The bits of Chorlton you don’t always see

Now there is nothing rocket science about looking for unusual views of familiar Chorlton buildings.

But as with these two buildings of the back of the old snooker hall and cinema, most people will never get to see them.

The pictures were taken last Saturday from the playground of Oswald Road School during market day.

And in an age of powerful electric lighting it is easy to forget that when the hall was built at the beginning of the last century it was important to find every bit of natural lighting.

So, along with those big windows at the front and the series of roof windows there was another at the back which has now been bricked up.

The design was a common one and similar halls, all built by the same company, can be found across Greater Manchester, although few are still in the same line of business.  True the snooker hall was Temperance and today it is a pub but the place is still a place of entertainment, unlike its big neighbour which was once a cinema but is now the Co-op Funeral Parlour.

Location; Chorlton

Picture, the old snooker hall and cinema, 2018, from the collection of Andrew Simpson