Three official residences within three kilometres of each other. One open as a museum because its owner has been dead for three quarters of a century. One empty and gutted because its institution has not decided what to do with it. One continuously occupied for one hundred and sixty-one years because the institution it represents still works. The corridor is the institutional record.
Start · Confederation Square: The Gate
DirectionsStops
- 1
Confederation Square: The Gate
The symbolic centre of the capital. The National War Memorial dedicated 21 May 1939 by King George VI. Looking north up Sussex Drive: the corridor begins.
- 2
Delegation of the Ismaili Imamat: The 2008 Pavilion
The Fumihiko Maki and Moriyama Teshima Architects building opened by Stephen Harper on 6 December 2008. The first embassy of the walk. The first asymmetry.
- 3
Embassy of the United States: The 1999 Bridge
David Childs of Skidmore, Owings and Merrill. Dedicated 8 October 1999. Foreign-power infrastructure on the corridor while the Prime Minister's residence two blocks north began its slow vacancy.
- 4
Embassy of France: The 1936 Cornerstone
Eugène Beaudouin's 1939 Art Deco chancery. The first foreign chancery on Sussex Drive. The cornerstone was laid by Mackenzie King on Bastille Day 1936.
- 5
24 Sussex Drive: The Empty House
Joseph Merrill Currier built it 1866 to 1868 as a wedding gift. Federally expropriated 1943. PM residence 1951 to 2015. The 2021 NCC report. The 2023 abatement. The decision deferred.
- 6
Earnscliffe: The Inversion
Thomas McKay's firm built it 1855 to 1857 for his son-in-law John McKinnon. John A. Macdonald died here 6 June 1891. The British High Commissioner's residence continuously since 1930.
- 7
Rideau Hall: The Closer
Thomas McKay's 1838 villa. The Crown leased it in 1864, Frederick Preston Rubidge oversaw additions in 1865, the Crown bought it in 1868. Every Governor General since Viscount Monck has lived here. The lights are on.
Details
Best Time to Visit
Weekday mid-morning, Tuesday through Thursday, between nine and noon, in shoulder season (late April through early June, September through October). Sussex Drive carries diplomatic and ceremonial traffic throughout the working week; the corridor is quieter on weekday mornings than on weekends, when the National Gallery and ByWard Market draw heavier foot traffic at the south end. The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier ceremonial guard rotates at Confederation Square in spring through autumn; the audio at Stop 1 is anchored to respect the guard's quiet zone. The Rideau Hall grounds at Stop 7 are open year-round during daylight hours; interior tours are by reservation. Avoid Sunday afternoons in summer when the south end of the corridor is congested with ByWard Market visitors. Winter walks the corridor with almost no foot traffic, but the wind off the Ottawa River bluff at Earnscliffe and Rideau Hall is sharp in January and February.
Pro Tips
- •OC Transpo bus and LRT serve Parliament/Rideau Centre station, two minutes' walk from Confederation Square; Stop 1 is the recommended start
- •Bring proper walking shoes; the three and a half kilometre corridor includes the bridge over the Rideau Canal and the long curve along the Ottawa River bluff between 24 Sussex and Rideau Hall
- •Do not photograph through the gates at 24 Sussex Drive if security personnel object; the south sidewalk opposite the front gates is the audio anchor and the line of sight is usable from there
- •The US Embassy at Stop 3 has active security; the pedestrian plaza on the south side is the closest the audio asks you to stand; do not loiter at the embassy gate itself
- •Doors Open Ottawa, typically the first weekend of June, opens the interiors of Earnscliffe and the Embassy of France to the public for one day each; if your visit lands on Doors Open weekend, the interiors of Stops 4 and 6 are accessible
- •The Rideau Hall grounds at Stop 7 are open year-round during daylight hours; interior public tours run free by reservation through the Office of the Governor General
- •Heritage Ottawa publishes a Sussex Drive walking tour pamphlet with additional architectural detail; available at Heritage Ottawa events and through their website
- •Library and Archives Canada holds the Mackenzie King diaries online at the LAC Collection Search; the diaries span 1893 to 1950 and are searchable by date if you want to read the entries for the days mentioned on this tour
Safety & Precautions
- •Sussex Drive carries vehicular traffic at most hours; cross at marked lights and stay on the sidewalk between stops
- •The perimeter fences at 24 Sussex Drive and Earnscliffe are security infrastructure; do not approach the gates or attempt to photograph through them at the request of personnel
- •The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Confederation Square is a ceremonial site; keep your voice down when the guard is present and do not cross the marked ceremonial area
- •The Ottawa River bluff between 24 Sussex and Rideau Hall is exposed to wind in all seasons; the curve along the bluff has no shelter and rain runs across the corridor in autumn
- •The Rideau Hall gates are the audio anchor for Stop 7; the grounds beyond the gates are open to the public during daylight hours but the audio is complete from the gate without entry
Travel advisory: Exercise Normal Precautions (Level 1).
