SHERBROOKE

Architects

Crevier, Lemieux, Mercier et Caron
Eastern access (1971): Jean Dumontier¹

Artists

Start of service

October 14, 1966

Art & Architecture

Panorama of the trainroom, built cut-and-cover. Alongside both platforms, long, broad side aisles (centre right), set off from the platform by large black columns, lead to the staircases to the mezzanine (right). The walls are clad in pale yellow tiles throughout.

Although comparatively plain, this station makes good use of colour. The straw-yellow tiles on most of the walls are set off by the black pillars, orange highlights, and especially the bright purple ceiling louvres and spandrels above the tunnel mouths.

The overlook from the mezzanine fare-paid zone onto the platforms, facing north. The broad staircases to the platforms and the side aisles they lead to are on either side.

The overlook from the rear of the mezzanine onto the south end of the platforms.

The south end of the trainroom, seen from the Montmorency platform. The spandrel over the tunnel mouth is accented in purple.

One of the seating recesses along the platforms, each with two groups of three purple fibreglass seats.

The fare-paid zone overlooking the platforms. Overhead is the bright purple drop ceiling grille. Orange accent walls are found at either side of the gateline (left), breaking up the pale yellow tiling. The parapet is in the same black stone as the columns.

The trainroom, built cut-and-cover, has a two-storey volume over its whole length, which gives it a spacious feel. A mezzanine hosting the ticket hall overlooks the platforms at either end.

The concourse of the ticket hall level, where the corridors from the two accesses converge. The gateline is at left; at right is a parapet overlooking the south end of the platforms. At centre is a concession walled with orange panels. The hallway toward the Berri Ouest exit is beyond the right edge of the frame.

The platforms are flanked by long side aisles, separated from them by large black pillars; these aisles lead to the broad staircases up to the mezzanine.

Looking up from the Côte-Vertu platform toward the mezzanine.

The side aisle of the Côte-Vertu platform, separated from the platform edge by a colonnade, leads to the stairs up to the mezzanine.

The broad staircase down from the mezzanine to the side aisle along the Montmorency platform.

The two entrances, on either side of Rue Berri, are integrated into the ground floor of buildings; both integration projects brought new artworks by Mario Merola to the station. The western entrance began as the station’s single headhouse; it was integrated into the Institut du Tourisme et de l’Hôtellerie (ITHQ) tower when it was built in 1975. The entrance, occupying the whole western end of the building’s ground floor, is an elongated, split-level hall with abundant natural light.

The Berri Ouest entrance, integrated into the ground floor of the ITHQ building.

The southwest corner of the exterior of the Berri Ouest entrance.

The long, spacious interior of the Berri Ouest entrance. The exit onto Rue de Rigaud is behind the viewer, with Rue Berri on the right. At the end of the space is the stairwell leading down to the station, and next to it, stairs up to the Rue de Malines exit. The left wall of the room hosts Mario Merola's brickwork relief Rivières.

View toward the south of the Berri Ouest entrance, with large expanses of glazed curtain walls looking out onto the bus stops on Rue Berri and Rue de Rigaud. A waiting area for bus passengers occupies the corner.

The tiled floor of the Berri Ouest entrance. The oblique lines of dark grey tiles interrupting the paler square tiling are found throughout the upper levels of the station.

The stairwell down from the Berri Ouest access.

The hallway from the Berri Ouest entrance to the ticket hall. The orange and purple accents amid the straw-coloured walls unify it with the rest of the station's interior. The metal housing in the middle of the hall was a unique solution to the need to add utility conduits in the early 2000s.

The western wall of this entrance is decorated with a discreet relief composed of brown bricks, entitled Rivières. The work also runs outside the building; another section within the ITHQ was destroyed during renovations in the mid-2000s.

Panorama of Mario Merola's brickwork relief Rivières in the Berri Ouest entrance, adjacent to the exit onto Rue de Malines (right).

Detail of Mario Merola's brickwork relief Rivières, in the Berri Ouest entrance.

Merola also created a second mural, a large orange circle made of concrete and porphyry tiles, entitled Horizons. This work is located in the ticket hall, by the foot of the stairs to the other entrance on the east side of Rue Berri. Its shape is a reference to the entrance’s location in the Place du Cercle tower.

The foot of the stairs from the ticket hall level up to the Berri Est access. Mario Merola's large, circular mural Horizons, made of orange porphyry, occupies the adjacent wall.

The stairwell up to the Berri Est access.

