The Aberdeen Pavilion, the landmark heritage building at Lansdowne Park, is to be shut down for a major roof rehabilitation as early as this spring, city officials say.
The upcoming construction is raising concerns about the closure’s impact on public events held inside the building, including the popular 613Flea market, which operates inside the building twice a month, hosting up to 150 vendors.
The city says the pavilion would be shut down for construction between 2026 and 2028, but Capital Coun. Shawn Menard’s website has flagged a planned start on the work this spring. Menard’s website says the project is expected to be completed by July. The construction report indicates work would be carried out between April and June.
One vendor says businesses have not been informed of the timing of the closure, leaving uncertainty about how the market will operate during the rehabilitation.
The rehabilitation was initially proposed in 2024. According to a staff report prepared then, many parts of the 128-year-old building require work. But a key concern was “the poor condition of the roof, with significant water entry through the metal roofing panels, lack of any waterproofing membranes, and subsequently, accelerated deterioration of the wood board decking visible on the building interior.”
The roof “has reached the end of its lifecycle,” Susan Johns, the city’s director of asset management services, told Capital Current.
Johns also identified the “replacement of the concrete floor slab and rehabilitation of heritage wood doors and windows,” as additional highlights of the restoration.
The last rehabilitation of the Aberdeen Pavilion took place more than 30 years ago in 1993.
It’s not clear yet what the 613Flea market and the Ottawa Farmers Market will look like during the closure.
Menard’s website says the project is expected to be completed by July. The construction report indicated work would be carried out between April and June.
Pavilion a popular event space
In winter, the flea market is inside the pavilion. Warmer weather offers some outdoor space for the market to run in addition to the roughly 40,000 square foot grand hall of the pavilion.
Ahead of the looming shutdown of the pavilion, 613Flea recently released its 2026 schedule, with plans to continue operating about twice a month from January to November.
The city is also working on relocating some vendor spaces “to the smaller footprint of the Horticulture Building on their designated day,” an email provided by the city and attributed to Dan Chenier, general manager of Ottawa’s recreation facilities, says.
But the Horticulture Building, located just across the street from the Aberdeen Pavilion, is significantly smaller than the pavilion at 17,600 square feet.
In an interview with CBC in September, 613Flea manager Catherine Knoll said the relocation of the market to the Horticulture Building meant she would have to put vendors on a rotation, reducing exposure to customers.
Tommy Lee, an urban sketch artist and a regular vendor at 613Flea, said he had not heard anything about the upcoming shutdown or the construction.
More than 50 per cent of Lee’s business income comes from 613Flea, he said, adding his revenues “would easily drop by 50, 60 per cent,” during the construction.
Protecting the Pavilion
The Aberdeen Pavilion is the “only large-scale exhibition building in Canada surviving from the 19th century,” Parks Canada says.
“Protecting the Pavilion’s historic character is a priority,” said city planner Anne Fitzpatrick. “The rehabilitation work focuses on repairing and restoring historic elements rather than replacing them.”
The 2024 city report highlighted key heritage conservation standards that must be followed for the rehabilitation project to protect the historical architectural value of the pavilion.
Some of these include not removing or replacing any character defining elements; being careful to not add elements from other historic places that would not have coexisted with the pavilion; using gentle means to modify historical features and only if absolutely necessary, documenting any interventions for future reference, and repairing rather than replacing any character-defining elements.
The Aberdeen Pavilion was built in 1898 and named in honour of the governor-general of the time, the Earl of Aberdeen, an avid supporter of the agricultural fair movement.
The structure was built for the Central Canada Exhibition Association. It was described by Parks Canada in a 1991 report to the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada as “a whimsical mix of classical and agricultural motifs. … The structure evokes both the festive spirit and serious purpose of the l9th-century fair.”
In the past, the Pavilion has been used as a riding school and even a skating rink where the original Ottawa Senators won the Stanley Cup in 1904, Heritage Ottawa says.
It was used as a display hall during the Central Canada Exhibition until the Second World War, when it was used by the Department of National Defence as a mobilization depot, army basic training centre and discharge depot.
The pavilion got its “Cattle Castle” nickname when it started being used for animal showcases in 1972.
The City of Ottawa took control of the Pavilion in 1973. It was designated a National Historic Site by the HSMBC in 1983 and was confirmed in the Ontario Heritage Act in 1984.
By 1986, the historic building had deteriorated to the point of closure.
The legacy was threatened when the city voted to demolish the building in 1991. Public demonstrations and rallies encouraged rehabilitation under the new city council, which was approved in 1991. The Aberdeen Pavilion reopened in 1994.
In 2001, Heritage Ottawa made their commitment to the landmark clear by adopting a logo with an illustration of the iconic structure.
613Flea started in 2015 and has been returning annually to the Cattle Castle for 10 years.