Gallery
Related Reading
Go deeper on what you'll see, hear, and walk through.
Read the walk
The full story of Sandy Hill and Sussex Drive: The Empty House, in words. Prefer to listen? Play it narrated, from home or on location.
Introduction
Three official residences within three kilometres of each other on one corridor in Ottawa, Canada. Read what each one is doing today.
Three thirty-five Laurier Avenue East. The house William Lyon Mackenzie King willed to the people of Canada in nineteen fifty. Open to visitors as a Parks Canada museum from May to October. The Prime Minister whose house Canada still maintains has been dead for seventy-six years.
Twenty-four Sussex Drive. The Prime Minister's official residence from nineteen fifty-one to two thousand and fifteen, when Stephen Harper moved out. Justin Trudeau chose Rideau Cottage. Mark Carney has continued at Rideau Cottage. The house has been empty for ten years, gutted in twenty twenty-three, decision pending.
One Sussex Drive. Rideau Hall, the official residence of the Governor General of Canada since eighteen sixty-five. Continuously occupied. Every Governor General from Viscount Monck onward has lived in the building. The lights are on.
The corridor records, in addresses, the question Canada has not answered. Whether the elected leader of the country is supposed to live in an official residence at all. The Governor General works in their house every day. The Prime Minister, since twenty fifteen, does not. The foreign powers between the two residences, seven embassies in a row, occupy the houses Canada's political class once lived in.
Seven stops, three and a half kilometres, ninety-five minutes. The walk starts at Confederation Square at the foot of the National War Memorial and ends at the Rideau Hall gates. When you arrive at Confederation Square, begin with stop one.
1. Confederation Square: The Gate
Welcome to Confederation Square. Stand at the foot of the National War Memorial. The bronze figural group above you, twenty-two military servicepeople passing under a granite arch, is the work of the London sculptor Vernon March. The memorial was dedicated by King George the Sixth and Queen Elizabeth on the twenty-first of May, nineteen thirty-nine. The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier was added in front of it in two thousand. If the ceremonial guard is present, keep your voice down.
This is the gate.
Now turn to face the bridge to the north. That is the Plaza Bridge across the Rideau Canal. Across the canal, the street running north is Sussex Drive. Originally Sussex Street, renamed Sussex Drive in nineteen fifty-three during a visit by Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother. Named for Prince Augustus Frederick, Duke of Sussex, who lived from seventeen seventy-three to eighteen forty-three. The street runs roughly two-point-four kilometres between where you are standing and the Rideau Hall gates at the north end.
On this corridor, the addresses to come. The Delegation of the Ismaili Imamat at one ninety-nine Sussex, opened December two thousand and eight. The Embassy of the United States at four ninety Sussex, dedicated October nineteen ninety-nine. The Embassy of France at forty-two Sussex, opened January nineteen thirty-nine. Twenty-four Sussex, empty since twenty fifteen. Earnscliffe at one forty Sussex, the British High Commissioner's residence since nineteen thirty. Rideau Hall at one Sussex, occupied by every Governor General since eighteen sixty-five. Plus four other foreign chanceries on the same street: South Africa at fifteen Sussex since nineteen forty-four, Japan at two fifty-five Sussex since nineteen seventy-eight, Kuwait at three thirty-three Sussex since two thousand and three, Saudi Arabia at two oh one Sussex since two thousand and five.
Three official residences. Seven foreign embassies. One empty house in the middle.
The institutional argument is what the corridor holds in addresses. The Governor General is still doing the symbolic job the Governor General was built to do. The Prime Minister, in the residential sense, since twenty fifteen, is not.
Now walk north across the Plaza Bridge over the canal. Continue along Sussex Drive about six hundred metres. The first embassy of the walk is on the west sidewalk, a two-storey pavilion clad in white stone, set back from the street on a black granite podium. That is one ninety-nine Sussex. I will meet you there.
2. Delegation of the Ismaili Imamat: The 2008 Pavilion
You have arrived at one ninety-nine Sussex Drive. The Delegation of the Ismaili Imamat. Stand on the west sidewalk facing the pavilion. The two-storey structure in front of you sits on a black granite podium. The cladding is white Neoparies, a crystallised glass material. The building reads best in indirect light.
The building was designed by the Japanese architect Fumihiko Maki, who was awarded the Pritzker Prize in nineteen ninety-three, working in collaboration with the Canadian firm Moriyama Teshima Architects. The design takes its formal inspiration from rock crystal. The Delegation opened on the sixth of December, two thousand and eight, in the presence of Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Aga Khan the Fourth. The building houses the headquarters of the Aga Khan Foundation Canada. In twenty twelve, it received a Governor General's Medal in Architecture.
