Royalty

August 2025.

The Royal Bank Tower in Montreal is a prominent building in Old Montreal and was once the tallest building in Canada and the larger British Empire, being the first to surpass the towers of Notre-Dame Basilica. A more sober Beaux-Arts design compared to the splendid Second Empire and Renaissance Revival buildings lining Rue Saint-Jacques, it nonetheless has a richly decorated interior and banking hall.

The Royal Bank Tower is located at 360 Rue Saint-Jacques in the Old Montreal neighborhood of Montreal, Quebec. It is bordered by Rue Saint-Pierre and the Molsons Bank Building to the north, Rue Dollard to the south, Rue Notre-Dame to the east, and Rue Saint-Jacques and the Nordheimer Building to the west.

History

The Royal Bank of Canada was founded as the Merchants Bank of Halifax in 1864. Their first official head office there opened in 1879, but in 1907, the bank moved to Montreal. (Montreal was Canada’s financial center at the time.) They occupied a building on Rue Saint-Jacques for the following two decades.

A look at the former buildings on the site. (McCord Stewart Museum)

By 1926, RBC had become the largest bank in Canada, and their headquarters were becoming too small. They had purchased the entire block that the building stands on today, which included the Mechanics’ Institute and Bank of Ottawa Building (the latter of which was reconstructed at 4 Rue Notre-Dame East and stands today). The New York firm York & Sawyer was commissioned to design a larger building, along with RBC’s chief architect Sumner Godfrey Davenport. Their 22-story Beaux-Arts design clad in limestone was completed in 1928. At that time, it was the tallest building in Canada and the British Empire, standing at 397 feet, and it was the first Montreal building to surpass Notre-Dame in height. 

1929 view of the bank and its surroundings. (Vieux-Montreal)

RBC moved their main office to the newly completed Place Ville-Marie in 1962, but they maintained a branch in the Royal Bank Building’s Hall. However, that branch was relocated to the Stock Exchange Tower in 2012. The building was acquired by Georges Coulombe, who restored the exterior and interior. The banking hall is a cafe today (which is busy but has good food!). The basement, which features the former bank vault, is used as a nightclub.

Photos

It was tough to get a photo of the entire Royal Bank Tower due to its size and this area’s density. This photo does a passable job but obscures the penthouse floors and roof lantern:

The building has a standard (what Canadian sources call “American”) expression for a skyscraper from this era--base, shaft, and capital. The base is several stories high and takes up the entire site, similar in height to its Victorian neighbors. It seems rather Renaissance-y due to its square construction and rusticated Queenston limestone. (This stone has also taken on a brown patina over time.) The main tower’s shaft rises above the pedestal of the base, largely undecorated aside from the rusticated corners and colonnade at the top. These setbacks across the building are a result of Montreal’s legislation at the time on buildings taller than 10 stories.

I also dug up this picture from much further away, at the intersection of Rue Saint-Pierre and Rue Marguerite-D’Youville:

A better look at the crown from Rue du Square-Victoria:

A third setback occurs with a small penthouse level, which is crowned by a hipped roof and cupola on top. It is sparely decorated, largely due to its height and necessity to be perceived from a distance.

I think the base is a good example of monumental architecture done correctly. It is large in size, yet it is easy to understand and relates to the human scale more properly:

Looking up the shaft from the base:

In keeping with the stalwart massing and less flamboyant ornamentation across the building, the base colonnade uses Roman Doric columns without fluting.

One of the smaller windows on the lower floors (still two stories in height), which appears to retain its original windows and framing:

It’s unusual to me how the arch’s stones take a pointed form, which is a Gothic feature and not a classical one. The window itself is semicircular, however.

The Rue Saint-Jacques entrance, with its gilded portal:

A closer look at the portal’s marble carvings and gilding:

On the rear of the building on the Rue Notre-Dame side, I saw this metal sign:

**In the coming interior photos, you will notice an orangeish tint. My camera’s light balance at the time was calibrated to a gray card in neon purple lighting for an old photography class project, which I failed to reset afterwards. I only noticed this discrepancy and rectified it months later.

This is one’s view when entering the building from its main entrance:

This type of vaulted interior space also borrows from Renaissance architecture. Four smaller hallways branch off from the central one, which features octagonal coffers across its ceiling. Rich finishes and stonework contribute to the feeling of opulence achieved here.

Looking up at the ceiling coffers:

In antiquity, coffers were a structural feature that saved weight in domes and vaulting, but they are generally used for aesthetic value in the subsequent classical revival genres.

One of the hallways branching off the main entrance:

Note the square coffers here with rosettes, likely inspired by the Pantheon. The portal itself is separated by two pilasters and a slightly projecting stone layer.

The interior doors in this area are richly carved metal and framed in marble:

More pointed arches. What’s up with that?

Back to where we came, with the large window above the entrance:

An aisle formed right before the banking hall features this fancy groin vaulting:

A closer look at the denticulated pilaster capitals:

My off-center view of the banking hall:

Unlike the BMO Main Branch, this is an active (and always busy) cafe, so lots more people around. It doesn’t feature as many columns, mostly the more tectonic pilasters supporting the arches and wall planes; the main points of attention are the windows and arches. A rich entablature lines the underside of the ceiling, which has a carved frieze of griffins.

The ceiling has really fancy coffering and molding:

The electroliers are excellent and either originals or very faithful reproductions:

Back at the aisle again, this time from the level of the banking floor:

I cannot get over the level of filigree in this ceiling. There are so many patterns and details that emphasize different directions of the groin vaults.

Not every day you see an adaptive reuse of an old banking hall as a cafe. There’s a reason this place was busy when I ate there and came back for pictures--people value spaces with character!!

Sources:

https://www.vieux.montreal.qc.ca/inventaire/fiches/fiche_bat.php?sec=o&num=32

https://nationaltrustcanada.ca/nt-awards/360-saint-jacques

https://gestioncoulombe.com/en/portfolio/360-rue-saint-jacques-vieux-montreal/

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=3610055132405098&set=p.3610055132405098&type=3