Another bit of the story of Chorlton's first cinema and a performance of Dorothy in the April of 1914

Now I would like to think that one day I could identify these members of the Chorlton Operatic Society.

In 1910 their secretary was  Herbert Bayfield of 61 Claude Road, and their conductor a T M Ferneley, but of course three years later when they gave this performance at the Pavilion Theatre in the April of 1914 these two may have passed on to greater things.

But the picture remains a wonderful find and has set me off again thinking about just how much there was to do in Chorlton back in the early decades of the last century.

According to Kemp’s Almanack and Handbook for 1910, there was everything from an amateur gardening society, a drama club and Literary Association along with our operatic society and an orchestral society.

So plenty to do, and if instead if you fancied sport there were cricket, football, tennis, golf and hockey clubs which vied with lacrosse, cycling and bowling to draw the more athletic resident out to play.

Which brings me back to the operatic society and the Pavilion Theatre.

The society was active by 1910 and still going strong fifteen years later when the Manchester Guardian reported that the "Chorlton Operatic and Dramatic Society has given three successful performances of ‘Peg o’ My Heart” this week at the Chorlton Public Hall, in aid of the Widows and Orphans Fund of the National Union of Journalists.  A fourth and final performance of the play will take place tonight.”*

Back in 1914 they had been performing in aid of the Chorlton and District Nursing Association which was also listed in the Alamanck and run by Mrs Worlidge of 12 Edge Lane who would soon be running the Red Cross Voluntary Hospital in the Sunday School of the Baptist Church.

And so the picture does begin to tie many little things together.  The influx of new people into the township was sufficiently large and diverse to support many cultural activities and the Operatic Society were performing in the relatively new Pavilion on the corner of Wilbraham and Buckingham Roads.

It had been opened around 1904, soon changed its name to the Chorlton Theatre and Winter Gardens and from 1909 was our first cinema.

It remains a place that fascinates me and continues to offer up new stories ever since I came across a photograph of the place in the June of 1910.

And finally there was Mr Herbert Bayfield of 61 Claude Road whose address is listed in 1911 but is missing from the census record just a few month later, which is odd given that he had been living there by 1904.

But maybe he had moved on, which of course will perhaps mean he is not one of those on our picture.

Pictures; the Chorlton Operatic Society April 1914 from the Manchester Courier, courtesy of Sally Dervan, and the Chorlton Theatre and Winter Gardens, June 1910 from the Lloyd Collection

*Chorlton Dramatic Society’s Effort for Charity, Manchester Guardian November 21 1915.

When Tom Mix played at the Pavilion, our first picture house

Now Tom Mix is someone I have come to know though sadly I have never seen any of his films.

He was an American film actor and starred in many early western movies.

He appeared in 291 short films and feature films between 1909 and 1935 and was a model for actors like Ronald Reagan and John Wayne.

And the Pavilion which later became the Chorlton Theatre and Winter Gardens was where one young man saw Tom Mix..

Now this I know because his daughter Ann told me so and it is the first moment when I can identify both a film that was shown and someone who went there.

It opened in 1904 and was acquired by H D Moorhouse in 1909.

Like many early cinemas it hedged its bets and continued to offer variety acts.
In the June of 1910 it offered a bill of variety including the Whips.

By then it had become the Chorlton Theatre and Winter Gardens and stayed open through the inter war years.

Looking at this 1910 photograph of the theatre it is hard to think anyone would be impressed in going there.

It has all the appearance of a big wooden shed, which I guess is what it was.

It had been built on land which the railway company still intended to use for extra track and so only permitted buildings which could be easily demolished.

But maybe I am being a tad unfair because the monochrome picture cannot convey what must have been a brightly painted building.

Even before you went into the theatre you first had to buy a ticket from the pay box which with its wrought and cast iron additions must have brought back memories of seaside piers. And greeting the theatre goer were the picture of the stars they were about to see.

But despite still showing films in the years after the First World War, it had been eclipsed by the far more impressive Palais de Luxe Cinema which had been opened in 1915 on Barlow Moor Road close to the tram terminus.

So sometime in the 1930s it closed by which time we had two very posh cinemas and another which opened in 1937.

