The Imperial Theatre

Barrymore's Music Hall opened August 24, 1914 as the Imperial Theatre, and was known as “Canada’s Theatre Beautiful”. It seated 1,091 and indeed was Ottawa’s classiest movie theatre until the opening of the Loew’s in 1920. For years it catered to children with Saturday serials. The Imperial closed as a movie theatre in 1955. The building was renovated to accommodate retail uses along the sidewalk with the Beaux-Arts auditorium upstairs largely intact. Since 1978 the auditorium has functioned as Barrymore’s Music Hall, one of Canada’s top live music venues.