Queen’s Inn gets heritage adjustment in time for hopeful 2026 reopening

The Queen’s Inn – soon to be reimagined as the Queen’s Cue hotel – may re-open this year, after Stratford city council approved a heritage adjustment at its regular meeting May 26.

CONNOR LUCZKA, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

The Queen’s Inn – the stately Waterloo Street centrepiece in downtown Stratford – may soon re-open as the Queen’s Cue, after getting a timely heritage adjustment at the most recent city council meeting on May 26.

In its renovation process, BMI Group, the developer, was halted due to a disagreement with the Heritage Stratford permit review sub-committee, specifically due to a few features that included the renovation of the tower and the removal of the second-storey balcony overlooking Ontario Street.

The subcommittee wanted the tower to be fully “restored” back to brick, instead of BMI’s intention of restoring the brick of the street-facing walls and using metal cladding for the walls not visible on the street.

As Evan Sugden, senior associate of the Biglieri Group and agent on behalf of BMI Group, explained, “restored” is a misnomer.

“So the dome is not a solid brick structure,” Sugden explained. “This is a wood structure with a brick veneer on several of the sides, so the sides that are street facing are again a brick veneer on top of a wood structure, and the back of the dome is this, it's kind of tar paper, so this is an old layer of tar paper.

“…The balcony that the Heritage (Stratford) permit subcommittee has asked to be reinstated on the building, is actually a newer iteration of an old balcony that has long since been removed. In addition, the cladding that they're asking to do -- they've asked to shroud the entire dome walls with a brick wall, rather than maintaining the original and current establishment, which is street-facing walls as brick with the back of different material. So what's being proposed today is more in keeping with the current arrangements, save the fact that we're using a more robust cladding rather than tar paper on the back.”

Furthermore, the original heritage designation was less detailed than modern heritage designations and doesn’t specify features of the building or façade to be preserved, just that the façade should be preserved. As Sugden said, the façade has had numerous facelifts and renovations, some minor and some major, over the years, arguing that the heritage requirements are up to interpretation.

“In the grand scheme of things, this entire building is being kept,” Sugden said. “It's an entity adaptive reuse, which means its the entire structure being reused, rather than the façade or the shell of the building, and everything being hollowed out, and they're continuing to keep the use. This is a really rare proposal for modern development standards.”

Sugden said that the proponent is intending to have the Queen’s Cue opened and operational this year, as soon as possible.

In addition to unanimously voting to make the heritage alteration as requested, council also approved an encroachment for new front steps to the hotel and pub entrances, two existing curbed landscaped areas on either side of the entrance to the parking lot, a covered entrance on the Ontario Street entrance and lighting at 161 Ontario St., with a yearly CPI-adjusted bill of $1,223.09.

Only Coun. Cody Sebben and Coun. Brad Beatty were absent from the vote.