Nathan Phillips Square is home to some of Toronto’s most iconic sights. Learn about its striking modernist architecture, dynamic cultural spaces and celebrated public art, all set against the dramatic backdrop of City Hall.
View artwork & learn more about the artists
At the centre of the Spirit Garden is a two‑metre‑tall limestone Turtle sculpture, located within a reflecting pool and aligned with Magnetic North to strengthen its relationship to Mother Earth and is positioned centrally within the Spirit Garden to reinforce its influence. The surrounding space includes a teaching lodge, amphitheatre, a Métis Spirit Canoe, Tree of Peace, a traditional Inuksuk, the Kaswentha (Two‑Row Wampum) walkway, and a Three Sisters teaching garden. Each element was created by Indigenous artists representing First Nations, Inuit and Métis cultures.
The Spirit Garden is a place to learn about Indigenous history, traditions and worldviews while honouring the survivors of the 18 residential schools that once operated in Ontario. It supports community gathering, ceremonies, cultural expression and shared understanding. The project is led by Toronto Council Fire Native Cultural Centre in partnership with the City of Toronto.
The rectangular structure is 182 feet and 4 inches long by 100 feet and four inches wide.
The arches are said to recall the form of the City Hall towers and were officially named Freedom Arches in 1989. A piece of the Berlin Wall lies at the base of the centre freedom arch on the south side, embedded with a plaque. The arches are a fundamental element of the original design and, along with the reflecting pool/skating rink, are part of the heritage designation of the Square.
The reflecting pool serves as a decorative and cooling feature during the summer, but is probably best known as a skating rink in the winter. The skating rink is open to the public annually from November to March. See drop-in skating hours.
West of the reflecting pool/skating rink is a building providing food concessions, change room space, skate rentals from November to March and public washrooms.
Atop the pavilion is generous upper-level roof terrace allowing for visitors to take in the panoramic view of the Square.
Stretching across the Square and three metres tall, the TORONTO Sign is one of Toronto’s most photographed landmarks. The 3D letters, Medicine Wheel and maple leaf feature vinyl wrap artwork on the outer edges. Its colourful LED lights change to mark holidays, festivals and major events and illuminate the Square every night.
Artist: Henry Moore
The Archer is a 2.5 tonne bronze free-form statue that rests on a concrete base, surrounded by a floor of concrete embedded with stones. While most Torontonians know the iconic sculpture as the Archer, its official name is Three-Way Piece No. 2.
City Hall architect Viljo Revell asked British sculptor, Henry Moore, to design and create a statue that would complement the flowing lines of City Hall.
Although $100,000 had been set aside for a piece of artwork for Nathan Phillips Square, Moore’s abstract design created sufficient public controversy that it was initially not accepted by City Council. However, following the death of Revell, Mayor Phillip Givens undertook a campaign to raise the $100,000 needed to purchase the Archer through private donations.
The Archer was installed in Nathan Phillips Square in 1966.
In 1974, Henry Moore donated 200 pieces of his artwork to the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) in Toronto. They are on view in the AGO’s Henry Moore Sculpture Centre.
Artist: Oscar Nemon 
This three-metre high, rough textured bronze statue is also known as the Winston Churchill Memorial. Prior to the revitalization, it stood at the southwest corner of Nathan Phillips Square, and now sits in the northwest corner of the Square known as Sculpture Court.
The statue was donated to the City of Toronto by Henry R. Jackman in 1977 and is made from the original mould of a work by Oscar Nemon that stands in the Members Lobby in the British House of Commons.
In 2002, members of the Churchill Society for the Advancement of Parliamentary Democracy and the International Churchill Society, Canada began to raise funds to improve the beauty and accessibility of the Square. Upon meeting with staff from the City, the area was improved with benches, landscaping and information panels that portray a different dimension of Churchill’s life and achievements.
The ancient white granite column is 2.1 metres high.
Three countries are connected to the column, as the inscription on the marble tablet explains:
This unique column was presented in 1957 to Mayor Nathan Phillips, Q.C., by the Hon. Umberto Tupini, Mayor of the City of Rome as a token of friendship between the Citizens of Rome and Toronto. The column is granite (lapis syonites) known to have been quarried in Egypt between 300 and 400 A.D. for a Roman building since destroyed. It was erected on this site with assistance of the Canadian Italian Business and Professional Men’s Association of Toronto and accepted by Mayor William Dennison in 1967.
Information obtained from Creating Memory, by John Warkentin.
Peace Through Valour MonumentArtist: Ken Lum
The space behind the Sir Winston Churchill statue is being prepared for this monument, which honours the Canadian soldiers who fought in the Italian Campaign in the Second World War.
The Peace Through Valour Monument presents the 3D printed bronze topographical map of the town of Ortona, where Canadian soldiers fought the fiercest battle in the Italian Campaign, and achieved one of the greatest victories in the Second World War.
Ortona was a beautiful medieval coastal town on the Adriatic Sea that was reduced to ruin and devastation upon the conclusion of the campaign. The renowned Canadian artist Charles Comfort painted several paintings of the destroyed Ortona, and it is from these paintings that the artist Ken Lum drew his inspiration and ideas.
At each of the four corners of the map a less than life size bronze statue of a Canadian soldier stands in vigil, as if contemplating the cost of freedom regained in war through human sacrifice and loss of built cultural heritage.
The Peace Through Valour Monument was donated to the City of Toronto by Villa Charities and the Italian Community.
Information obtained from artist Ken Lum’s concept proposal.
The Peace Garden was relocated from the middle of the Square to the west landscaped area, adjacent to Osgoode Hall and the new Law Courts Sculpture Garden.
The Garden is organized around a reflecting pool and set between two elevated planting areas that are filled with flowering trees and native plants. At the center, a granite bridge spans the pool and connect to the relocated Pavilion that is nestled within the trees. At the north end of the pool, a rekindled eternal flame sits within a vessel of water that cascades into the reflecting pool.
The Peace Garden can accommodate larger groups (for ceremonial purposes only) than the previous one, while providing more intimate spaces for smaller gatherings.
Note: The Garden is not available as an event space.
The revitalized Nathan Phillips Square houses a permanent stage that also acts as a landscape element and shade canopy on summer days.
During the fall, winter and spring, the stage appears as an open, urban landscape that connects to the elevated walkways. Torontonians will also be able to use the stage as a set of two-tiered urban bleachers to view the open Square. Included is a versatile stage structure with an elegant roof canopy, wide stairs leading to the elevated walkways and performance support space connected below grade.
Behind the stage is a backstage area that accommodates an assembly area for performers, a secure holding area, technical support rooms, a stage management office, washrooms and an outdoor loading area for stage equipment. These spaces are located on stage level and are connected to the underground level by an elevator and stairs.
Directly below the stage are all the major support spaces for the stage. This area includes the men’s and women’s change rooms and washrooms, Green Room, VIP suite, crew rooms and separate offices for production management and visiting companies.