The Brunswick House

The Brunswick House, known colloquially as the "Brunny" and sometimes advertised as "Ye Olde Brunswick House", was a well known pub in the Toronto neighbourhood The Annex.

At its closure in 2016, the Brunswick House was one of the oldest such establishments still in operation in Toronto, as it was founded in 1876. Located at Bloor Street and Brunswick, the Brunny has served different clientele over the years.

The Brunswick House, was established by Benjamin Hinchcliffe, who had previously owned a series of hotels including St. George’s at Yonge and Richmond and the Osgoode House at Queen and York. He used proceeds from selling land he owned on Chestnut Street to assemble a package of properties on which the construction of the Brunswick House began in 1874.

The original Brunswick House was described in assessment rolls as a two-storey, rough stone 15-by-30-foot building with a separate stable. The hotel originally served early immigrants, wagoners, and labourers who were in need of lodging, food, drink, and a place to stable their horses. The taproom was also used as a ballroom and meeting hall, under the name "Hinchcliff's Hall".

By 1889, the hotel and stable were enlarged and sold to Emma Jury and her husband, a tailor. It was sold, in turn, in 1907 to Edward Jackson who commissioned architect Wilson Siddall to design a new Brunswick House, renamed the Brunswick Hotel, as a three-storey establishment with its large windows, moulded decorations and heavy cornice, to replace the previous building.

In 1920, the Brunswick Hotel was purchased by Kate Davidson, who renamed it “Ye Olde Brunswick House.” Under the Ontario Temperance Act of 1916, alcohol could only be sold by prescription for personal use by guests in their hotel rooms or private residence while only light beer with a maximum of 4.4% alcohol could be sold in the tavern itself. Davidson was fined several times for selling beer that had more alcohol content than allowed in the years before the Act was repealed in 1927.

The Brunswick House was purchased in 1961 by Morris and Albert Nightingale, and managed by Albert, under whose direction the establishment became known for its cheap beer, and sold the greatest volume of alcohol of any tavern in the province. The downstairs of the tavern, nicknamed 'Pickle Alley", held pickle eating contests, the Mrs. Brunswick pageant, and was known for its often eccentric regular entertainers, catering to an older working class crowd.

By the 1970s and 1980s, the upstairs room, known as Albert's Hall after Albert Nightingale, became known as a venue for jazz and the blues in particular, and played host to musicians such as Blossom Dearie, Cab Calloway, Gordon Lightfoot, Oscar Peterson, Muddy Waters, Loretta Lynn, the Climax Jazz Band, Downchild, Blind John Davis, Dr. McJazz, Etta James, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Buddy Guy, Jeff Healey and k.d. lang.

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