The Berkeley Church

A family friend got married here, but I was out of the country and a close friend of mine looked into getting married at the Berkeley so I knew about this place, but had never stepped foot into it. I won tickets to Lucky Rice (thanks, Unilocal!) last week and the event venue was here! I love the location; you’re right on Queen Street so just take the eastbound Queen streetcar. As you can tell from the name, it’s a former church that has been transformed into a event venue. I really liked the feel of the place, including the stained glass windows. The only downside would be the air circulation here. It was really humid the night that I came here, along with the fact that it was packed, so I was drenched in sweat. Anyway, in spite of this, I was thoroughly impressed with the space. I can’t wait to come back for another event!
Good for: events

What a beautiful and unique venue. The balcony is spacious and well lit with huge stained glass windows. The main floor has a large, rustic bar at one end and a stage at the other.
The bathroom is unisex which I didn’t expect, but it does the job.
I’d love to go to other events here. It’s a great space.

I can’t believe how bad this place is, serving meat to vampire diary would be good for business but humans should stay away from this place, Damon Salatore this is your place for real blood, please in reality stay away from this place you may be sick after you eat here and the catory is horrible, I give this place –10 out of 10 that’s 20 basis points away from i will just barf all over the place, stay away.

My friend had her wedding at this place couple of weeks ago. The wedding party left their stuff in the bridal suite and during the ceremony, someone (most likely a staff member) went through our belongings in the bridal suite, my carry on was broken into, my clothes were all over the floor and they stole almost $ 200 out of my wallet.
Few nights before the wedding we were warned by two separate sources that there have been robberies at this place, but we were assured by the wedding planner that there are cameras all over the place including the bridal suite. after the robbery incident at my friend’s wedding, we were told that this was not the case, in fact there were no cameras in the bridal suite and the cameras in the main hall didn’t clearly show the entrance to the bridal suite. A good business decision on their part would have been to reimburse the stolen money or at least half of it, but they did not. They said they watched the video and even though the videos aren’t clear, they don’t see any suspicious activities. One would have thought after many robberies they would have installed better cameras or done a better security check on their staff… Needless to say I do not recommend this place.

I’ve been here for a few events and while each returning trip makes me less and less in awe of the location it goes without saying that the premise for this event space is intriguing and the space itself is beautiful. You can host a great many event types in here from big parties, concerts, weddings to the more recent type of event I was here for a 360 screenings which combined live theater and watching a movie.
The actual church part is no where near what this venue offers, it has a large area outside as well as a rooftop area all of which are very picturesque and given the right weather can prove to be a very unique experience.
In some of the events I’ve been to I know of some people that have not had a good time with the staff in here particularly the bouncers and in my experience of trying to host events here I too have come across very sub par customer service. But the serving staff and bartenders have always been friendly.
Overall for an event goer this venue has everything they would want in terms of the exclusivity of drinking in a church but for an event planner I wouldn’t recommend Berkeley in terms of how they handle the planning on events.

I was here for two weddings. One which I attended in the field house, and one which I crashed in the Church. Shameless I know but I was DYING to see the space, and lets say… I was feeling particularly «courageous.»
Gorgeous. The wedding in the field house was so lovely, the space has a small stream and wild flowers. The groomsmen got ready in the treehouse. There is a decent outdoor area for the ceremony, and an indoor space for the reception.
I am not sure what the catering deal is, but the food was surprisingly nice. The staff was fantastic. Again, I am not sure if they were brought in or not. Really a pleasure. By far one of the best weddings I have been to.
Very unique space. I am now INSANELY jealous it has been taken by a friend.

This old church has been stripped of it’s former glory and now operates as an event space. Much of the original architecture remains, but the reno looks not quite done with a weird DIY aesthetic that features lots of rough looking plywood finishes that for some reason only adds to the charm.
It’s like the Palais Royale meets a horse stable — picture it.

I came here for a private event. This place is very unique. Many of the elements of the building are still original like the stained glass and hardwood floors. This was an excellent venue for the event I was at but I’m not sure it would be right for every event. It’s a very eclectic place.
The main floor and mezzanine areas are very open and you could do almost anything with them. There is a stage area (formerly the altar) at the front. To the one side of the stage there is an enclosed staircase which goes up to the second level and down to the basement which can be great for getting performers on and off stage or to get food out from the basement kitchen without having to push through all the guests. This definitely is not a church anymore as there is a large permanent bar at the back of the room.
The basement is a little bit of a maze. They have a few different rooms and the (small) kitchen is also located here. If you take a couple of twists and turns you’ll end up in what they call the field house. It’s an addition to the church (though not overly recent) which can be rented out separately for smaller events, like say, an elite event (hint, hint). The field house is a great space with floor to ceiling windows and big doors that open on to a large patio and garden area. The outside area has privacy fencing so you won’t be bothered by the random people walking by.

I ended up here on Christmas night (long story) at a friend’s friend’s family christmas party. It is a beautiful old church with a stained-​glass interior, original wood floor and just a lot of architectural gorgeousness.
There was tons of food and of course an open bar. The people there were the family and friends of the owners and they were all ridiculously nice and friendly.
I only saw the downstairs portion, but it is a nice event space and I think it would be really pretty during the daylight too.
As an aside, I have to comment on the location and mention that it is directly across from Moss Park. When we left the church in the wee morning hours, my friend found the window of his car smashed. Nothing was missing and the person was probably only able to do it because it was Christmas and it was so quiet on the street at that time but it definitely sucked.

I was here for a private corporate event tonight. It’s a very unique venue with its history reflected in the interior. It had a warm feel despite being a large space. I wouldn’t hesitate to consider hosting an event here.

Although my wife and I planned our wedding very well, The Berkeley Church managed to screw it up. Not only did they charge us much more than they originally quoted, they didn’t even deliver what they said they would.
Our food was good, but only HALF of what we paid for was given to our guests. This was a problem someone else had and we were extra careful to highlight this issue to them. Somehow this fell on deaf ears.
Also, we paid them to decorate the venue and although they had more than 24 hours to do so when we got to the venue an hour before our wedding there was still lots to do. They also lost some of our center pieces and certain tables had to go without.
We paid for a late night buffet to serve 100 people and there was probably enough there for 20. They had to order PIZZA PIZZA. That’s right folks, freshly delivered pizza at our (expensive) wedding.
The worst of it all for me was the way they conducted themselves throughout the process. After we signed the contract we were not treated that well. Our wedding planner and chef were nice enough, but overall the customer service from the management team was pretty bad. If we had more time we definitely would have gone elsewhere, however all the really bad stuff surfaced closer to the wedding date at which point we were committed.
I had a few people tell me not to use this venue, but when I went to check it out I really liked the space and the price definitely seemed right so I decided to do it anyways. Well the price ended up being way to high because much of what they told us was verbal and the contract we had was very general. They towered on new cost after new cost. I’m now one of those surprisingly many people who encourage engaged couples to stay away.