Side table

This side table is used by the Speaker of the Senate, who presides over the Upper Chamber’s sittings. The table is installed right beside the Speaker’s chair at the head of the Chamber. 

The Speaker’s side table was specially designed and built for the reconstructed Centre Block, after the original building was destroyed by a fire in 1916. The building’s chief architect, John A. Pearson, designed the furniture piece in the Gothic Revival style, featuring billet moulding, tracery panels on the front and the Senate’s monogram surmounted with a crown. 

The table was manufactured out of white oak by Montréal’s Castle & Son and has been in use since Centre Block reopened on July 1, 1927. A replica of the side table was made later, in 2003. Both tables remain in use in the Red Chamber in the Senate of Canada Building, placed on either side of the Speaker’s chair.