Thanks to the archives I recently got an email of a list of Birkenhead Magistrates Licences for alcohol and billiards 1880 to 1975. Not too sure if you needed a licence if you owned somewhere where you could play billiards (snooker and card games possibly?) without there being an alcohol licence Where were these?
1 Argyle Street 1915-1941
2 Assembly Rooms Park Road North 1920 - 1963 Billiard Licenses
3 Bedford Road 1915 - 1941
4 Borough Concert Hall Borough Road 1920 - 1941
5 Central Vaults Grange Road 1915 - 1941 Possibly back of the Central Hotel but never knew of access from Grange Road
6 Charing Cross Billiard Hall Whetstone Lane 1915 - 1941
7 Drill Hall Holt Road 1920 - 1952
8 Grange Road 1931 - 1963 Maybe the Atlas Hotel
9 Roxy Cinema Charing Cross 1945 - 1952 never knew that - what part
10 Temperance Billiard Hall Grove Road 1915 - 1941
11 Victoria Lodge Hotel Victoria Road 1915 - 1941 only been there once and never noticed a billiard table
12 Woodside Lairage Social Club 1915 - 1930 Billiard Licenses
Not on list Woodside Hotel The Livingstone Atlas The Castle The Britannia
Somewhere in Grange Rd. roughly where I've marked 'x' was Montague Burton "The Tailor of Taste". Above it was a billiard hall, but I don't think there was a bar.
I worked in Paige Fashions 1974,just down from Robbs and opposite the old T J Hughes. to the side of Paiges was a walkway to Oliver st.Woolworths was on the opposite side of walkway.in this walkway was a building that co op employees used for functions and I think there was a billiards room there too
I may call in there sometime and enquire if the there is a basement that was a billiard hall. O nly went there once and can't remember if you went upstairs to see the picture or if it was on ground level
It was announced on the 23rd November 1910 that a company Birkenhead Picturedrome and Billiard Hall Ltd., had been formed with the objective of acquiring the land and the six dwelling houses in Salisbury Street, and to erect on the site a combined Picturedrome and Billiard Hall with its frontage on Whetstone Lane, Charing Cross.
The building itself was designed such that the sports facility was below, and entirely separated from the picture house by a massive sound and fire-proof concrete floor supported on wrought compound girders.
Opened on Thursday 25th May 1911 with the inauguration ceremony taking place at 2.30 pm and that evening the finals of a league match bY employees from Messrs. Cook and Townsend of Liverpool and Messrs.Robb Bros of Birkenhead. The match was followed by refreshment and a dance. The hall was available to both men and women players and, at the time,claimed to be the first billiard parlour to be illuminated entirely by electricity.
1956 the cinema was to close and a few years later became a store for the Birkenhead and District Co-operative Society, and more recently a sports shop. The former billiards hall had long ceased to be used for its original purpose and had been leased for fire brigade civil defence training who continued to use it for a short while after the cinema had ceased business. This was one of the first cinemas to close in Birkenhead during the rapid decline of the industry in the 1950-60's.
Somewhere in Grange Rd. roughly where I've marked 'x' was Montague Burton "The Tailor of Taste". Above it was a billiard hall, but I don't think there was a bar.
Later 1950s map, I'm confused by the numbers 202 to 210 on the possible Burton building. Do you know for sure it was a billiard hall upstairs as I remember it as a dance club The Craftmans club about 1966/68ish. Once told by an old chap it may have some association with the Masonic Hall in Oliver St (there is a passageway, still there today in Grange Rd that leads to the back of the Masonic Hall)
Derek; yes, that numbering is strange. I'm sure about it being a billiard hall above Burton's, but I'm talking about before 1956, so it may have changed later. Joney; a few years ago I went to spend a few days with a son in Walthamstow. He took me to his snooker club, which was above a takeaway of some sort, but in the entrance there was still the tiling with "Montague Burton" in it.
Somewhere in Grange Rd. roughly where I've marked 'x' was Montague Burton "The Tailor of Taste". Above it was a billiard hall, but I don't think there was a bar.
Later 1950s map, I'm confused by the numbers 202 to 210 on the possible Burton building. Do you know for sure it was a billiard hall upstairs as I remember it as a dance club The Craftmans club about 1966/68ish. Once told by an old chap it may have some association with the Masonic Hall in Oliver St (there is a passageway, still there today in Grange Rd that leads to the back of the Masonic Hall)
Have a look at the back of the 202-210 building - there are steps leading upwards there. You have to go via the passageway previously mentioned. AFAIK - nothing to do with the Masonic Hall - have been there a few times for work.