Guided Tours

Public Tours and Group Bookings Available

All tours and activities are available free of charge!

We are currently taking bookings for June 2024.

Please direct your questions, accessibility requests, and tour and class booking inquiries to info@lakeshoregrounds.ca

Upcoming Tours

Group Bookings

We are accepting group and class tour bookings!

Tours are offered free of charge from Monday to Friday during standard business hours, some evening or weekend availability depending on our staff schedules. Pleases contact for more details.

Please send all booking requests to info@lakeshoregrounds.ca.

Remember to indicate date preferences, the size of your group, age of participants, and tour / topic of interest. Please also include any special requests re: tour duration, accessibility, and content focus.

Hospital History Tours

Learn about the history of the former Lakeshore Psychiatric Hospital as we explore the patient-built underground tunnels and nineteenth-century cottages. Tour presents an overview of the 89-years of the Hospital's history, acknowledges the varied experiences of patients and staff across different decades, and traces major treatment changes across time. Tour concludes with an optional entry into one of the un-renovated attics above the cottages. This may not be available at all times for safety reasons.

Tour duration: 1.25-1.5 hours

Tunnels and grounds are mobility accessible; attic requires steep set of stairs.

Guided tour with a group of masked participants on tour with a masked guide in the tunnels

Underground tunnel with discoloured cement walls, white pipes along ceiling, and Exit sign in foreground

A masked tour group in the underground tunnels, May 2022

Park History Tours

This walking tour through Colonel Samuel Smith Park traces the many histories that are located along the shoreline of the Lakeshore Grounds. We discuss the traditional lands of the Ojibwe Anishinabe, the military tract of Colonel Samuel Smith, the boundary of the Lakeshore Psychiatric Hospital, the expansion of the grounds into Lake Ontario, and the creation of Colonel Samuel Smith Park.

Tour duration: 1 hour

Park paths are a mixed of paved and hard-packed surfaces that are mobility accessible.

Metal pillars representing locations along the Migration Route of the Anishinaabe stand along a cement walking path

Sidewalk lined by trees with green leaves

Brown ducks stand and sit along stones that line the shoreline of Lake Ontario in Colonel Samuel Smith Park

Film History Tours

The Lakeshore Grounds have served as a popular filming location for movies, television shows, and commercials since 1977. Step behind the scenes of your favourite productions as we highlight the locations and stories of these productions. Tour route includes the oldest section of the underground tunnels.

Tour duration: 1 hour

Tunnels and grounds are mobility accessible.

Woman stands in opening of doorway along an underground tunnel infront of a group of people during a tour

Woman stands on steps of a brick and stone building in front of a group looking up at the building as a tour is delivered

Woman with brown hair stands on steps at entry to a brick building with a group in front of her as part of a walking tour