The Delta Armouries is a Marriott-owned hotel located in the heart of London, Ontario. It is unique among hotels in southwestern Ontario in that it is built out of the city’s former armouries (hence the name) and its interesting castle-like structure has inspired any number of guests that have stayed under its roof. Featuring a blend of ultra-modern renovations and a look into the depth of London’s past, the Delta Armouries are the place to stay when you need to visit the core of the city, or even just to get away for a while.
Armoury History
In the long stretch of Canadian history after Confederation in 1867 but before the constitutional separation from Britain in 1982, there were two things you could find in every major Canadian settlement. The first was a Victoria Park, named for the Queen who presided over the peak of the Empire. The second was an armoury that looked very similar to every other armoury around it. You can still find the latter in many Canadian cities and towns, with examples to be found in towns as small as Stratford and as large as Toronto. These armouries served as the military centre of town and surrounding region; if you were a soldier during that time, you mustered at the armouries, you trained at the armouries, and you likely received your marching orders at the armouries. These types of armouries served the nation through both World Wars, providing the Canadian troops that played decisive roles in battles as diverse as Vimy Ridge and the D-Day landings in Normandy. They were an important part of the local defence structure and the local economy, and their design played a big role in fostering this image.
The Armoury Design & David Ewart
All of the armouries from the time period feature solid red brick construction, with heavy stone bases and imposing turrets; they look like fortresses first and foremost, but they also look like fortresses with style, being both imposing and architecturally impressive. The reason for this is that they were all designed by the same person, a Canadian architect named David Ewart. David Ewart served as Chief Dominion Architect from 1896 to 1914 and in this role he designed many of the federal buildings that date back from this era. His predecessors in the role, Thomas Seaton Scott and Thomas Fuller, designed buildings in the Neo-Gothic style that was popular throughout the Empire at the time. The Neo-Gothic (or Gothic Revival) style had become popular beginning in the 1740s in England. It was a movement inspired by the architecture of the European medieval era, with decorative patterns, finials (those little decorative knobs on the tops of spires), lancet windows (the long, tall windows topped with an arch that are often seen holding stained glass panes in churches of the time) and hood moulds (the lips that extend out over windows to keep water from flowing into the interior of the building). The oldest government buildings still in usage in Canada use this style, but when Ewart took the reins as Chief Dominion Architect he went in a different direction.
Ewart was born in Scotland, and this is important as the style he used as a launching pad for his design work was Scottish Baronial Revival. The roots of baronial architecture lay in the updates of Scottish castles and tower houses that were done originally in the 16th and 17th Centuries. This movement added Renaissance-style touches to the dour old medieval Scottish style. At the time, the development of gunpowder as a tool of warfare had rendered most of the fortifications in Scotland useless. The high, thin walls wouldn’t have stood up to a barrage of cannons (let alone subsequent developments) but they were heavily associated with the Scottish nobility and with the concept of chivalry in general. Thus, while updates needed to be done, they needed to be done with an eye toward placating the feelings of the castle owners. This meant keeping the high walls, the towers, and the turrets, while widening the windows; since they were no longer needed to provide cover to archers, they could let in more natural light and contribute to a general warming of castle interiors throughout the end of the Renaissance and into the Enlightenment. Most of the work of the original movement was paid for and implemented by the lesser nobility, with the more important figures in the realm preferring to keep their fortresses just in case.
The original Scottish Baronial period was abandoned by 1660. The Baronial Revival, which David Ewart drew his inspiration from, came about from the late 18th Century, well after the union of Scotland and England formed Great Britain. It came out of an interest in Gothic architecture that arose around the mid-18th Century, especially with regard to Inveraray Castle in 1746 and Culzean Castle in Ayrshire in 1777. This style, which hit its stride in the first third of the 19th Century, featured a lot of large plate glass windows, bay windows with their own individual roofs, and imitation portcullises that would be adorned by imitations of heraldry and medieval motifs. The classic ideal of Scottish Baronial Revival architecture is Abbotsford House, which was the home of novelist and poet Sir Walter Scott (Ivanhoe). This construction was completed in 1816 and showed off the Revival style’s love of gateway with battlements, stepped gables, spiral stairs, and pointed turrets. A more in-depth examination of the style can be found in Robert Billings’ 1852 work Baronial and Ecclesiastical Antiquities of Scotland; suffice to say that the style was a major influence on the work of David Ewart and his subsequent design of Canadian armouries.
While Ewart took his inspiration from the Baronial Revival, the armouries he designed fall closer to a more contemporary style called Richardsonian Romanesque, which is a style named for its chief practitioner Henry Hobson Richardson, whose most famous work is arguably the Trinity Church in Boston. This style mirrors many aspects of the Baronial Revival and Neo-Gothic work but is more focused on characteristics drawn from the medieval 11th and 12th Century Romantic styles found in southern France, Spanish and Italian regions. These include very large, very rounded arches, cylinder towers with conical roofs, and shorter columns than usually found in northern European Gothic styles. The armouries across Canada, including the building that now houses the Delta Armouries, are done largely in this style, with some of the keystones of Baronian architecture integrated, such as the stylized archways over the windows and the wide arch of the entrances.
