A 12-room boutique hotel in a converted 19th-century brewery building on Queen West \u2014 The Templar delivers industrial-chic design, original brick and beam architecture, and a location in one of Toronto's most creative neighbourhoods. Ideal for design lovers and Queen West explorers.
Neighbourhood: Queen West · Address: 348 Queen St W, Toronto, ON M5V 2A4 · Hours: 24 hours | Check-in 3pm | Check-out 11am · Price Range: $$ · Phone: (416) 479-9842 · Website: https://www.thetemplarhotel.com/ · Rating: 3/5
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For travellers who value industrial heritage and creative neighbourhood energy, The Templar's converted brewery setting and Queen West location offer a characterful stay that chain hotels cannot replicate.
The 19th-century brewery conversion with original brick, timber beams, and pressed-tin ceilings makes this one of Toronto's most architecturally distinctive small hotels. The 12-room scale and Queen West creative energy complete the experience.
The Templar Hotel is one of those places that makes immediate sense once you see the building. It’s a 12-room boutique hotel tucked into a former 19th-century brewery on Queen Street West, and the whole point of staying here is that the building still feels like a building with a past. You don’t walk in and get the polished, interchangeable feel of a chain property. You walk into exposed brick, heavy timber beams, tall factory windows, and a layout that clearly had a different life before someone figured out how to turn it into a hotel. That’s a big part of why people choose it. It feels specific to Toronto, and more specifically to Queen West, which is exactly what you want if you’re coming here to actually experience the city instead of just sleep near it.
The first thing you notice is the scale. With only 12 rooms, there’s no big lobby scene, no constant shuttle of tour groups, and no sense that the hotel is trying to be all things to all people. It’s quieter than you might expect for such a central location, but not sterile. The front desk area has that converted-industrial feel that some hotels fake and others get right, and The Templar gets it right because the bones are real. The old brewery details are still doing the heavy lifting. You can see the age in the brick, the grain in the beams, the height of the ceilings, the original factory windows that let in more light than you usually get in a building like this. In the evening, the space takes on a softer mood, with shadows playing across the walls and the whole place feeling more intimate than dramatic. In the morning, it’s all bright edges and textured surfaces, and that contrast is part of the appeal.
The rooms are individually shaped by the building rather than flattened into a standard template, so don’t expect the same arrangement from one room to the next. Some rooms have loft sleeping areas under the original beams, which is the choice to make if you want the full effect of sleeping inside an old industrial shell. Others keep the bed at the main level and use the loft as a seating or workspace area. That irregularity is a strength here, not a problem. It makes each room feel like a room with personality instead of a category on a booking page. The tradeoff is that you should manage your expectations a little. These aren’t oversized luxury suites with sprawling layouts, and the charm is partly in the constraints of the building. If you like perfect symmetry and predictable hotel design, this probably won’t be your place. If you like character and can live with a staircase or two, you’ll probably love it.
Inside the rooms, the look stays consistent with the building: brick, wood, simple contemporary furniture, and clean modern bathrooms that soften the rougher edges of the historic structure. The bathrooms are the part that matter most if you’re staying more than one night, and they’re done well. They’re not flashy, but they’re practical and comfortable, with rainfall showers and heated floors that make the whole experience feel much easier than some heritage conversions do. That matters because a lot of older buildings can look great and feel cold or awkward once you’re actually living in them for a few days. The Templar avoids that problem pretty well. You get the texture and atmosphere without giving up the basics you actually care about after a long day out in the city.
What people do here, mostly, is use it as a base for exploring Queen West and then come back to reset before heading out again. You’ll see couples getting ready for dinner, people dropping shopping bags on the bed after a day wandering between galleries and boutiques, and the occasional guest stretching out with coffee before heading to Trinity Bellwoods or down toward the waterfront. It’s not a hotel where everyone is hanging around the property all day, because there isn’t much reason to. The lobby isn’t a social scene in the way some newer boutique hotels try to engineer one. Instead, it’s a place to come back to after the neighbourhood does its job. And Queen West does a lot of the work for you.
