Calgary Built It in 1905. It Became the City's Greatest Blues Bar. It Was Condemned in 2004 and Taken Apart Brick by Brick. They Put It Back Together. Long Live the King.
The King Edward Hotel opened in Calgary in 1905, spent a century as the city's most storied blues and music venue, closed in 2004, was carefully disassembled and stored piece by piece by the National Music Centre, and reopened in July 2018 as the King Eddy — a restaurant, bar, and live music venue in the heart of Calgary's East Village. The building is back. The music never really left.
August 11, 2026 · By Justin Plosz · Calgary, Alberta · Business · 8 min read read
1905: Calgary's Second Oldest Hotel
The King Edward Hotel was built between 1905 and 1910 on 9th Avenue SE in what would later become Calgary's East Village. At the time, the East Village was central Calgary — the neighbourhood that formed the eastern edge of the downtown grid, adjacent to the CPR rail corridor and the city's original commercial core.
The hotel became Calgary's second oldest — and eventually its longest-operating bar and hotel. A century is a long time for any building to remain in continuous use, and the King Eddy's durability was not accidental. It became the kind of place that regenerates its own purpose with each decade: in its early years a traveller's hotel in a booming prairie city, and later — most significantly — a music venue.
From the early 1980s through its closure in 2004, the King Eddy had a reputation that extended well beyond Calgary. It was a blues bar in the serious sense: a place where musicians on the touring circuit knew to play, where the sound in the room was right, and where the clientele understood and expected the music to be good. That reputation — local, national, and international — is what made the building worth saving when it finally had to close.
Condemned, Disassembled, and Stored
The King Edward Hotel was condemned and closed in 2004. The building had reached the end of its operational life without restoration — a fate that, in most cities, would have meant demolition.
In 2008, the National Music Centre (NMC) acquired the property. The NMC had already committed to building Studio Bell — a state-of-the-art national music museum and recording complex in Calgary's East Village — and the King Eddy site was central to that plan. But rather than simply clearing the site, the NMC made the decision that defined the entire project: they would preserve the King Edward Hotel by dismantling it carefully and rebuilding it as part of the new complex.
The disassembly was meticulous. The original pieces — brick by brick, beam by beam — were catalogued, stored, and preserved while Studio Bell was designed and constructed around them. CBC covered the process: a Calgary landmark was taken apart and its pieces kept safe, with the explicit intention of reassembling it in its original form.
This was not renovation. It was not adaptive reuse in the conventional sense. It was closer to archaeology: treating a condemned commercial building as an artifact worth preserving in its original form, at significant cost and effort, because the history embedded in it was worth more than the convenience of starting from scratch.
Reopened July 2018: Restaurant, Bar, and Music Venue
On July 20, 2018, after more than a decade of planning, construction, and reassembly, the King Eddy reopened.
The building houses more than a restaurant and bar. CKUA Calgary — the Alberta radio institution — operates from the building. The Rolling Stone Mobile Studio, a recording facility operated by the NMC, is inside. The National Music Centre's offices and other recording facilities share the space. The King Eddy is effectively a cultural compound: a live music venue on the ground floor, a radio station on the upper floors, and a recording complex embedded throughout.
The restaurant and bar itself is a gastropub in the serious sense — not a pub with pretensions, but a full kitchen doing well-considered food with a bar program to match. Happy hour runs Monday through Saturday from 2 to 6 pm, with all food and drinks at $10 and under. Tuesday wing nights start at 5 pm with half-price wings. Wine Wednesdays offer half-price bottles all day.
Live music runs Thursday through Saturday nights. The room capacity is 158 — intimate enough that there is no bad seat, large enough to feel like an event. Concerts range from established artists to emerging acts in the blues, jazz, folk, and roots traditions that defined the original King Eddy's identity.
Eddy Fest and the Living Legacy
The King Eddy is not a museum of what the King Edward Hotel used to be. It is an active venue that takes its musical legacy as an obligation rather than a decorative detail.
Eddy Fest — the annual music festival presented by the National Music Centre — runs across multiple days each August, filling the room with an audience that spans longtime Calgarians who remember the original hotel and younger regulars who discovered the venue in the years since its 2018 reopening. The festival reflects the breadth of what the King Eddy does: not a single genre, not a narrow tradition, but the full range of the music that has always moved through Calgary and through venues like this one.
The house band plays regularly — the Paeton Cameron House Band takes the stage on Sunday afternoons, no cover, creating the kind of informal, neighbourly music experience that the original King Eddy was also known for: the sense that good live music should be accessible, not just a ticketed event.
For a building that was condemned twenty years ago and disassembled for storage, the King Eddy's current calendar is a remarkable document. It is what happens when a city decides that some things are too important to lose, finds the institution willing to do the difficult work of preservation, and gives that institution the time and resources to do it properly.
