Stretford Public Hall …. another story from Tony Goulding

Continuing my literary tour of the clocks of South Manchester I branch out, into the Borough of Trafford, with this one which adorns Stretford Public Hall on Chester Road, Stretford.

Stretford Public Hall, 20th August, 2022

This building has over its lifetime been known by a variety of names. It was officially opened, as The Town Hall, on Saturday the 13th September, 1879 by Mr. John Rylands, the fabulously wealthy textile magnate, whose residence was in the nearby, Longford Hall. He had commissioned a young Manchester architect William Arthur Lofthouse, (1)whose father, Michael, was the steward of Longford Hall, to undertake the work. In July, 1903, Stretford Urban District Council invited tenders for “Alterations and Additions to the Stretford Town Hall”

A main feature of the structure is the central tower which stands 100 feet high and houses a large illuminated clock which was manufactured by W. H. Bailey & Co. of Salford. (2)

As well as housing civic offices, on its ground floor there was an assembly hall, complete with an organ supplied by Messrs. Conacher & Co. of Huddersfield, on the upper floor. Later developments saw the opening of Stretford’s first public Library in the building in 1883

The Clock

 In 1887 Mr. Rylands provided for a rear extension to be built to house a public baths. There was a grand opening of the new facility on Saturday the23rd April, 1887. A second and larger pool was later added, in 1913.

The provision of these amenities or more especially their location was, however, not without its detractors. It was contested that they were positioned too far distant from the area which was seeing the greatest population growth in the borough, Old Trafford. These misgivings were particularly expressed when the District Council were debating the proposed purchase of the building from the executors of the estate of John Rylands widow, Enriqueta Augustina. The sale was finally agreed to, subject to an annual rent of £40-8s-8d, at a price of £5,000 during a council meeting on the 8th June, 1909. 

A new library was opened in 1940 which necessitated the finding of a new use for the building. As it had been the venue for various concerts and shows during the Second World War (3) it seemed quite natural that in 1949 it should be re-designated as The Stretford Civic Theatre.  Many local Amateur Dramatic Societies staged their productions there. (Including " Who is Sylvia" by the pre-St. Werburgh's Manchester Athaneum Dramatic Society on the 10th and 11th November, 1955).There were also regular amateur boxing tournaments and dances. In 1954, a new oak dance floor was laid at a cost of £561 as reported by The Manchester Evening News on the 11th May, 1954.

Meetings were still hosted in the building from time to time, these were as diverse as a meeting, (on 1st November, 1951) of the assistant librarians of Liverpool and Manchester, for which the Stretford Council provided £15 of refreshments, and the half yearly meeting of the Northern Counties Swimming Association.(On Saturday, 11th November, 1978)

The nature of the events which have taken place in the building reveal a good deal of social history. During the late Victorian and Edwardian eras Organ Recitals and classical music concerts were very popular with the hall also being regularly utilised for election hustings and meetings of various friendly societies.

Unsurprisingly during the First World War the hall was extensively used in the war effort as a recruitment centre  and later in the war as an office for the purchase of War Loans. It is unclear whether use was made of the building as a Red Cross Hospital it is possible that such use was proposed but shelved in favour of its use to house some of the 1,700 pupils displaced from local schools being used as hospitals.

In the 1920s a programme of dances and concerts resumed, however, there were some new innovations. For example, on the 11th June, 1921 a “Balloon and Ribbon Carnival” was staged which included waltz and polka competitions with balloons tied to the feet of the competitors.

Trafford Town Hall, 8th October, 2008

The 1930s saw the opening of a new town hall for the newly created Borough of Stretford (1933) on Talbot Road, Stretford, in what is now Trafford Town Hall. The building on Chester Road then being known as “Public Hall”.(4)

 While in use as the Civic Theatre the building was also used for fund raising whist drives by a variety of groups. It was also the venue for a number of exhibitions in the early 1950s promoting road safety and Civil defence. (What to do in the event of an atom bomb attack!) Wrestling bouts and chrysanthemum shows were some of the other events

The sixties decade saw the first wine makers festival in 1968 and the advent of its use by a local 18+ group for their activities which included a Valentine’s Day “Crazy Nite” complete with a knobbly knees and ankles competition on the 14th February, 1963 and a Miss 18+ beauty contest on Saturday 23rd March, 1974.

 A last hurrah for the old building was the Rock Against Racism Christmas party of Friday 23rd December, 1977. This event featured, The Fall, John Cooper Clarke, and The Worst. Shortly after this, the Public Baths closed on the 31st March, 1982 prior to its permanent closure it had become unreliable due to a faulty boiler and was only opening the smaller of its two pools. The Civic Theatre was also in a deteriorating condition and closed around 1987 around the time it was designated a Grade 11 listed building. For almost a decade the building remained empty until in 1995 Trafford Council paid for some much-needed refurbishment to enable its use again as council offices. The Council vacated the property in 2014 since when the site has been acquired by a community group Friends of Stretford Public Hall. 800 local residents and organisations raised £250,000 to pay to have the Hall lovingly restored to its former glory.

 Finally, the hall has often been used for the conducting of coroner’s inquests into sudden or unexpected deaths. A particularly distressful example was that held on the 11th August, 1915, reported in that day’s Manchester Evening News on an accident at the adjacent swimming baths. A nine-year old boy, who couldn’t swim, had sadly drowned when he apparently fainted and fell into the deep end of the pool .

Pictures: - Stretford Public Hall and clock, and “Trafford Public Hall” from the collection of Tony Goulding. Trafford Town Hall: - by Tom Jeffs (a.k.a. “Parrot of Doom”) - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=4955790.

Notes: -

1)  William Arthur Lofthouse was not a prolific architect, in fact, apart from a national school built in 1874 at Stand, Nr. Whitefield, Bury, Lancashire, this commission for John Rylands was his only known work in the Manchester area. Shortly after the opening of this building he re-located to Huddersfield, in his birth county of Yorkshire, where the 1881 census records him still working as an architect. However at his death on the 25th March, 1887 his probate details show him as the publican of “The World’s End”, in Knaresborough, Yorkshire.

2)  This information was reported in a detailed description of the new building in The Wigan Observer and District Advertiser of the 20th September, 1879.

3)  A typical show might have been for a cost of 2/- (10p) you could have seen the band leader, Charlie Bassett on the 1st March, 1941.

4)  Some confusion arises from the fact that Stretford District Council vacated their offices in “The Town Hall”  in 1887, to  purpose built offices on Talbot Road which were known for a time as Trafford Public Hall and is now the Trafford Hall Hotel.

“Trafford Public Hall” on 25th August, 2022

Acknowledgements: - Again my major source was the The newspaper archive collection and other records on Find my Past. Additional biographical details of William Arthur Lofthouse came from the excellent website, Architects of Greater Manchester (1800-1940) created by The Victorian Society. The Friends of Streford Public Hall provided additions to the hall’s most recent history.