It’s the little bits of Chorlton’s history that can be fascinating ……… the other billiard hall

I bet I won’t be the only one who has passed 446 Wilbraham Road and not given it a second glance.

Two shops hiding a secret, 2021

Today 466 is the Admiral Casino and its neighbour the Royal Cod, and slip back a few years and the two properties were occupied by Quick Silver and a Touch of Class.

Beyond that I must confess I can’t remember …. but someone will know.

They may even be able to offer up a detailed history of the building which always struck me as out of keeping with that stretch of the road, especially as the present east side of the closed Precinct had been a row of five Victorian houses.

Years ago I had gone looking for the story, but pretty much had given up after discovering the plot had been a vacant slot of land as late as 1907, and built on by 1933.

The unromantic side of that former billiard hall, 2024

And then as so often happens in the middle of doing some research I came across the information that in 1929 it was a billiard hall owned by W.R. Bridgens & Co Ltd and was fronted by Malley and Adamson, opticians and Simon Beattie, tobacconist.

There does appear to have been a third shop front which shows up on the 1952 OS map but this may have been a later subdivision of the other two.

I have Anthony Petrie to thank for the update as he was trawling his collection of street directories for me and came up with the names associated to the building.

And he also identified that in 1962 the three shops fronts were occupied by a “ladies hairdresser, estate agent and optician”

And like so much research it just begs heaps of further questions.  

Can we push the date of the billiard hall back?  When did it close?  Was it a rival to the Temperance Billiard Hall on Manchester Road?  What more is there to find out about W.R. Bridgens & Co Ltd, and is there any one out there who used the hall more recently.

Hall and shops in the distance, 1959

So many questions.

Location; Wilbraham Road

Pictures, The shop fronts of the former Billiard Hall, 2021, courtesy of Google maps, and down the side of the hall, 2024 from the collection of Andrew Simpson, and the hall in 1959 by A.H. Downes, m17486, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass

The Chorlton billiard hall …. St Mary’s Hospital …… and that much loved night spot

I am back with that forgotten billiard hall on Wilbraham Road and a series of twisty turney paths that reinforce that old idea that history is messy.

The front of the former billiard hall, 2024

First, the billiard hall which stands behind the two shops, Admiral, and Royal Cod.

I can date the hall back to 1929 and may be able to push that back into the 1920s.

Just when it closed its doors is as yet unclear, but in 1929 it belonged to W.R. Bridgens and Co.

And a William Roy Bridgen and his wife Winnie were living at 163 Barlow Moor Road rom at least 1927 through to 1931, and there are references to him in various newspapers in the early 1830s competing in golf competitions.

Alas so far that is it except for an obituary recording the death of Winnie in 1955.

But it’s early days I am confident he and Winnie will come out of the shadows with more research.

And already I know that in 1931 he was renting and paying rates for rooms at 64 Oxford Street, three doors up from St Mary’s Hospital.

Acropolis Restaurant and the  Palace Snack Bar and Continental Club, 1974

Now by 1964 numbers 66 and 64 were the Acropolis Restaurant and the  Palace Snack Bar and Continental Club.

And the name the Continental Club or “Conti” will immediately chime a chord with anyone of a certain age who liked late night drinking with a bit of dancing and questionable food.

Sadly, I missed going there, because it closed before I arrived in Manchester, but like Lazarus the club rose again in the basement of an old building in Harter Street, taking the name of the “New Conti” and so was born a place I inhabited for a great chunk of the 1970s.

A friend we introduced to the place could only mutter “a bus shelter with beer”, but it was more than that, and a favourite dive of doctors, nurses, teachers and plenty more.

It must be 40 more years since I last went and it has gone, although just when I have no idea.

Acropolis Restaurant, 1974

But there are plenty of stories out there of both clubs and a slight dispute about whether the old closed before the new opened.  I have no idea, but trying to answer that question falls into that comment about the 1960s, “if you can remember the 60s you weren’t there”.

But there will be more, because my friend Antony whose aunt owned the Acropolis Restaurant is digging deeper into the story as I write.

So, there will be more linking one social club in Chorlton those far more memorable venues which were the Old and New Cont.

Location, Chorlton and Town

Pictures, the front of our old billiard Hall, 2024, from the collection of Andrew Simpson  the Old Conti Club, 1974, Acc No. 113181 and a similar shot, 1974,  Acc No. 113181. and the hall in 1959 by A.H. Downes, m17486, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass*

 The Billiard hall in 1959 

*And here there seems a possible hiccup, because both images have the same accession