elgin/Winter Garden:
The Lost Films of the Loew’s Theatre
Tough guys at the Yonge Theare
Dracula Triple-bill at the Elgin!
Hollywood dreams at the Loew’s Theatre
If you’re ever in Toronto, make sure you take the free tour.
The interior of the upstairs auditorium, The Winter Garden, is amazing with all the leaves dangling from the ceiling.