Now there is always more to find out about our old theatres and cinemas, and so it is with the Chorlton Theatre and Winter Gardens, which is an old favourite of mine. *
It was situated just over the railway bridge on Wilbraham Road on what is now Morrison’s petrol station.
Until now I had just one photograph and a few memories from Ann Love’s dad who saw Tom Mix the American film star in a western sometime in the early 1920s
But in the space of a few days there is much more. I now have a detailed description of what it was like, evidence of its chequered history and the names of those who walked its boards and the plays they performed in.
The actual date of its opening is still a little hazy. I thought it opened in 1904, but I can be certain it was up and running by1906 when a Walter Broadhurst of 71 Nicolas Road applied for a license to put on shows at the “Chorlton Pavilion adjoining Chorlton Railway Station”, which were followed up by yearly applications thereafter.
In the June of 1907, The Stage carried the notice that Messrs. Levy and Cardwell were performing their “musical Comedy, Little Paul Pry” with an appeal from the managers of the Theatre wanting “Musical Comedies, Burlesques Opera Light Drama” for slots in July into September asserting that “Good Companies do well. Packed nightly”. **
And that was all to be expected, given that there had been a housing boom in Chorlton which from the 1880s had seen the area around the Three Banks go from open fields to rows of houses, which catered for the “middling people” who worked in town in a range of professional, clerical and entrepreneurial businesses.
These were the very people with money in their pockets who also supported a range of cultural and sporting groups and clubs and will have been a ready audience for a place of varieties.
And this was not lots on a group of businessmen who in 1910 founded the Chorlton Entertainments Ltd. Their prospective argued “that there was a want of a high-class theatre and place of entertainment in Chorlton a district which is well known”.
To this end they had bought the old theatre for £700 including the “furniture, fixtures, electrical and other fittings, scenery” and “the goodwill attached to the said Pavilion and to the business”
It was an ambitious plan which saw the addition of land laid out as a "Winter Gardens”, which was incorporated into the new name of the Chorlton Pavilion and Winter Gardens”.
And the business plan fully recognised that the site was “in the centre of the populous and growing township of Chorlton-cum-Hardy adjoins the railway station and is within two minutes’ walk of the Manchester electric tramways [and] within easy access of Moss Side, Fallowfield, Withington, Didsbury, Old Trafford, Stretford, Sale and Urmston, with an estimated population of one hundred and fifty thousand”
Its five directors lived in Whalley Range, Levenshulme and Gorton, and listed their professions as broker, Assurance manager, supply company manager and solicitor’s clerk, and included as one of its auditors Mr. H. D. Morrhouse who was later to establish a popular chain of cinemas of which the Pavilion would later be part of.
But I will close with a description of the newly opened theatre from March 1910.
“It is situated close to the railway station, and is a fine, commodious, and spacious building, standing within its own grounds, which are laid out as gardens; hence the appellation Winter Gardens.
The building is of corrugated iron on a brick foundation, the exterior being painted a green colour, whilst the entrance is plain, and effective in a white fibrous plaster, with several rows of electric lamps, which gives it a bright appearance when it is lit up. The seating capacity is a 1,000.
The orchestra stalls and stalls, which are now fitted with tip-up seats, upholstered in crimson velvet, can accommodate 500 persons.
The pit and promenade seat another 500. The stage has an opening of 23 ft., and extends from the footlights to exterior wall, 28 ft. 6 in. There are four commodious dressing -rooms, the ladies on one side and the gentlemen on the other.
The dressing rooms are spacious and supplied with every convenience and can be heated as required.
There is a complete electrical installation, and the heating is on the Radium principle. For the opening week Miss Florence Baine’s company with Miss. Lancashire, Limited, have been secured and on a Monday a house packed in all parts gave a demonstrative welcome to the popular farce, Miss Madge Grey as the blunt Lancashire Lass”. ***
It was also the venue for shows by our own Chorlton Operatic Society and hosted at least one large political meeting by the Unionist Party in 1913.
