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.[1]

The Temperance Billiard Hall, Fulham

The Temperance Billiard Hall, Chorlton-cum-Hardy

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.[2]

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.[3]

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.[1][2][3]

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.[1] 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.[4]