The location is one of the main reasons to book here. Queen Street West is right outside, which means you’re staying in one of the parts of Toronto where people actually walk, browse, stop for coffee, and linger outside restaurants when the weather’s good. In the daytime, the street has a steady hum: delivery bikes, streetcars, shoppers drifting in and out of independent stores, people heading to meetings in creative offices, and visitors trying to figure out which café line is worth standing in. At night, the energy shifts without disappearing. Restaurants fill up, patios get busy, and the sidewalks stay active later than they do in more residential parts of the city. You’re close to Trinity Bellwoods Park, which is one of the easiest places in Toronto to spend an hour or three doing basically nothing and enjoying it. You’re also within easy reach of the AGO and OCAD if you’re interested in art, and the 501 streetcar stops right nearby, so it’s simple to get east or west without having to think too hard about transit.
The neighbourhood context matters because The Templar doesn’t try to create an experience that’s separate from Queen West. It’s part of the street’s rhythm. That’s a big difference from hotels that are technically in a cool area but feel sealed off from it. Here, the surroundings are part of the stay. You’re more likely to be deciding between a late breakfast spot and a decent coffee place than between hotel amenities, because the surrounding neighbourhood does a lot of the heavy lifting. That also means the hotel is best for travellers who want to spend time outside. If your ideal trip involves lingering in the room and treating the hotel like a destination in itself, you may find the experience a little too lean. There’s no on-site restaurant to anchor the day, and that’s fine as long as you’re the kind of person who likes using a neighbourhood as your dining room.
Compared with other boutique hotels in Toronto, The Templar stands out because it doesn’t feel like it was designed by committee. A lot of “industrial chic” hotels in the city look the part but end up feeling polished to the point of sameness. This place still has some edges. The architecture does most of the talking, and that gives the hotel a more honest personality. It’s not trying to impress you with a rooftop bar, a huge wellness program, or an overproduced communal lounge. It’s betting that the building itself, the location, and the intimacy of a 12-room property are enough. And in a city where so many hotels are interchangeable once you get past the lobby, that approach actually feels refreshing. The tradeoff is obvious: fewer amenities, less anonymity, and a more limited service footprint. But if you’re the sort of traveller who books based on character rather than square footage, that’s probably a fair deal.
A practical note: book early, especially if you want a weekend stay or you’re visiting during summer festival season, when Queen West gets busy and the best rooms disappear quickly. If you can, ask for a room with the sleeping loft, because that’s where the building’s old structure really shows off. Be aware that with an older converted building, room shapes can vary more than you might expect, so it’s worth being specific when you book if you care about light, layout, or stairs. Also, because there are only 12 rooms, you’re not dealing with the kind of front-desk turnover or constant availability that larger hotels can offer. That’s part of the charm, but it also means you should be a little more organized than you would be with a bigger property. Check-in is straightforward, but don’t assume you can casually show up at peak time and get a lot of flexibility without waiting.
The honest reality is that The Templar works best for people who like a hotel with a point of view. It’s not trying to give you every convenience under the sun, and that’s exactly why some people love it. The architecture has enough presence that you notice it again in the morning and again when you come back at night, which is more than you can say for most places in this price range. If you’re the type of traveller who wants to be in the middle of Toronto’s creative side, eat well without overplanning, and sleep somewhere that feels tied to the city’s older industrial past, this is a strong choice. It’s the kind of hotel that doesn’t fade into the background, and in Toronto, that’s a real advantage.
Yes \u2014 The Templar occupies a converted 19th-century brewery building on Queen Street West. The original brick walls, timber beams, pressed-tin ceilings, and factory windows have been preserved and integrated into the hotel design.
The Templar has only 12 rooms, each individually configured to work with the building's irregular industrial floor plan. The intimate scale means personalized service but also limited availability \u2014 book well in advance.
No on-site restaurant, but Queen West's dining scene is one of Toronto's best and is immediately outside the hotel. The staff provide a curated neighbourhood guide with recommendations from casual cafes to acclaimed restaurants.
Trinity Bellwoods Park is about a 5-minute walk west on Queen Street. The AGO and OCAD are 10 minutes east, and the 501 Queen streetcar at the door connects you to the entire city.
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