Tomorrow; dark days, strange stories and its time as our first cinema
Location; Chorlton
Pictures; Chorlton Pavilion and Winter Gardens, circa 1906, from the Lloyd Collection
*Chorlton Pavilion and Winter Gardens, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search/label/Chorlton%20Theatre%20and%20Winter%20Gardens
**The Stage, June 27th, 1907
***The Chorlton Entertainments Ltd, Manchester Guardian, January 8th, 1910
Until now I had just one photograph and a few memories from Ann Love’s dad who saw Tom Mix the American film star in a western sometime in the early 1920s
But in the space of a few days there is much more. I now have a detailed description of what it was like, evidence of its chequered history and the names of those who walked its boards and the plays they performed in.
The actual date of its opening is still a little hazy. I thought it opened in 1904, but I can be certain it was up and running by1906 when a Walter Broadhurst of 71 Nicolas Road applied for a license to put on shows at the “Chorlton Pavilion adjoining Chorlton Railway Station”, which were followed up by yearly applications thereafter.
And that was all to be expected, given that there had been a housing boom in Chorlton which from the 1880s had seen the area around the Three Banks go from open fields to rows of houses, which catered for the “middling people” who worked in town in a range of professional, clerical and entrepreneurial businesses.
These were the very people with money in their pockets who also supported a range of cultural and sporting groups and clubs and will have been a ready audience for a place of varieties.
And this was not lots on a group of businessmen who in 1910 founded the Chorlton Entertainments Ltd. Their prospective argued “that there was a want of a high-class theatre and place of entertainment in Chorlton a district which is well known”.
It was an ambitious plan which saw the addition of land laid out as a "Winter Gardens”, which was incorporated into the new name of the Chorlton Pavilion and Winter Gardens”.
And the business plan fully recognised that the site was “in the centre of the populous and growing township of Chorlton-cum-Hardy adjoins the railway station and is within two minutes’ walk of the Manchester electric tramways [and] within easy access of Moss Side, Fallowfield, Withington, Didsbury, Old Trafford, Stretford, Sale and Urmston, with an estimated population of one hundred and fifty thousand”
Its five directors lived in Whalley Range, Levenshulme and Gorton, and listed their professions as broker, Assurance manager, supply company manager and solicitor’s clerk, and included as one of its auditors Mr. H. D. Morrhouse who was later to establish a popular chain of cinemas of which the Pavilion would later be part of.
“It is situated close to the railway station, and is a fine, commodious, and spacious building, standing within its own grounds, which are laid out as gardens; hence the appellation Winter Gardens.
The building is of corrugated iron on a brick foundation, the exterior being painted a green colour, whilst the entrance is plain, and effective in a white fibrous plaster, with several rows of electric lamps, which gives it a bright appearance when it is lit up. The seating capacity is a 1,000.
The orchestra stalls and stalls, which are now fitted with tip-up seats, upholstered in crimson velvet, can accommodate 500 persons.
The dressing rooms are spacious and supplied with every convenience and can be heated as required.
There is a complete electrical installation, and the heating is on the Radium principle. For the opening week Miss Florence Baine’s company with Miss. Lancashire, Limited, have been secured and on a Monday a house packed in all parts gave a demonstrative welcome to the popular farce, Miss Madge Grey as the blunt Lancashire Lass”. ***
It was also the venue for shows by our own Chorlton Operatic Society and hosted at least one large political meeting by the Unionist Party in 1913.
Tomorrow; dark days, strange stories and its time as our first cinema
Location; Chorlton
Pictures; Chorlton Pavilion and Winter Gardens, circa 1906, from the Lloyd Collection
*Chorlton Pavilion and Winter Gardens, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search/label/Chorlton%20Theatre%20and%20Winter%20Gardens
**The Stage, June 27th, 1907
***The Chorlton Entertainments Ltd, Manchester Guardian, January 8th, 1910
As a child I used to play around the shed like businesses that replaced that area.
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