Temperance Billiard Hall Co. Ltd. was a company founded in 1906 in Pendleton, Lancashire, as part of the wider temperance movement, which built billiard halls in the north of England and London.
Several of the former halls are now Grade II listed buildings, such as the 1910 Temperance Billiard Hall, Fulham, London, now somewhat ironically a pub called The Temperance.
The Temperance Billiard Hall built in Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Manchester, in 1907, also Grade II listed, is now a J D Wetherspoon pub called the Sedge Lynn.
Their first in-house architect was Norman Evans, who designed a dozen and a half halls from 1906 to 1911, including both of the halls mentioned above.
Thomas Retford Somerford (sometimes noted mistakenly as T. G. Somerford) was their second architect. His 1912-1914 hall at 134-141 King's Road, Chelsea, London is now a Grade II listed building. Somerford's hall at 411-417 Coldharbour Lane, Brixton, London is also still there, but the frontage has been sub-divided into a number of smaller shop units, and the upper storeys are used as a hotel.
Locations (July 1958)
London
Acton: 27 King Street Battersea: 66 Battersea Rise (illustrated)
Chelsea: 131 King's Road (illustrated) Clapham: 47 Clapham High Street (illustrated) Croydon: 16 Katherine Street Ealing: 34/42 Bond Street Fulham: 90 High St Hammersmith: 150 King Street Highbury: 12 Highbury Corner Hounslow: 1 High Street Ilford: 257 High Road
Kingston: 17/19 Fife Road Lavender Hill: 638/640 Wandsworth Road Lewisham: 237 High Street Morden: 36 Aberconway Road Putney: 118 High Street Richmond: 6 Red Lion Street Streatham: 42 Streatham High Road Tooting Bec: 2a Lynwood Road Twickenham: 1 Richmond Road Victoria: 104/112 Buckingham Palace Road Walthamstow: Hoe Street, E17 (also known as the Queen's) Wimbledon: 111 The Broadway Wood Green: 1/3 High Road
Sussex Worthing: 12 Bath Place Greater Manchester Eccles: Liverpool Road Oldham: Union Street Rochdale: Nelson Street Urmston: Station Road
Manchester Cheetham Hill: Cheetham Hill Road Chorlton: Manchester Road Gorton: Hyde Road Harpurhey: Rochdale Road Moss Side: Moss Lane East Rusholme: Wilmslow Road
References