The building is the most architecturally ambitious foreign-power structure on the corridor.
Now the dates side by side.
The sixth of December, two thousand and eight, Harper opens the Delegation. He is Prime Minister. He lives at twenty-four Sussex Drive, eight blocks north of where you are standing. He has lived there since February of two thousand and six.
Twenty fifteen. Harper, having lost the October federal election, moves out of twenty-four Sussex. Justin Trudeau, the incoming Prime Minister, chooses Rideau Cottage on the Rideau Hall grounds rather than move into twenty-four Sussex, citing the building's deteriorated condition. In twenty twenty-five, Mark Carney, after taking office, continues at Rideau Cottage. The Prime Minister's official residence has been empty for ten years.
Seven years separate the opening of the foreign power's pavilion and the closing of the Canadian Prime Minister's residence. Same Prime Minister at both moments. Same corridor. The Delegation is occupied. The Prime Minister's residence, eight blocks north, is not.
This is the first asymmetry the corridor records. There will be six more.
Now walk north on Sussex Drive about two hundred metres. The next embassy is on the east side of the street, a long low limestone-and-glass building with bridge-like fenestration. That is four ninety Sussex. I will meet you there.
3. Embassy of the United States: The 1999 Bridge
You have arrived at four ninety Sussex Drive. The Embassy of the United States. Stand on the east sidewalk, on the Major's Hill Park side, for the architectural view, or walk to the south-facing pedestrian plaza for the front elevation. Do not loiter at the gates. Security at the embassy is active.
The building was designed by David Childs of the firm Skidmore, Owings and Merrill. The chancery was dedicated on the eighth of October, nineteen ninety-nine. The architect described the design as a bridge between the two countries. The building incorporates artwork from fifty-nine American artists. The interior runs on what the design team called Niagara blue.
Before this building, the American chancery in Ottawa was at one hundred Wellington Street, opposite Parliament Hill, designed by the American architect Cass Gilbert and built between nineteen thirty and nineteen thirty-one. The Cass Gilbert building still stands. After the move to Sussex Drive, it sat empty for two decades while the federal government considered what to do with it. As of twenty twenty-six, the former American chancery on Wellington is being repurposed by the federal government. A different empty building, on a different street, with a different institutional question.
Now the corridor asymmetry, restated.
October, nineteen ninety-nine. The United States moves into a purpose-built embassy on Sussex Drive. Two thousand and eight, the same decade, the auditor general's office of Canada reports that twenty-four Sussex Drive, six blocks north of where you are standing, requires major restoration. Ten million dollars, the audit estimates. By twenty fifteen, the estimate has risen to fifteen million. By twenty twenty-one, the National Capital Commission's *Condition of Canada's Official Residences* report has it at thirty-six-point-six million for the bring-to-good-repair option. In the same quarter-century, the United States built and dedicated a new chancery on Sussex Drive. Canada did not maintain its Prime Minister's residence.
The foreign power's building is open. The Canadian residence two blocks north is not.
Now walk north on Sussex Drive about nine hundred metres, past the National Gallery of Canada on the west side of the street. Cross the Macdonald-Cartier Bridge approach. Continue north into the New Edinburgh neighbourhood. On the east side of the street, opposite the Sussex Drive curve, you will see a three-storey grey-granite Art Deco building set behind a wrought-iron gate. That is forty-two Sussex. I will meet you there.
4. Embassy of France: The 1936 Cornerstone
You have arrived at forty-two Sussex Drive. The Embassy of France. Stand on the east sidewalk opposite the chancery. The three-storey building in grey granite, with vertical fenestration and a central hall organised behind the main entrance, is in the Art Deco style. The…
Full narration for this stop unlocks with the tour.
5. 24 Sussex Drive: The Empty House
You have arrived at twenty-four Sussex Drive. Stand on the south sidewalk opposite the front gates. The Gothic Revival cut-stone elevation visible through the perimeter fence is the front of the building. The rear gardens face the Ottawa River and are not visible from the…
Full narration for this stop unlocks with the tour.
6. Earnscliffe: The Inversion
You have arrived at Earnscliffe, one forty Sussex Drive. Stand on the south sidewalk opposite the residence. The Gothic Revival mansion behind the perimeter fence sits on the bluff above the Ottawa River. The British coat of arms is mounted at the gate. This is the first…
Full narration for this stop unlocks with the tour.
7. Rideau Hall: The Closer
You have arrived at the Rideau Hall main gates, one Sussex Drive. Stand on the south side of the gates facing north into the grounds. The wrought-iron gates open onto a long ceremonial drive flanked by trees. At the end of the drive, set well back from the street, is Rideau…
Full narration for this stop unlocks with the tour.