Toronto Necropolis: History, Famous Graves and How to Visit

The Toronto Necropolis is a working cemetery at 200 Winchester Street in Cabbagetown, free to walk, open daily, and holding more of the city’s founding history than most of its museums. It dates back to 1850, it holds the graves of Toronto’s first mayor and a Father of Confederation, and its 1872 Gothic chapel is one of the finest small buildings in the city. You do not need a ticket or a tour. You need about forty minutes and the manners to remember that funerals still happen here.

Here is the history, who is buried where, when the gates open, and how to visit without being the person the groundskeeper remembers.

The history of the Toronto Necropolis, from Potter’s Field to 1850

The story starts with a different burial ground. On January 30, 1826, the York General Burying Ground was established by an act of the parliament of Upper Canada. It was the first non-sectarian burying ground in the Toronto area, better known as the Strangers’ Burying Ground or Potter’s Field, and it sat at the northwest corner of Yonge and Bloor.

By 1850 the area around it had been built up, and the residents of Yorkville no longer wanted a cemetery in the middle of their neighbourhood. They lobbied the government, won, and the cemetery was ordered closed, with the bodies to be removed and re-interred elsewhere. Potter’s Field closed for good in 1875.

A new cemetery was needed. Around the same time, a group of Presbyterian businessmen opened a small non-sectarian burying ground in what is now Cabbagetown. That was the Necropolis, developed in 1850 as the city’s second non-sectarian cemetery. The businessmen ran it until 1855, when the Mount Pleasant Group bought it and moved many of the remains from Potter’s Field here.

A few things that make the place unusual:

It sits on the west slope of the Don Valley, between Winchester and Gerrard Streets, which is why the paths climb and the views open up at the back.
It is the oldest of the ten cemeteries the Mount Pleasant Group operates today.
There have been over 46,000 burials here since the first one.
In 1933 the first crematorium in Ontario, the Toronto Crematorium, was established on the grounds. More than 24,000 cremations have been carried out since, and the property is properly called the Toronto Necropolis and Crematorium.

When it opened, there was almost nothing around it but a few houses and John Scadding’s farm across the Don. The city grew out to meet it.

The chapel, the gates and why they matter

The thing most people photograph is the entrance. The chapel, the superintendent’s lodge and the porte cochere were designed by the Toronto architect Henry Langley and erected in 1872, in High Victorian Gothic. Yellow brick, steep slate roofs, iron tracery in the gates, stained glass inside the chapel.

It reads as one composition rather than three buildings, which is rare, and it has been fully restored. If you only have ten minutes, stand at the Winchester Street gate and look through the porte cochere at the chapel behind it. That is the shot.

Inside the cemetery you will also find marble fronted niches in the chapel columbarium, and memorial scattering areas built around a sculpture by the Canadian artist Juliet Jancso showing a family of three, which represents the Depression era Cabbagetown community. A separate black granite sculpture called Onward, by the Canadian artist Kosso Eloul, anchors another cremation area.

Who is buried in the Toronto Necropolis

The Mount Pleasant Group’s own history names the people worth knowing about. This is not folklore, it is the cemetery’s own record.

Who	Why they matter
William Lyon Mackenzie	Toronto’s first mayor, and the leader of the 1837 rebellion
George Brown	Journalist, Globe founder, Father of Confederation
John Ross Robertson	Founder of the Toronto Telegram
Jack Layton	Former federal NDP leader
Anderson Ruffin Abbott	The first Canadian born Black surgeon
Ned Hanlan	World champion oarsman, and the name on Hanlan’s Point

There is also a monument honouring Samuel Lount and Peter Matthews, hanged in 1838 for their part in the Mackenzie Rebellion. The men who were executed and the man who led them are buried in the same small cemetery, which is the kind of ending Canadian legal history specialises in. If that is your corner of the city’s past, our Case Theory files run on exactly this material.

One more grave draws steady visitors: George A. Romero, the director who invented the modern zombie film, died in Toronto in 2017 and was buried here. The cemetery does not publish a public grave locator, so ask at the office rather than wandering.

