The Journal · The Brantford Club

Gunners Club vs The Brantford Club: Two Bars, Two Calendars

The Gunners Club is the Brant Artillery Gunner’s Club Unit 21 at 115 Henry Street, Brantford, a veterans’ club with a licensed hall, as its site puts it. The Brantford Club is the city’s private members’ club at 98 George Street, kept since 1898 with a dining room, private rooms, and a bar whose stock went into the Minutes in 1909.

Brantford keeps two club bars a few blocks apart. The Gunners Club, on its own pages, is at 115 Henry Street, Brantford, Ontario N3S 5C6; the club telephone is 519-753-8128, hall rentals go to 519-865-5266, the email is gunnersclub@outlook.com, and the hours are Thursday 12 pm to 6 pm, Friday 12 pm to 12 am, and Saturday 12 pm to 6 pm, by its own listing. The Brantford Club is a members’ house at 98 George Street, incorporated by Letters Patent on July 16, 1898. If you came for the Gunners, the number above is the door.

The Bar on Henry Street and the Bar on George Street

Two clubs, two bars, and each bar is for something different. The Gunners Club describes its bar as fully stocked, with certified bartenders for a hall booking. The club’s own calendar runs through the bar: Friday night fun from 5 pm, karaoke from 8 pm to midnight, darts every second Friday, cricket on the third Friday with sign-up at the bar, and live music from 2 pm on Saturdays. The bar at 115 Henry Street is the club’s front room.

The Club’s bar on George Street keeps its own paper. In 1909 the Minutes recorded the stock by name: John Jamesons XXX, Black & White, Gooderham & Worts, Guinness, and Bixell lager brewed in Brantford, with drinks at ten cents and Haig & Haig two for twenty-five. The Journal’s entry on the bar ledger of 1909 keeps the whole list, with the Secretary’s answer on rum, which was that it was not a drink the Club would serve. The 1997 renovation opened that bar into the former Inglenook Room, and members still patronize it. One bar keeps a sign-up sheet; the other keeps a ledger.

What is the difference between a club hall and a club house?

A club hall is a licensed room a club keeps for its members and lets to the public by the booking; a club house is a building a club keeps for its members and their guests, with no bookings from the street. The Gunners Club is the first kind. Its site says it is run by volunteers, that it is more than a veterans’ club, and that it lets its hall for birthday parties, celebrations of life, showers, fundraisers, work Christmas parties, and weddings, with catering by Two Spoons. The Brantford Club is the second kind, a private members’ club whose Charter of 1898 gave its purpose in seven words, “to establish and maintain a social club,” and whose rooms are held for one party at a time by the people on its roll. The Journal’s entry on what a private members’ club is says more. A hall earns its keep by the Saturday; a house earns it by the Tuesday.

The Friday That Belongs to the Gunners

Some evenings belong on Henry Street, and the house on George Street does not pitch for any of them. A wedding belongs there: the Gunners Club publishes a whole page on its weddings, with a decorator, an in-house caterer, and two certified bartenders, and this Journal does not pitch 98 George Street for one. So does a celebration of life for a family that wants a hall, a kitchen, and a bar under one roof, and so does the Friday itself. Darts for up to thirty-two players, karaoke until midnight, a Saturday band at 2 pm, a New Year’s Eve gala with the Peppershakers on the site’s own December list: these are what a veterans’ club with a licensed hall is for. By its site it also gives, with Blues for Soldiers and Breakfast with Santa. Anyone in Brant County who wants that Friday should call Henry Street, at 519-753-8128.

The Rooms Kept on George Street

The Brantford Club keeps rooms, and a calendar built around lunch. The house at 98 George Street was built about 1855 as the residence of Dr. John Y. Bown, the riding’s Member through Confederation; the Club opened its door there on December 31, 1898. The dining room is served from Executive Chef Eric Wasylenky’s kitchen, with the Churchill Pork Chops on the cards, and the private rooms hold members’ meetings, dinners, and celebrations with menus arranged to the occasion. Cocktail Fridays run in the 98 George Room. The calendar has no band and no karaoke; it has a rule from 1911 that a member at his meal was never to be interrupted by the telephone. A private room here is held for one party, with the door shut.

Gunners Club vs The Brantford Club, Bar to Bar

The rows take each club at its own word.

What Each Club Publishes About Joining

Each club publishes something about who belongs, repeated here as given. The Gunners Club’s site lists a membership committee and, on its FAQ page, gives one working rule: for darts night, members sign first, then the sheet is open to everyone else. The Brantford Club’s own answer is four words, “Membership is open to all,” and its membership page adds reciprocal privileges at more than 150 private clubs across Canada and around the world. Asking is one email to manager@thebrantfordclub.com, and the reply comes from a person who can say how it is done. Nothing either club publishes prevents a name from standing on both rolls.

What the two rolls get asked

Sources: the Gunners Club’s own home page, FAQ, services, Saturdays, special events, weddings, and contact pages for all Gunners facts here; the Club’s membership and policies pages and the Journal’s reading of the Club dress code; and the centennial history for the Charter, the Letters Patent, the 1909 bar list, and the 1911 telephone rule. The rest of the series is shelved at the comparisons register.