Victoria Hall, Commercial building in downtown Hamilton, Canada

Victoria Hall is a former 3+1⁄2-storey commercial building at 68 King Street East, overlooking Gore Park. Its three-bay Italianate facade is made of hand-crafted galvanized sheet metal simulating carved stone, with flat-arched windows on the lower two storeys and semi-circular arched windows above. Renovations begun in 2008 created two apartments in Victoria Hall and five in the adjoining MacKay Building.

The building was designed by Hamilton architect William Stewart and built between 1887 and 1888 for prominent lawyer Alexander Bruce. It represents a period when the downtown core was expanding as a commercial hub.

Locals still call it the "Foster Building" after Foster's high-fashion women's store, which moved in in 1952 and about a decade later took over the neighbouring MacKay space; the two have been treated as one property since. Earlier tenants ranged from Gerhard Heintzman Pianos and A. Carey & Son Radio to J.H. Herring tea brokers, the Empire Newspaper, Canada Cycle Company and Bessie Brown Hats.

The building is easy to spot in a central location, with shops and services on the ground level that are open to the public. You can walk up to see the exterior details and step inside the commercial spaces during regular business hours.

The metal facade was crafted entirely by hand and ranks among the oldest surviving examples of this technique in Canada. This kind of handwork was expensive and shows the prosperity of the building's original owner.