Now there was a time when the old temperance snooker hall in
Chorlton was the extent of my knowledge of both these buildings and of the movement
that lay behind their construction.
But they turn up all over Greater Manchester and
beyond. Some retained their sporting
links until quite recently while others were converted a long time ago in
shops, restaurants and industrial units.
They were built by The Temperance Billiard Hall Co Ltd which
had been founded in 1906 and was based in Pendleton.
And with an eye to a good site and perhaps a captive audience
some at least of the more enterprising early cinema owners chose to site their
picture houses beside temperance halls.
Ours in Chorlton was next to the lavish Picture House built
in 1920 while across in Cheetham the
Circuit Cinemas Ltd opened their Premier Picture Hall in 1925 which changed its
name to The Greenhill when the company opened a new luxury cinema opposite.*
Pictures; the old temperance hall and cinema,
2015 from the collection of Andy Robertson
*The Golden Years of Manchester Picture Houses, Derek J.
Southall, 2012
Almost opposite the Temperance Hall on Cheetham Hill Road - at no 453 to be precise - on a hot July afternoon in 1933, a respectable 61 year old Jewish lady was brutally and fatally beaten, it was thought, by an intruder. In May 2018, a BBC TV programme featured the murder and showed that the man who was hanged for the murder could not have done it. This miscarriage of justice, and the identification of a more plausible prime suspect who was never even interviewed by police, feature in a just published book: 'The Cheetham Hill Murder - A Convenient Killing?' by Denise Beddows. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Cheetham-Hill-Murder-Convenient-Killing/dp/1788766709/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1549703168&sr=1-1&keywords=the+cheetham+hill+murder
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