Temperance Billiard Halls


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 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