How to Get There
The King Eddy is at 438 9 Ave SE, Calgary, AB T2G 0R9 — in the East Village, the neighbourhood that once housed the original King Edward Hotel and that the CMLC has spent a decade transforming into one of Calgary's most vibrant urban districts.
The venue is minutes from the CTrain on foot. It is adjacent to Studio Bell, the National Music Centre's main building — one of the most architecturally significant buildings completed in Calgary in the past decade. The East Village has also been home to Sidewalk Citizen Bakery's Simmons Building location and a growing density of independent businesses that have made the neighbourhood worth walking through rather than past.
Hours: Monday through Wednesday, 11 am to 9 pm. Thursday, 11 am to 10 pm. Friday and Saturday, 11 am to 11 pm. Sunday, 10 am to 2 pm. The venue is 18+.
To reserve, visit kingeddy.ca or call (403) 829-6016. Follow the King Eddy on Instagram at @kingeddyyyc and Facebook at KingEddyYYC for upcoming show announcements. Eddy Fest tickets and all events are listed at kingeddy.ca/whats-on.
Key takeaways
- The King Eddy at 438 9 Ave SE in Calgary's East Village is a restaurant, bar, and live music venue housed in the restored King Edward Hotel — a building originally constructed in 1905 and Calgary's longest-operating bar and hotel before it closed in 2004.
- Rather than demolish the condemned building, the National Music Centre acquired it in 2008 and meticulously disassembled and stored the original structure before rebuilding it as part of the Studio Bell complex — one of the most significant preservation projects in Calgary's history.
- The King Eddy reopened on July 20, 2018, and now hosts live music Thursday through Saturday nights in a 158-capacity room, with the Paeton Cameron House Band playing Sunday afternoons at no cover charge and Eddy Fest running annually in August.
- Happy hour runs Monday through Saturday from 2–6 pm with all food and drinks at $10 and under. Tuesday Wing Night features half-price wings from 5 pm. Wine Wednesdays offer half-price bottles all day.
- The building also houses CKUA Calgary, the Rolling Stone Mobile Studio, and NMC recording facilities — making it a full cultural compound rather than simply a restaurant and bar.
- Contact: (403) 829-6016, kingeddy.ca, @kingeddyyyc on Instagram and Facebook. Open Mon–Wed 11am–9pm, Thu 11am–10pm, Fri–Sat 11am–11pm, Sun 10am–2pm. The venue is 18+.
Frequently asked questions
- What is the King Eddy in Calgary?
- The King Eddy is a restaurant, bar, and live music venue at 438 9 Ave SE in Calgary's East Village. It is housed in the restored King Edward Hotel — a building originally constructed in 1905 that served as Calgary's longest-operating bar and hotel before closing in 2004. It was carefully disassembled and rebuilt by the National Music Centre as part of Studio Bell, and reopened in July 2018. The building also houses CKUA Calgary and the Rolling Stone Mobile Studio.
- What are the King Eddy's hours and contact information?
- The King Eddy is open Monday through Wednesday from 11 am to 9 pm, Thursday from 11 am to 10 pm, Friday and Saturday from 11 am to 11 pm, and Sunday from 10 am to 2 pm. Phone: (403) 829-6016. Website: kingeddy.ca. Instagram: @kingeddyyyc. Facebook: KingEddyYYC. The venue is 18+.
- Does the King Eddy have live music?
- Yes. The King Eddy hosts live music Thursday through Saturday nights, with a capacity of 158 — intimate enough that there is no bad seat. The house band (Paeton Cameron House Band) plays Sunday afternoons with no cover charge. Eddy Fest, the annual NMC-presented music festival, takes place in August. All upcoming shows and events are listed at kingeddy.ca/whats-on.
- What is the King Eddy's happy hour?
- Happy hour at the King Eddy runs Monday through Saturday from 2 to 6 pm, with all food and drinks priced at $10 and under. There is also Tuesday Wing Night with half-price wings starting at 5 pm, and Wine Wednesdays with half-price bottles all day.
- What is the history of the King Edward Hotel in Calgary?
- The King Edward Hotel was built in Calgary between 1905 and 1910, making it the city's second oldest hotel and eventually its longest-operating bar and hotel. From the early 1980s until its closure in 2004, it was one of Calgary's most respected blues and music venues with a local, national, and international reputation. It was condemned in 2004, acquired by the National Music Centre in 2008, carefully disassembled piece by piece, rebuilt as part of Studio Bell in Calgary's East Village, and reopened as the King Eddy restaurant and music venue in July 2018.
- How does the King Eddy relate to the National Music Centre?
- The King Eddy is owned and operated by the National Music Centre (NMC), the organization that also runs Studio Bell — Canada's national music museum and creative hub at 850 4 Street SE in Calgary. The NMC acquired the King Edward Hotel site in 2008 and chose to preserve and rebuild the original 1905 structure rather than demolish it, incorporating it into the Studio Bell development. The King Eddy building also houses CKUA Calgary radio, the Rolling Stone Mobile Studio, and NMC offices.
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