What to know
- The Beatles stayed at Toronto’s King Edward Hotel during all three of their visits to the city in 1964, 1965 and 1966.
- Beatles historian Piers Hemmingsen says it was the only Canadian hotel the band ever stayed at, earning it the nickname “Fortress King Edward.”
- Fans camped outside the hotel and reportedly posed as cleaners in attempts to get inside and catch a glimpse of the Fab Four.
- The band was transported between the hotel and Maple Leaf Gardens in a police paddy wagon to navigate the crowds.
- Their final Toronto shows took place on Aug. 17, 1966 — just 12 days before their final commercial concert at San Francisco’s Candlestick Park.
Sixty years ago this month, The Beatles returned to Toronto for the final time, playing two shows at Maple Leaf Gardens on Aug. 17, 1966.
When they were here, their Toronto refuge was the King Edward Hotel, or as Beatles historian Piers Hemmingsen puts it, “Fortress King Edward.” The city was no different than any other at the height of Beatlemania: fans staked out the Fab Four and devised plans to get into the hotel.
“It really was Fortress King Edward because everybody wanted to get into the hotel. There are many, many stories about fans pretending to be cleaners, and that,” said Hemmingsen, describing fans’ clever attempts to get inside and see the Beatles.
Last week, Hemmingsen hosted a private event for 30 people at the landmark hotel, giving a video presentation featuring photographs from his 2026 hardcover book, The BEATLES IN CANADA – The Origins Of Beatlemania!, and sharing tidbits and stories about the band’s three Toronto visits in 1964, 1965 and 1966. He also enlisted Toronto historian Bruce Bell to talk about the history of the hotel.
“We’re here to celebrate the 60 years since they were here, playing on the stage of Maple Leaf Gardens,” Hemmingsen told the gathering, adding that the year “typifies the Beatles at their best when they were playing live in North America,” and “Yellow Submarine” was the radio single at the time. Hemmingsen even got a Yellow Submarine cake to share after the break.
“We’re here at the King Edward Hotel, the official Beatles hotel in Canada, because they never stayed at any other hotel,” he added. “When they played Vancouver, they were in and out; when they played Montreal in ’64, they were in and out. “
During their tour stops, the Beatles stayed in room 869, known as the Royal Suite (or the Vice Regal Suite), but today’s hotel staff were unable to let us see it that day. On the way out, the front desk staff wouldn’t allow me upstairs to even photograph the outside of the door.
The fabulously animated Bruce Bell, whose Bruce Bell Tours was named “One of the Top 10 Tours in the World” by Forbes in 2025, provided historical context, taking the story back to 1901, the death of Queen Victoria and succession of King Edward, and the hotel’s opening in 1903. Originally called the King Edward, it was renamed King Edward Sheraton in 1950 (since 2013, it is the Omni King Edward), affectionately known as the King Eddy.
“What a history this hotel has,” Hemmingsen exclaimed. “And the fact that it is the Beatles Hotel in Canada is kind of cool.”
One of the fascinating things about the King Edward in the mid-1960s was its place in a city that was rapidly modernizing. Hemmingsen pointed out the building across the street that housed IBM’s Canadian headquarters in 1964, 1965 and 1966 — a glimpse of the emerging computer age, when massive mainframe computers were still something to be displayed behind plate-glass windows.
The Beatles’ own hotel reservation provides another connection to that early technology.
Hemmingsen showed a 1964 contract from General Artists Corporation, the American company that booked the Beatles’ North American tours. The document includes a Sept. 7, 1964 reservation at the Sheraton King Edward — the hotel was then part of the Sheraton chain — and references the company’s revolutionary electronic automated reservation system, called Reservatron.
“Booking your room in four seconds,” Hemmingsen joked. “How many people can today book a room in four seconds?”
The Beatles’ arrival was full-on Beatlemania. They played six shows at Maple Leaf Gardens, two a day, on Sept. 7, 1964; Aug. 17, 1965, and again on the same date in 1966. Each visit, fans gathered outside the King Edward through the night, hoping for a glimpse of Paul McCartney, John Lennon, Ringo Starr, and George Harrison.
“The Beatles would arrive from the airport late in the evening, and there were mobs. Those kids stayed out there all night. They camped out there, they stayed until the early hours — probably they didn’t even go home,” said Hemmingsen. “And every second song on CHUM was a Beatles song. So what you would have heard out there on the cobbled streets of King Street East were Beatles, music, nonstop.”
Photographs from the period show Lennon trying to make his way through a swarm of fans, Harrison running through the lobby and hotel staff attempting to keep the crowds under control. The Beatles’ entourage included members of their road crew, with separate rooms and areas providing some degree of separation from the chaos outside.
There was also the question of getting the Beatles from the hotel to Maple Leaf Gardens.
They were transported in the back of a police paddy wagon, a bizarre but effective solution to the problem of getting four of the world’s most famous young men through downtown Toronto. Photographs show the group inside the vehicle as it was pursued by fans along the streets, and another image captures them climbing into the paddy wagon after their final show.
Hemmingsen said that during the 1964 visit, the absence of manager Brian Epstein also gave the Beatles unusual freedom.
“Brian, again, wasn’t in Toronto in ’64, so Derek Taylor was in charge,” he explained. “And that meant the Beatles could do whatever they wanted. It was amazing.”
That apparently included partying late into the night.
“They were partying all night long,” Hemmingsen said, “and when they went to do their shows, the next day, they were hung over. Really hung over.”
By August 1966, the situation had become even more extraordinary. The Beatles were no longer simply one of the biggest bands in the world; they were approaching the end of their touring career. Just 12 days after their final Toronto shows, they would perform their last commercial concert at San Francisco’s Candlestick Park.
That makes the King Edward’s role in the story particularly poignant.
The hotel witnessed the Beatles before and after the concerts: arriving late at night, facing mobs of fans, trying to escape through its lobby, partying with their entourage and being shuttled to Maple Leaf Gardens in a paddy wagon.
Six decades later, the Beatles are long gone from the touring circuit, and the band broke up more than a half a century ago, but the King Edward Hotel is still there, a surviving piece of the Toronto story of four young musicians who, for three visits in the 1960s, briefly turned King Street East into the centre of the Beatles universe.