The Berri Est entrance, in the ground floor of the Place du Cercle building.

The façade of the Berri Est entrance, indicated by a retro small-format metro sign, one of the only places this can still be seen.

This entrance was added five years after the station’s construction in order to save passengers from having to cross the wide and complex Rue Berri, especially when transferring to or from the important eastbound line 24 bus. The new entrance opened on December 20, 1971.² As a result, the exposed reeded concrete of its Brutalist style stands out from the rest of the station and indeed from most of the original network.

Interior of the Berri Est entrance. Its Brutalist style is consistent with its 1972 construction date but rather out of keeping with the rest of the station and indeed the initial network. The exit is at the end of the space, the stairwell down to the station is at right. At left is a hallway leading to businesses on the ground floor of the building.

The U-shaped hall is integrated into the ground floor of Place du Cercle. It provides access to two businesses, as well as to a poorly signed and maintained corridor leading to a small, little-known exit onto Rue Sherbrooke beside an adjacent building.

Entrance to the hallway from the Berri Est entrance to the businesses on the ground floor of Place du Cercle and to the small exit on Rue Sherbrooke.

The rather grim and dilapidated hallway through Place du Cercle.

The small, inconspicuous exit onto Rue Sherbrooke, tucked away beside the tower at the corner of Sherbrooke and Berri.

The station’s first and primary artwork is a large, brightly coloured mosaic on a wall facing the foot of the staircase leading to the Côte-Vertu platform. The work of painter Gabriel Bastien and mosaicist Andrea Vau, it commemorates the Société Saint-Jean-Baptiste, whose headquarters are nearby, depicting its patron saint and its contributions to the academic and cultural life of Quebec.

The large, colourful mosaic by Gabriel Bastien and Andrea Vau commemorating the Société Saint-Jean-Baptiste, on the Côte-Vertu platform.

Detail of the mosaic by Gabriel Bastien and Andrea Vau on the Côte-Vertu platform.

Detail of the mosaic by Gabriel Bastien and Andrea Vau on the Côte-Vertu platform, depicting Saint John the Baptist.

Matt’s Rating

Accessibility

This station is not currently wheelchair-accessible. In the STM’s 2020-2029 capital expenditures program, this station was targeted for the installation of elevators by 2027. However, it no longer appears in the 2023-2032 program, the construction of new elevators has stalled due to budget cuts by the provincial government,³ and no construction work has yet been announced.

According to the Plan de développement d’accessibilité universelle de la STM 2012-2015 (p. 40), the predicted complexity of adding elevators at this station was rated as high (estimated cost over $18 million).

History & Trivia

Ridership

3,302,995 entrances in 2025

29th busiest station

Platform Depth

10.4 m deep
54th deepest station

Interstation Distances

To Berri-UQAM: 579.10 metres
To Mont-Royal: 932.10 metres

Origin of the Name

Rue Sherbrooke. Sir John Coape Sherbrooke (1764-1830), a British military man, served tours of duty around the world, and was the governor of Nova Scotia during the War of 1812 between the United States and Canada. He later served as governor-general of British North America 1816-1818. Under his administration Lower Canada experienced a brief period of calm, thanks in part to his conciliatory approach to diverse political forces; among other things, he maintained good relations with Louis-Joseph Papineau and, despite the British government’s prejudice against Catholicism, named the bishop of Quebec City to the Legislative Council. He resigned due to illness in 1818 and returned to England, where he died.

Rue Sherbrooke was built in the early 19th century along the upper rim of the slope known as Côte à Baron; it received its name around 1817,⁴ and was also known as Rue Sainte-Marie. By 1825 it ran from near present-day Rue Union to Rue Saint-Denis, and for a long time constituted the northern city limit. Originally a bucolic location far from the old city and its industries, it welcomed health facilities such as Hôpital Notre-Dame, as well as educational and monastic institutions. For the same reasons it also came to host fine residences for the wealthy, particularly around the area known as the Golden Square Mile.

Today, Rue Sherbrooke runs from Avenue Westminster in Montréal-Ouest to a roundabout near the easternmost tip of the island. Along much of its length it is part of Quebec Route 138, which extends from the American border in the furthest western part of Quebec to Blanc-Sablon and the Labrador border at the province’s easternmost point. The highway also incorporates the Chemin du Roy, one of the oldest colonial roads in Canada.

