The Journal · The Brantford Club

The National Club vs The Brantford Club: Bay Street and George Street

Founded in 1874, The National Club keeps its clubhouse of 1907 at 303 Bay Street, Toronto, at the corner of Bay and Adelaide. The Brantford Club has kept one house at 98 George Street, Brantford, since 1898. Each club’s own affiliate list names the other, so a member of either may ask for a letter of introduction to the second.

Start on Bay Street, where the National Club’s own contact page puts it: 303 Bay Street, Toronto, Ontario M5H 2R1, telephone 416-364-3247. Its About page gives the directions: the corner of Bay and Adelaide, with an underground connection to the Scotia Plaza concourse and the subway by the PATH. That is the National as it publishes itself, read in September 2026. The reader who typed both names with a “vs” between them wanted the rest: what separates a club of 1874 on Bay Street from a club of 1898 across from a county court house, and whether one person can be received at both.

The National Club is a private business and social club in Toronto, founded in 1874, seven years after Confederation, as a home for the Canada First Party, by its own history page, and it moved to 303 Bay Street in 1907. The Brantford Club is a private business and social club kept in one Italianate residence of about 1855 at the corner of George and Nelson Streets in Brantford, formed in May 1898 and opened on December 31, 1898. Twenty-four years separate the two charters.

Does The National Club list The Brantford Club as an affiliate?

Yes, on its own Affiliate Clubs page, read in September 2026. Under Ontario the National’s list carries the Brantford Club at 98 George Street, Brantford, N3T 2Y4, with the Club’s telephone, 519-752-0931, and a note that an affiliated hotel stands close by. The Club’s list of the houses it is affiliated with answers from George Street: The National Club, 303 Bay St., Toronto, is one of seven Ontario clubs it names. The Club’s membership page puts the arrangement at more than 150 private clubs across Canada and around the world, with letters of introduction arranged; the National’s puts its own at over 265. What a receiving club extends on the day is settled between the two clubs, so a member of the house on George Street asks the Club first. The Journal’s page on the Albany Club found only one side printing a name; here both do.

Underground to Scotia Plaza, and Upstairs to Bed

If your office is in one of the towers on the PATH, The National Club is the right club, and this page says so without a hedge. By its membership page, The National Club keeps two traditional club dining rooms, two modern dining lounges including a Rooftop Patio, thirteen private dining and banquet rooms with function space for 2 to 200, six overnight bedrooms including one suite, a business lounge with private offices, and a 40,000-bottle wine cellar. Its accommodation page gives check-in at 3 pm and check-out at 11 am, and the 1874 Bar-Grill for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. A person whose week is spent inside the PATH can lunch, meet, and sleep at 303 Bay Street without stepping outdoors. Keep that club.

The Corner of George and Nelson, for a Week in Brant County

The Brantford Club keeps the other kind of week. Its house is the Bown property at the corner of George and Nelson Streets, bought by the Club for $4,500.00 per the centennial history, and the Club has answered its door there since 1898. The first President, E. M. Shadbolt, was the recently appointed Manager of the Bank of Montreal, and Jeffery Hale, Banker, stands on the Charter roll, so a banker has sat at this table from the first year. The kitchen is under executive chef Eric Wasylenky, the dining room asks Smart Casual, and the upstairs rooms take a board of twelve or a dinner for sixteen, the Large Dining Room seating that many by the Club’s own hosting sheet. A person whose clients are in Paris, Cambridge, or Ancaster, and whose lunches happen in Brantford, holds this club because the week is already here. The Club’s membership page says who may ask, in its own words: “Membership is open to all.”

A Party in 1874, a Purpose Clause in 1898

The two founding papers explain the two clubs. The National Club’s history page says it was founded as a home for the Canada First Party, and it describes the club today as a downtown meeting place for the country’s business and political leaders, in its own words. The Brantford Club’s Charter states its purpose in one clause, “to establish and maintain a social club,” and the Letters Patent of July 16, 1898 carry five names: Charles Waterous of the Waterous Engine Works, Jeffery Hale from banking, Ralph Henry Reville of the Brantford Courier, Alfred John Wilkes from the bar, and Herbert Rushton Yates. One club was founded around a political idea; the other around a table in a town that stood third in Canada by value of manufactured goods exported in the early 1900s, behind only Toronto and Montreal. The Club tells its own story on the history pages at 98 George Street.

The National Club vs The Brantford Club, Read in September 2026

Every row comes from the club’s own site, read the week this page was written. Every such pairing is kept in the register of the city’s rooms and rolls.

Asked by Form on Bay Street, by Email on George Street

The National’s Inquire About Membership page is a form, and a thorough one, asking a name, an occupation, a company, and a city. The Brantford Club asks for the two particulars the Charter roll asked in 1898, a name and an occupation, and takes them by email to manager@thebrantfordclub.com. A person who holds one club and works some weeks in the other city keeps one roll at home and carries a letter to the other; the two affiliate lists give that letter an address at each end. A Toronto club of 1875 is set beside this house on exactly that point in the entry that takes up the cost question.

Five questions from the Bay Street search

Sources: The National Club’s own About, History, Contact, Membership, Affiliate Clubs, Accommodations, and Club Courtesies pages, read in September 2026 (its dress code is published as a poster image, so it is not quoted here); the Club’s membership, affiliate clubs, and policies pages; and the Club’s centennial history. The Ontario clubs are dated from their own records in the Journal’s register of the province’s private clubs, and the Hamilton Club, also on the Club’s Ontario list, has its own page beside this house.