Casa Loma: Toronto Travel Guide (4.5★)

Toronto has very few hills, and on one of them a financier built himself a castle. Casa Loma sits on the ridge above the Annex. From its towers you can see the whole downtown grid running down to the lake. It went up between 1911 and 1914 for Sir Henry Pellatt. He kept it for barely a decade before money trouble forced him out.

Today it is one of the city’s most-visited attractions, and it is consistently well rated. You come for the scale of the rooms, the sheer nerve of the project and some of the best views in central Toronto.

A Castle Built on Electricity Money

Pellatt made his fortune in hydroelectric power and railways. He hired E.J. Lennox, the architect behind Toronto’s Old City Hall, to design a house in the Gothic Revival style. The result has battlements, turrets and close to a hundred rooms. It was the largest private home in Canada when it was finished.

The good times didn’t last. Debts and the city’s tax bill caught up with Pellatt in the 1920s, and he left. The building stood empty for years. Since the 1930s it has been open to the public as a museum, with the gardens open in season.

Film crews love it. Fans of the first X-Men film will recognise it as Professor Xavier’s school.

Getting Up the Hill

The approach is part of the visit. Most people take the subway to Dupont Station on Line 1 (Yonge–University) and walk north on Spadina Road. Where the road meets the escarpment, the Baldwin Steps climb straight up the slope. At the top, the castle is on your left.

• Subway: Dupont Station, Line 1, then roughly 10 minutes on foot including the steps
• Avoiding stairs: Stay on Spadina Road as it curves up the hill, or come from St. Clair West Station and walk downhill
• By car: There is parking on site, but the streets around it are residential and fill up fast on busy days
• Across the road: Spadina Museum, a quieter historic house whose grounds are next to the castle’s

Inside the Rooms

The self-guided route starts on the main floor. The Great Hall comes first, with a ceiling that rises well above the gallery. The library and dining rooms lead off it, all panelled in dark wood. The Conservatory is the odd one out: a bright room under a stained-glass dome, with marble and plants where the rest of the floor is timber.

Upstairs are the suites of Sir Henry and Lady Pellatt. They show how the family actually lived, with bathrooms and fittings that were very advanced for 1914. Exhibits on the upper floors cover Pellatt’s rise and fall and the castle’s later life, including its time as a film set.

The Towers and the Tunnel

These are the two parts people talk about afterwards, and both are easy to miss if you hurry.

• The towers: Narrow staircases lead up to the Norman and Scottish towers. The last stretch is tight and steep. Your reward is an open view south over the city with the CN Tower in the middle.
• The tunnel: A passage of about 800 feet runs from the basement, under the street, to the stables. Pellatt’s horses had stalls of polished mahogany and floors of tile, which tells you a lot about the man.
• The potting shed and carriage room: These are at the stable end, so leave yourself time to walk back

If you have trouble with tight stairs, the main floors still give you most of the castle. The tower climb is the part to skip.

The Gardens, Season by Season

The estate gardens slope down the terraces below the house, and they are open seasonally only. In the warmer months you get formal beds and woodland paths along the escarpment. In the colder months, expect them to be closed even when the house is open.

From the gardens you see the castle’s south face at its best. That is where most of the classic photos are taken. If the gardens matter to you, check the official site before you pick a date.

Beating the Weekend Crush

The rooms are grand, but the corridors and tower stairs aren’t, and that decides when you should go. Usually the quietest stretch is 10am to 11am, on weekdays and weekends alike. Try not to arrive between 12pm and 5pm on a weekend. That is when the crowds are thickest and the tower stairs back up.

• Book ahead: Buy tickets on the official Casa Loma website, where the current prices are posted. That saves you queueing at the desk.
• Go top-down: Head up to the towers first while the stairs are clear, then work your way down to the tunnel and stables.
• Watch the clock: Opening hours are currently 9:30am to 5pm every day, but they change through the year and around holidays and private events. The official site has this month’s times.
• Allow time: Give yourself 2 to 3 hours. If you arrive late in the afternoon, you’ll rush the stables, which are at the far end.

Pairing It With the Neighbourhood

Casa Loma sits where the Annex meets Forest Hill, and the castle is easy to fold into a longer day. Spadina Museum across the road shows a quieter side of early twentieth-century wealth.

Walk back down the Baldwin Steps to Dupont and you’re in the Annex. Its side streets of Victorian houses lead south towards Bloor Street, with its cafés, bookshops and the University of Toronto campus beyond. Heading north instead, the leafy streets of Forest Hill reward a slow stroll.