Few now know it even existed and so completely has it vanished from the record that it gets no mention in the book on Manchester cinemas*

And just after I posted this today Sandra shared her memories of her grandfather "who was born 1896 used to tell me in a joke that the latest film showing at The Plaza in Stockport near where we lived was 'Tom Mix in Cement'. Haha really it was a joke to him but I didn't realise at the time that this man was a film star not 'mixing cement' thanks for the information and bringing back a childhood memory for me."

I guess Tom touched many more lives that those who saw him in the big screen.

*The Golden Years of Manchester Picture Houses, Derek J Southall, 2010,

Picture; from the Lloyd Collection circa 1910

H.D. Mooorhouse and a chain of cinemas

I don’t suppose many people in Chorlton today know of H.D. Moorhouse, and yet in the early decades of the 20th century he was responsible for setting up a chain of cinemas across the city and beyond.

And of course the point of the story is that his first cinema was here. It was the Pavilion opened in 1904 and acquired by Moorhouse in 1909.

Like many early cinemas it hedged its bets and continued to offer variety acts and in the June of 1910 it offered a bill of variety including the Whips. By then it had become the Chorlton Theatre and Winter Gardens and stayed open through the inter war years.

By then Moorhouse had established a cinema circuit and had acquired the Palais de Luxe on Barlow Moor Road. It had opened in 1915 and was part of the circuit from 1939 until 1956, although it may have struggled on for another two years before closing and becoming a supermarket.*

Hubert Douglas Moorhouse was born in Kendal in 1879 but grew up along the Ashton Road in Openshaw. By 1911 he was living with his parents at 61 Wilbraham Road which was an eight bed roomed house along the stretch from York Road towards Brundretts Road.


Picture; the Chorlton Theatre and Winter Gardens, from the Lloyd collection

*Hornsey, Brian, The Cinemas of H.D. Moorhouse and the H.D.M. circuit, Fuchsprint, 2001,

The old cinema by the metro stop and a closed petrol station

Wilbraham Road and a thriving cinema in 1909

There will be no one now still alive who went to the old Pavilion cinema on the corner of Wilbraham Road and Buckingham Road.

It was thrilling picture goers from the early decades of the last century and soldiered on into the 1930s despite stiff competition from our two new purpose built state of the art cinemas on Barlow Moor Road and Manchester Road.

That said my friend Ann remembers her dad fondly talking about the place and the films of Tom Mix and there will be others who in the space of two generations memories can transport us back to the wooden seats of the old picture place sharing the noise of the adventures on the screen with that of the trains arriving at the station next door.

Wilbraham Road and a closed petrol station in 2014

And I was reminded of the old Pavilion which became the Chorlton Theatre and Winter Gardens with the news from Andy that the garage and petrol station that now sits on the site is closed.

Of course it might just be a temporary thing, but garages no less than pubs are going through a lean time.

It was not so long ago that there were two almost facing each other on Barlow Moor Road and now one of these has gone.

But in the case of this one it will become a Morrison's petrol station.*

Wilbraham Road in  1962

So I shall confine myself with looking for when the first filling station popped up on that corner and thank Andy again for being in the right place at the right time.

And he has already done some research and found this image of the corner in 1962 by which time the site has already become a petrol station.

The building housing the office rather fascinates me because there are similarities between it and the Pavilion.

Both were made of wood  and stand almost in the same spot.

Now that makes sense and gives a continuity to the site stretching back to the beginning of the 20th century.

And there is much more including some of the railings that once ran alongside the railway line.

What also fascinates me is the way that bits of our history suddenly pop to the surface when you least expect it.  So while I knew a bit about the cinema and wondered about when the petrol station arrived I put researching it to one side.
Then along came Andy's picture and his research and another tiny bit of the jig saw has fallen into place.

Picture; of the filling station on Wilbraham Road 2014 courtesy of Andy Robertson, and the Pavilion later the Chorlton Theatre and Winter Gardens, 1909 from the Lloyd collection and the petrol station in 1962 by A landers, m18047, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass

*04424/FO/2013/S1 | Demolition of existing petrol filling station (PFS) and redevelopment to provide a new petrol filling station facility comprising of canopy/forecourt, ancillary sales building with ATM, underground storage tanks, associated parking and other ancillary works.  http://pa.manchester.gov.uk/online-applications/applicationDetails.do?activeTab=externalDocuments&keyVal=MXKZLUBC6K000