Name proposed during planning phase: Cherrier.⁵

Sir John Coape Sherbrooke
(Source⁶)

Trivia

This station and Jean-Talon were the only stations of the original network with a single staircase per platform. The stations of the original network all had separate passenger flows to and from the platforms, with gateways that blocked access to the platform when trains were arriving, to prevent passengers from running for the trains. These gateways proved both failure-prone and unnecessary, and they were soon removed, as was the entire passenger flow separation scheme. The use of a single staircase per platform at this station explains the breadth of the staircases and the width of the bays giving access to them, as both had to be divided in two.

Architectural perspective drawing of the trainroom
(Source⁷)

The trainroom during construction, August 1965
(Source⁸)

The temporary headhouse on the Berri Ouest entrance, originally the station’s only entrance, prior to its integration into the ITHQ building
(Source⁹)

Rear view of the original headhouse
(Source¹⁰)

The traffic flow barriers separating the platforms from the stairs and dividing the stairs in half.
(Source⁹)

The traffic flow barriers ended in gates that closed when trains were arriving, preventing passengers from running for the trains. Disembarking passengers could leave freely.
(Source⁹)

The never-completed program of works of art on historical subjects proposed by the metro’s first art director, Robert LaPalme, originally anticipated that this station would feature an artwork by artist Philip Surrey about the history of theatre in Montreal, making reference to the proximity of a number of important theatres. Surrey had also prepared a sketch for a mosaic depicting the Saint-Jean-Baptiste parade; this subject was apparently rejected in favour of the theatre idea, although it was considered for a different station, even though a similar subject was ultimately approved for the mosaic by Bastien and Vau that was finally chosen.¹¹ A mosaic on economic history was also considered.¹²

Detail of a sketch of an artwork by Philip Surrey planned for Sherbrooke station, depicting the Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day parade.

Sketch of an artwork by Philip Surrey planned for Sherbrooke station, depicting the Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day parade
(Source¹¹)

Scenes from Jean-François Richet’s film Mesrine: L’instinct de mort (2008) were filmed in this station.

Roy Dupuis in Mesrine: L'instinct de mort (2008)

Scene from Mesrine: L'instinct de mort (2008)

Roy Dupuis in Mesrine: L’instinct de mort (2008)
(Source¹³)

Scenes from Robert Ménard and Michel Côté’s film Cruising Bar 2 (2008) were filmed in this station.

Michel Côté in Cruising Bar 2 (2008)
(Source¹⁴)

General Information

Platform diagram

Most convenient metro cars to use when travelling to this station

Station surroundings

Station address

Borough of Le Plateau-Mont-Royal

A Berri Ouest entrance: 3580 Rue Berri, between Rue de Rigaud and Rue de Malines
B Berri Est entrance: 3585 Rue Berri, between Rue Sherbrooke and Rue Cherrier

OpenStreetMap link
Google Maps link

STM neighbourhood map (PDF)

Nearby attractions

Official website

Service information, opening hours, frequency, bus routes

Most recent update: October 12, 2026

References

Guides de voyage Ulysse. (2007). Montréal en métro (2nd ed.) Montreal: author. P. 153. ↩
Commission de transport de la Communauté urbaine de Montréal. (1972). Rapport annuel/Annual Report 1971. Montreal: author. P. 22. ↩
Ouellette-Vézina, Henri. (2025, April 16). “Faute de financement: L’installation d’ascenseurs encore à l’arrêt dans le métro.” La Presse. ↩
Fiche descriptive : Rue Sherbrooke Ouest. Commission de toponymie du Québec. ↩
Clairoux, Benoît. (2001). Le métro de Montréal: 35 ans déjà. Montreal: Hurtubise HMH. P. 110. ↩
Anonymous. Sir John Coape Sherbrooke. c. 1820. Engraving. Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec, P600,S5,PGN201. ↩
Source: Archives de la Ville de Montréal, VM097-Y-02-D005A-026-02. Used under the Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 2.5 CA License. ↩
Source: Archives de la Ville de Montréal, VM94-M152-014. Used under the Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 2.5 CA License. ↩
Source: Archives de la Ville de Montréal, VM097-Y-02-D005A-026-11. Used under the Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 2.5 CA License. ↩
Gagnon, Lysiane. (1967, March 25.) "On va décorer notre métro." La Presse, supplement 1, pp. 4-9. Source: Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec. ↩ ↩
"Une fois décoré, le métro sera un livre d'images sur Montréal." (1968, February 25). Le Petit Journal, p. 7. Source: Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec. ↩