Elgin and Winter Garden Theatre Centre Toronto

The Elgin and Winter Garden Theatre Centre is a pair of stacked theatres in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The Winter Garden Theatre sits above the Elgin Theatre, six storeys up from street level, making the building the last surviving Edwardian stacked theatre complex in the world.

What is the Elgin and Winter Garden Theatre Centre?

It is not one conventional auditorium but a vertically arranged pair: the Elgin Theatre occupies the lower position, while the Winter Garden Theatre is positioned directly above it. The upper theatre sits six storeys above street level, giving the centre its defining architectural feature.

That arrangement also gives the building its wider significance. The Elgin and Winter Garden Theatres are the last surviving Edwardian stacked theatres in the world, so their unusual layout is not simply a detail of Toronto architecture. It is what distinguishes this theatre centre internationally.

Why are the Elgin and Winter Garden Theatres unusual?

The unusual feature is the way two theatres share one vertical structure. The Winter Garden is above the Elgin rather than beside it, with the upper theatre located six storeys up from street level. The centre therefore preserves a form of Edwardian theatre design that no other surviving example matches.

For an independent explorer, the key detail to remember is the building's arrangement: look at it as a stacked theatre pair, not as a single theatre with two names. The relationship between the lower Elgin Theatre and the elevated Winter Garden Theatre is the place's defining fact.

What film was shot at the Elgin Theatre?

The Elgin Theatre has a direct connection to The Shape of Water. In 2017, director Guillermo del Toro won the Academy Award for Best Picture for the film. Although the story was set in Baltimore, Maryland, in the early 1960s, the film was shot in Toronto and nearby Hamilton.

The scene in which Gillman, the amphibious man, retreats to the Orpheus Theatre to watch a movie was filmed at the Elgin Theatre in Toronto. The Reel Toronto Tour identifies the theatre as stop 3 of 8, placing this film connection in the context of Toronto's screen history.