Registration is open for By the Lake Book Club.

Assembly Hall is dedicated to nurturing and celebrating community, creativity and culture with arts-focused classes, performances and events. The beautifully restored building, which blends history with innovative modern design, is a favourite community-based location for meetings, celebrations and more.

General Admission

Free

Gallery Hours

Monday to Friday: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Saturday: 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Closed Sundays and for all statutory holidays

Office Hours

Monday to Friday: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Closed for all statutory holidays

Public Transit

Assembly Hall can be reached either by the 501 Long Branch streetcar, which runs along Lake Shore Blvd. W., or by the 44 Kipling South bus, from Kipling Station.

Location

1 Colonel Samuel Smith Park Drive

Parking is available

By the Lake Book Club offers an inspiring season of in-person and virtual literary events. Join Humber Polytechnic alumni as they dive into conversation with leading Canadian authors. This series features six Tuesday-night events, between February and December. Each in-person event includes a reading, discussion, audience Q&A, book-signing and American Sign Language (ASL) interpretation. Virtual events are presented with live subtitles.

The 2025 lineup features Nina Dunic, Erum Shazia Hasan, Zhang Ling, Alicia Elliott, Anuja Varghese and Maurice Vellekoop.

Browse Events & Register

Tickets

  • 6-Pack tickets for all six events, February to December: $120
  • 3-Pack tickets for events, September to December (tiered seating): $55
  • Single ticket for February, March or April event (café seating): $28
  • Single ticket for September, October or December event (tiered seating): $21
  • Virtual ticket (online viewing & audio only): $10

How to Create an Account

Learn how to activate and access your online account for recreation and cultural activities.

Alternatively, call Assembly Hall at 416-338-7255 during office hours.

About By the Lake Book Club

Since 2009, By the Lake Book Club has featured over 90 diverse Canadian authors, sharing their latest works with readers from Toronto and beyond. Authors who have participated in the series include Desmond Cole, Kim Fu, Michelle Good, Lawrence Hill, John Irving, Vincent Lam, Monia Mazigh, Alistair McLeod, Michael Redhill, Naben Ruthnum, Tanya Talaga, Sarah Polley and Miriam Toews. This Assembly Hall series is presented by the City of Toronto in partnership with Humber Polytechnic’s Faculty of Media, Creative Arts and Design.

2024 to 2025 Cohort

Boys’ Club Tap Dance Collective

Boys’ Club is a tap dance collective that includes Veronica Simpson from Toronto, Laura Donaldson from Calgary and Elise McGrenera from Vancouver. Recognizing the historical dominance of men in the form, they aim to challenge this paradigm by amplifying feminine voices and experiences. Through tap dance, Boys’ Club seeks to reclaim space, express identities, and shed light on the often-overlooked contributions of women in the history of tap dance and jazz music.

Boys’ Club began in residence in May 2022 at Tanzhaus nrw (Germany). Boys’ Club has performed a full-length work at the The Claquettes Club (Belgium), and at Golem’s Theatre (Barcelona) and will be returning to the Claquettes Club and Tanzhaus nrw to perform a new iteration in 2024. They were welcomed as a company in residence at national and international residency spaces including Leña Artist Residency, Decidedly Jazz Danceworks and the Claquettes Club.

Kiera Breaugh (she/her)

Kiera Breaugh is a dancer/choreographer whose style lives at the intersection of contemporary and hip hop. She has a Bachelor of Arts in Dance from Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles and was a member of Los Angeles dance companies: the Young Lions, Immabeast, Immabreathe and MashUp Contemporary Dance Company. Kiera performed in Dance Matters, Dusk Dances Hamilton and the Toronto, Orlando and Vancouver Fringe Festivals. She choreographed for PRESENCE, a site specific series commissioned by Peggy Baker Productions, ProArteDanza’s Choreolab, and presented an original piece during a Raptor’s half-time as a Welcome Toronto Creator. Kiera teaches and choreographs across the GTA.

About this Residency Program

Presented in partnership with TOES FOR DANCE, this two-year program nurtures artistic development and community-building by holding time and space for dancers and choreographers to experiment, discuss and explore the art form while offering compelling artistic experiences that allow the local community to engage with the art of dance.

Learn more

The Performance Hall and Community Rooms are ideal spaces for events ranging from small meetings and workshops to performances, weddings, film shoots and conferences.

To inquire about booking Assembly Hall for your event, please complete the rental inquiry form.

Features

  • Limited free parking (50 spaces)
  • Free Wi-Fi
  • Wheelchair-accessible performance hall
  • Parkland setting

Rental Details

North Community Room

  • Seminar capacity: 28
  • Banquet seating capacity: 40
  • Lecture capacity: 50

East Community Room

  • Seminar capacity: 28
  • Banquet seating capacity: 40
  • Lecture capacity: 50
  • Adjoining kitchen

Performance Hall

  • Theatre seating capacity: 254
  • Banquet seating capacity: 120

Floor plans of event spaces

Assembly Hall has been an important part of the Etobicoke Lakeshore community for over a century. It was built in 1898 as part of the Mimico Lunatic Asylum, designed to serve as a place of recreation and worship for the patients and hospital staff. Patient labour was used to construct Assembly Hall and various other hospital buildings. The hospital’s first superintendent, Dr. Nelson Henry Beemer, was a strong believer in meaningful work as a form of rehabilitative therapy.

The original purpose for Assembly Hall was to meet the social and spiritual needs of the hospital. However, because there was no comparable facility in the area, Assembly Hall soon became the principal gathering place for a multitude of community events, dances and concerts. The Asylum changed names repeatedly over the years, becoming the Mimico Hospital for the Insane in 1911, the Ontario Hospital, New Toronto in 1919 and finally renamed as the Lakeshore Psychiatric Hospital, but Assembly Hall maintained its name and central role throughout the entire history of the hospital.

After the closure of the Lakeshore Psychiatric Hospital in 1979, Assembly Hall fell into disuse for two decades. The combined efforts of local activists and politicians helped to support the City of Toronto’s restoration of this facility, which reopened on in June 2001. The renovated Assembly Hall has been designed to meet a variety of cultural and community needs. The beautiful 250+ seat Performance Hall is a venue for music, theatre, dance, receptions and special events. The community rooms are used for art classes, meetings, workshops and rehearsals. Gallery spaces for visual arts are located throughout the building. Assembly Hall is a rental facility for both public and private use.