Toronto Necropolis hours, getting there and visiting rules

Address: 200 Winchester Street, Toronto, M4X 1B7 Phone: 416-923-7911 Admission: Free

Gate hours run daily, and they change with the season:

Season	Gates open
April 1 to October 31	8 a.m. to 8 p.m.
November 1 to March 31	8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.

The winter hours are the ones that catch people out. From November the gates shut at 5:30 p.m., which in December is well after dark, so go in daylight. The office keeps its own hours and works by appointment, so call ahead if you need records or a plot location.

Getting there without a car is easy. The 65 Parliament bus runs up Parliament Street between Bloor Street East and Queens Quay East, and the stop at Parliament and Winchester is accessible. From there it is a short walk east along Winchester to the gates. Check the TTC site for current times before you go.

A few rules that are not posted but should be:

Stay on the paths and roads. The ground between monuments is uneven and often soft.
Do not touch, lean on, rub or climb the stones. Victorian marble is fragile and some of these markers are over 170 years old.
If a funeral is happening, leave that section alone entirely.
Keep dogs, picnics, bikes and drones out of it.
No night visits. The gates close for a reason.

Pair it with Riverdale Farm and the rest of Cabbagetown

The Necropolis works best as part of an afternoon rather than a destination on its own. Riverdale Farm is next door at 201 Winchester Street, directly across from the cemetery gates. The City runs it as a working farm with cows, goats, pigs and poultry, admission is always free, and it is open daily. Our guide to Toronto with kids covers it in detail, including the warming area in the Simpson House, which matters from November on.

From there you are already inside the Cabbagetown heritage streets, and the walk south on Sumach or Parliament takes you toward the older parts of Old Town. If you want a longer route with a structure to it, the self guided Toronto history walk picks up the St. Lawrence neighbourhood and runs to the Distillery District.

If you came for the ghost stories rather than the architecture, the Necropolis appears in our Toronto haunted places guide alongside Mackenzie House, which is the other half of the William Lyon Mackenzie story and free to enter. And if you are collecting the parts of the city most visitors never reach, the cemetery sits comfortably on the same list as the stops in Toronto hidden gems.

One last thing worth saying plainly. This is not a tourist attraction with a gift shop. It is a cemetery where people are actively buried and actively mourned, and the reason it is still open to anyone who wants to walk it is that visitors have mostly behaved. Keep that going.

Quick answers

Is the Toronto Necropolis free to visit?

Yes. There is no admission charge and no ticket. It is a working cemetery owned by the Mount Pleasant Group, not a paid attraction, so you walk in through the gates on Winchester Street during gate hours and stay on the paths.

What are the Toronto Necropolis hours?

The gates are open daily 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. from April 1 to October 31, and 8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. from November 1 to March 31. In winter that means the gates close before dark, so plan an afternoon visit rather than an evening one.

What is the oldest cemetery in Toronto?

St. James' Cemetery on Parliament Street, which opened in July 1844, is the oldest Toronto cemetery still in use. The Necropolis opened in 1850, but its roots run back further, to the 1826 Potter's Field burial ground whose remains were moved here.

Who is buried in the Toronto Necropolis?

William Lyon Mackenzie, Toronto's first mayor, is buried here, along with journalist George Brown, Toronto Telegram founder John Ross Robertson, former NDP leader Jack Layton, surgeon Anderson Ruffin Abbott and oarsman Ned Hanlan. A monument honours Samuel Lount and Peter Matthews.

Can you take photos in the Toronto Necropolis?

Personal photos of the chapel, the gates and the grounds are normal and nobody will stop you. Keep funerals and mourners out of frame, do not climb on or lean against monuments, and skip the tripods and photo shoots. Commercial shoots need permission from the cemetery office.

How long does a visit to the Toronto Necropolis take?

Thirty to forty five minutes covers the chapel, the main monuments and a loop of the upper paths. Add an hour if you pair it with Riverdale Farm next door, which is the usual way to do it.

Sources

Prices, hours and schedules change. Check the official site before you go. Spot something out of date? Email info@truecitytourism.com. Some links may be affiliate links. Disclosure.