Toronto Guide
Toronto
Elgin Theatre and Winter Garden
Address: 189 Yonge St
Opening time: Guided tours only, Thurs 5pm & Sat 11am
Price: $7
Telephone: 416/314-2871
Across from the Eaton Centre, just north of Queen Street, the Elgin Theatre and Winter Garden is one of the city's most unusual attractions. The first part of the guided tour covers the Elgin, an old vaudeville theatre, whose ornate furnishings and fittings have been restored after years of neglect. The Elgin was turned into a cinema in the 1930s and, remarkably enough, its accompaniment, the top-floor Winter Garden, also a vaudeville theatre, was sealed off. Such double-decker theatres were introduced in the late nineteenth century in New York and soon became popular along the east coast, but only a handful have survived. Even better, when this one was unsealed, its original decor was found to be intact, the ceiling hung with thousands of preserved and painted beech leaves illuminated by coloured lanterns. In the event, much of the decor had to be replaced, but the restoration work was painstakingly thorough and the end result is simply delightful.