The London armoury was in this sense not different from any of the others – an imposing yet gracefully beautiful structure of the type of red brick that states “this is a fortress” to any who happen to look upon it. First built in 1905, the London armoury served the city for decades as a training facility and weapons storage for reserve and regular army units. Comprising mess halls, sleeping quarters, parade spaces, and a shooting gallery, the London armoury was home to three units: the Seventh Fusiliers, the First Hussars, and the 6th Field Battery.
Armoury to the Delta Hotel
Like many other towns and cities across Canada, the needs of the Canadian Armed Forces required a move to different facilities. For London, this move came in 1978, when the armoury was shut down; Wolseley Barracks, built in the 19th Century and home to the Royal Canadian Regiment, took on most of the duties that the London armoury had performed. The building sat sadly unoccupied for some time before it was purchased by Donald Wharton, who had a vision of keeping the exterior of the building, gutting and renovating the interior, and turning it into a hotel. He succeeded in achieving this vision in 1986, when The Wharton opened as a four-star luxury hotel. Eventually in 1989 the Sheraton hotel chain purchased the Wharton from Donald Wharton and rebranded the hotel as the Sheraton Armouries. In 1992 Delta took over management of the hotel; both Delta and Sheraton would end up as part of Marriott International by the end of 2016.
The Delta Armouries today is a gorgeous, unique hotel that combines the finest in modern hotel service with the deep bones of Canadian history. The hotel is as much a window into that past as it is a space for guests; the interior features a number of pictures, photographs, uniforms, and artifacts that tell the story of the time when the building housed soldiers rather than civilians. The original door that closed off the armoury from the outside now rests in the salad bar. An authentic wheel from a First World War artillery gun greets you in the lobby. The pool – itself an architecturally interesting area with great examples of the wide arch windows – used to be the motor pool area for the Jeeps. Staying at the Delta Armouries is a lot like staying in an elegantly designed and exceedingly comfortable museum.
The Delta Armouries offers a range of room styles to fit your overnight needs. These range from the standard guest room with two double beds that goes for $149 per night all the way up to the newly renovated one bedroom junior suite with a king bed, which goes for $349 per night. The latter features twelve foot ceilings, French doors, a sitting area with a pull-out sofa, and a beautiful view of downtown London. All rooms offer complementary Wi-Fi and an LCD television. Certain rooms in the upper level of the hotel are classified as Signature Club rooms, which feature walk-in showers, as well as access to the private Signature Club, with breakfast, snacks, and drinks.
Dining at the Armoury
The Delta Armouries also feature two distinct dining areas. The Grille Restaurant, located on the ground floor, specializes in a variety of taste sensations and features what many call the best Sunday brunch in the city of London. They run a seasonal menu, with flavours and their combinations complementing the time of year. The restaurant also participates in the annual Londonlicious food festival; their summer lobster dishes are especially delicious at that time of year. The other dining area is the Cantata Lounge, located in the atrium of the hotel. The Cantata is a great place to grab martinis or Manhattans before dinner, or to see and be seen with after-dinner drinks. It’s an elegant lounge with comfortable seating, a full range of drinks, spacious interior architecture, and spaces to watch the game or any other important event.
Weddings & Events
Like any great hotel, the Delta Armouries is also a popular place to hold both weddings and wedding receptions. The classic brick architecture and the sense of history and purpose about the place come together to bring a special and unique sense to the weddings that are held there. Receptions are often held in the Armouries Ballroom, a 2,580 square foot room which provides the perfect castle accompaniment to the special fairy tale wedding day. The Armouries Ballroom provides seating for 180 dinner guests, or 300 guests for a cocktail-style reception. For smaller receptions, the Delta Armouries offers another ballroom setting, the Gunnery Ballroom, which offers seating for 90 dinner guests and 150 guests for a cocktail reception. In addition to the big day, the Delta Armouries also provides spaces for bridal showers, rehearsal dinners, and engagement parties. The starting fee for wedding ceremonies during peak season is $500 and booking well in advance is highly recommended; catered receptions are a further $123 per seated meal or $12 per person for hors d’oeuvres in the case of a cocktail type reception. The wedding planners at the Delta Armouries are all certified by Marriott’s Marriot Certified Wedding Planner program and are known to be the utmost professionals. With training in all types of weddings, including military weddings and the full variety of cultural and religious weddings, the staff at the Delta Armouries can ensure that the big day is one to remember.
Closing Thoughts
The Delta Armouries is a gorgeous, classically designed structure that combines the history of London, the classical architecture of the 19th and 20th Centuries, and the modern comfort of the cutting edge of hotels. Whether you’re in town for a conference, looking to plan the perfect wedding, or just looking for a classy night out, the Delta Armouries has the facilities and the professional staff to make it memorable.