The Stanley Cup, in a former bank hall with a stained-glass dome, and you are allowed to touch it.
Ice hockey is not a sport in Canada so much as a shared inheritance, and this is its cathedral. Whether you care about hockey or not, the building and the Cup are worth two hours.
The Stanley Cup
Donated in 1892 by Lord Stanley of Preston, then Governor General of Canada, as a challenge trophy for the country’s best amateur team, at a cost of about ten guineas. It is the oldest trophy competed for by professional athletes in North America.
Every player, coach and staff member of the winning team has their name engraved on it — around 3,000 names — and when a band is full, the oldest is retired to the Hall.
There are misspellings, and they are not corrected. Toronto Maple Leaes. Bqstqn Bruins. Ted Kennedy rendered as Kennedy Ted. They are pointed out on the tour.
Each winning player gets the Cup for a day and takes it wherever they like, which is why it has been in swimming pools, on mountains, in a fireplace and, at least once, left at the side of a road.
The one displayed in the Great Hall is the presentation Cup; the original 1892 bowl is in the vault beside it.
The Great Hall
The building is the former Bank of Montreal head office of 1885, in Beaux-Arts stone with a gilded and stained-glass dome, saved and incorporated into the Brookfield Place development. It is one of the finest Victorian interiors in Toronto and it would be worth visiting empty.
The rest
Honoured members’ plaques, the trophies, equipment from every era including goalie masks that trace the history of self-preservation, and a substantial section on the Original Six, the Summit Series of 1972 and the women’s game.
Interactive — shoot on a virtual goaltender, play goal against simulated shooters, and a broadcast booth where you call a game. This is a great deal of the appeal for children and a fair amount of it for adults.
Whether to go
If you have any interest in hockey, or in Canada, yes.
If you have none at all, the Great Hall and the Cup take twenty minutes and the rest will not hold you.
Practicalities
Ticketed. Located below Brookfield Place at Yonge and Front, reached from the street or through the PATH from Union Station — useful in winter.
Allow two to three hours. Busy at weekends and during school holidays.
More Museums
Royal Ontario Museum
Canada's largest museum, with a Libeskind crystal crashing through the front of it that the city has never agreed about.
Art Gallery of Ontario
Frank Gehry's only Canadian building, in the neighbourhood he grew up in, holding the largest collection of Canadian art anywhere.
Aga Khan Museum
A white granite box by Fumihiko Maki holding Islamic art, in a park in suburban Toronto, and worth the journey.