The Journal · The Brantford Club

The University Club of Toronto vs The Brantford Club: Where the Week Is Spent

The University Club of Toronto, established 1906, keeps its clubhouse at 380 University Avenue, Toronto. The Brantford Club has occupied the same house on George Street, Brantford, since the last night of 1898. Neither club’s affiliate list names the other, though four Ontario clubs sit on both. The week you keep, in Toronto or in Brant County, decides which roll to write to.

Take University Avenue first, as its own pages give it, read in September 2026: 380 University Avenue, Toronto, Ontario M5G 1R6, telephone 416-597-1336, between St. Patrick and Osgoode subway stations. Its dining facilities keep Monday to Friday, 11:00 am to 9:00 pm, by its own listing. Joining begins on its Join Us page, with paperwork returned by email with a CV or a short bio. So much for the reader who wanted University Avenue. The one who put two clubs into a single search is asking which roll their week belongs on.

The University Club of Toronto is a private club founded in 1906 by recent graduates of the University of Toronto who found the clubs of the day too staid for their tastes, in its own words, and it has occupied its University Avenue clubhouse since 1929. The Brantford Club is a private club of members with a dining room, a pub, and private rooms upstairs, kept in one Italianate house at 98 George Street, Brantford, from the last night of 1898 to this one; the house was the residence of Dr. John Y. Bown before the Club bought it.

University Avenue, Between Osgoode and St. Patrick

If your office is on University Avenue or within a subway stop of it, The University Club of Toronto is the club to hold. By its Clubhouse page it dines its members in the Library and at the Bar and seats them in a lounge hung with Group of Seven works, and by its Food and Wine page it keeps a cellar of over 5,000 bottles collected since 1929. Its accommodations page counts twelve bedroom suites on the third floor, each named for a Group of Seven painter. Its fitness centre opens twenty-four hours, squash has been played there since 1913, and its What’s On page carries a monthly programme of speakers. A person who works a full Toronto week can lunch, meet, train, and sleep at 380 University Avenue, and no club in Brant County offers that week.

Can a member of one club be received at the other?

Each club answers on its own affiliate page, read in September 2026. The University Club’s Worldwide Affiliate Clubs page counts over 350 clubs, reached by a letter of introduction valid for thirty days, and its Affiliate Club Listing dated March 9, 2026 names under Ontario the Hamilton Club, the London Club, the Rideau Club, and the Windsor Club. The Club’s own roll of affiliated clubs names those same four under Ontario, with the National Club, the Albany Club, and The St. Catharine’s Club beside them; its membership page puts the arrangement at more than 150 private clubs across Canada and around the world, with letters of introduction arranged before you travel. Neither page names the other club. The University Club’s page also describes a second kind of affiliation, through the International Associate Clubs network, so a member of either house asks their own club first.

A Week Spent in Paris, Cambridge, and Ancaster

The Brantford Club is the club for the other week, the one whose clients are in Paris, whose plant is in Cambridge, and whose Saturday is in Ancaster. The kitchen at 98 George Street is under executive chef Eric Wasylenky, whose Churchill Pork Chops are the signature dish, and Cocktail Fridays run in the 98 George Room. Upstairs, the Small Boardroom seats eight by a fireplace, and the Retro Lounge takes twenty seated or thirty standing and opens onto the two upper dining rooms, both by the Club’s own hosting sheet. The Club’s membership page notes that the Visitors’ Register of 1901 already shows guests from Winnipeg to London, England, and settles who may ask in four words: “Membership is open to all.”

Two Founding Stories, in Each Club’s Own Words

The University Club of Toronto tells its founding on its About page: recent graduates in 1906, several sites in the centre of Toronto, and a move in 1929 to a University Avenue clubhouse by Mathers and Haldenby that it calls one of Canada’s finest neo-classical buildings. The Brantford Club’s founding is on paper of a different kind. 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, a barrister, and Herbert Rushton Yates, and The Toronto World printed the notice of incorporation on August 1, 1898. The Charter’s purpose clause reads “to establish and maintain a social club,” per the Club’s centennial history. One club was formed by graduates who wanted a livelier room; the other by five men of a town then third in Canada by value of manufactured goods exported, behind only Toronto and Montreal. The fuller account is on the Club’s history page.

The University Club of Toronto vs The Brantford Club: Six Rows from Two Sites

Every row is from each club’s own pages. The clubs and rooms set beside this house are gathered in a register kept club by club.

Dress, Phones, and the Quiet of a Room

The University Club of Toronto publishes its dress code on its Club Etiquette page: conventional business attire is always acceptable, and smart casual is permitted throughout the clubhouse except at an event where dress is specified. Ripped, faded, or torn clothing is out for anyone. The Brantford Club’s policies page gives its code in two lines: “Pub dress code is casual. Ripped jeans/pants and hats are not permitted.” and “Dining Room dress code is ‘Smart Casual.’ Collarless t-shirts, shorts, ripped jeans and hats are not permitted.” On phones the two houses agree: the University Club asks that devices be muted and sends calls to its telephone booths or a private room; the Club asks that phones be silenced and a call taken in a private area of the house.

Asked with both tabs open

Sources: The University Club of Toronto’s own home, About, Clubhouse, Corporate Events, Accommodations, Sports and Fitness, Food and Wine, What’s On, Join Us, Club Etiquette, Directions, and Worldwide Affiliate Clubs pages and its Affiliate Club Listing of March 9, 2026, read in September 2026; the Club’s membership, affiliate clubs, and policies pages, its hosting sheet, and its centennial history. The four clubs on both lists are dated in the Journal’s survey of Ontario’s private clubs.