Fairmont Royal York
For a brief period after opening in 1929, this was the tallest building in the British Empire.
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Canadian Pacific Railway built this 28-floor, 124-metre Châteauesque tower directly opposite Union Station. It briefly outranked every building in Canada and the Empire until the Canadian Bank of Commerce Tower rose nearby in 1930. The underground PATH system still links the hotel to Union Station and Royal Bank Plaza below street level.
What to look for
- The Châteauesque roofline — a 1929 design by Ross and Macdonald with Sproatt and Rolph
- The PATH underground walkway connecting hotel to Union Station across Front Street
- The nearby Canadian Bank of Commerce Tower — the building that ended the Royal York's height record in 1930
Skip crossing Front Street entirely: the hotel's underground PATH link connects directly to Union Station.
Fairmont Royal York is one of 19 sights worth the detour in Toronto, all bundled offline in Voyage GO — download the Toronto pack and it sits on your map with no signal, filling your travel passport the moment you walk past.
More to see in Toronto
- CN TowerFor 32 years, a railway company's broadcast antenna was the tallest free-standing structure on Earth.
- BMO FieldThe 2007 soccer-specific stadium that grew into Toronto's outdoor dual-sport arena — and now holds 45,736 for the 2026 FIFA World Cup under the temporary name Toronto Stadium.
- Scotiabank ArenaA 1941 postal sorting depot on Bay Street that became Canada's busiest arena — and the most photographed spot in the country on Instagram.
- Royal Ontario MuseumCanada's largest museum packs 18 million objects — Cambrian sea creatures, East Asian art, and Art Deco clothing and design objects — into 40 galleries on Bloor Street.
- Rogers CentreThe world's first fully retractable motorized roof opened here in 1989 — and 70 hotel rooms still peer straight down onto the field.
- First Canadian PlaceFor 50 years it was Canada's tallest building — until a fellow Toronto skyscraper finally beat it in June 2025.