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Lecture Tour of America 1882

Writing and Research on Oscar Wilde

Brantford

Ontario

Stratford's Opera House

Friday, May 26, 1882

The Decorative Arts

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The New York Mirror, c. June 1882

Verification

Newspaper report

The Brantford Expositor, May 27?, 1882

Newspaper advertisement

Newspaper unknown, May, 1882

The date 1881 is a typographical error.

Venue

Stratford's Opera House

140 Colborne Street, Brantford, ON (now Harmony Square)

Built: 1866, as Ker's Hall (James Ker)*

Converted: 1881 (Joseph Stratford)

Opened as Stratford's Opera House: October 1881

Seating capacity: 1000 (600 iron opera chairs plus ordinary seating in gallery, circles and private boxes)

Destroyed (fire): January 10, 1908

* Not James Kerby, another prominent Brantford developer.

Accommodation

Wilde did stay overnight in Brantford but his lodgings are unknown. The most likely hotel would have been Kerby House.

John Cooper on Oscar Wilde © 2026