Friday Photo: Cottages Then and Now
August 28, 2009 by John · 27 Comments
Thanks to Syd Bird for the above early 1960’s photo of the row of cottages on Market Street.
For a comparison here’s the same view of the cottages taken this morning (not the most pleasant of mornings either). Notice the addition of the street lamp, road sign and flower beds. The roof on the lefthand building (formerly the Kingsway Cinema, currently a Home Bargains store) has gone. The righthand building were Hoose Court is was demolished. A couple of the cottages have lost chimney stacks.
Possible related posts (computer generated):
As a lad growing up in West Kirby & Hoylake there were 3 local cinemas, The Tudor, The Winter Gardens and The Kingsway, Where would a local lad have to go now to the local flicks, how far and how much to see an average session?
I remember those cottages from my childhood when i lived in Hoylake. The display of dahlias in the Hardman’s garden was spectacular. I don’t remember which theirs was, but not either of the end cottages.
Yes as Keith Wallen says- 3 cinemas and the programme changed twice a week. We lived close to the Winter Gardens and would hear the van delivering the film reels in metal containers early in the morning as they collected the old and left the new films. I also recall some stage shows at the Winter Gardens- and I think the Tudor.
Not sure that there were ever stage shows at the Kingsway- but the “back row” was very popular!!
Sue
I think you’ll find that Eric Bartholomew (later Eric Morecambe) won a talent contest at the “Kingsway” in 1939.
I too remember the Dahlias in the cottage garden, more recently my husband lived in the cottage nearest to School Lane before he got married.
What/where was the Winter Gardens ?
The Winter Gardens was a cinema at promenade end of Alderley Road. I’m not sure whats on the site now as I no longer live in Hoylake. But back in the day it was a very popular cinema, particularly the Saturday kids matinee (tanner rush).
Sue
Sorry, yes of course! I wasn’t aware that it was called the Winter Gardens.
The building was demolished and replaced with an apartment block.
The Winter Gardens included was built on the site of the Lower Lighthouse. The lighthouse was retained in the car park behind the Hoylake Sailing Club for many years, not sure when it went. Perhaps in the ’50s as I never saw it. The cinema was originally called the Lighthouse Pavillion I believe and part of the lightkeeper’s house was incorporated into the theatre / cinema building and could be seen quite clearly if you knew what you were looking for. I think it was a very simlar design to the Upper Light in Valentia Road.
How many names did the cinema have over the years I wonder?
Lighthouse Pavillion
Winter Gardens
Essoldo
Classic
Hoylake Cinema
Any others?
Hoylake Cannon?
Yes Nick, i think thats correct it was Hoylake Cannon for a while, then it closed down until a lady called Mrs. Mottram bought it so the public had a local ammenity left, i think she was from Caldy.
I lived in the left end cottage. It’s address is 111 Market St.
The size of the cottage was very diseptive. Looked very small from the front but the rooms were quite large for such an old cottage.
The building is built from sandstone. A lit fire would warm the water up in the stone to add warmth throughout the night. The opposite happened in the summer as the water would be cooled at night and keep the house cool during the summer months.
The cottage was known as ” Rose Cottage” because of the different cloured blooms in the fron garden.
I do remember that when Tesco’s owned next door…their lorries would knock the back wall down trying to get to the back loading platform.
On the site that was once the cinema is a now a block of flats called Sandpipers Court. The flats are very pleasant – though cool when it’s windy! Top flat used to be a great lookout on to the launching of the lifeboat which went out from the Lifeboat Station next door.
I remember the lady who used to collect the money at the cinema – she also worked in the little kiosk at Hoylake Station. Ethel – I think that was her name.
The Kingsway cinema was opened in July 1915, occupying the site of some similar cottages to the ones next to it. The cinema was modernised in 1935 (about 18 months after the owning company had opened the Tudor)and it closed on the 12th March 1960. It was demolished a few months later. In its early (silent film) days a number of concerts used to be held there, and in later years talent contests were held; and yes, Eric Bartholomew did appear there. In some people’s opinion it was the best of the three cinemas; it certainly had the biggest screen (40 feet wide). It is understood that a considerable amount of money was spent converting it to CinemaScope in October 1954, and eventually the banks foreclosed.
The Lighthouse Pavilion opened on Thursday 31st August 1911 (after several delays) as a venue for pierrot troupes and ‘Concert Parties’. It was quite basic when first built (due to shortage of money) but was improved in 1920 when it became a cinema. After two years the lighthouse, which had served as the entrance, was demolished and a new entrance from Alderley Road was built. It reopened as the Winter Gardens in 1923, reverting to live entertainment. It was probably named Winter Gardens because the then owner was also operating the Winter Gardens, Waterloo, Liverpool, on a similar basis at the time. It changed hands and switched between films and live shows several times in the twenties and early thirties before settling down to be a permanent cinema in 1931. It became part of a large cinema circuit in 1940, which itself was taken over by the Essoldo circuit in 1954 but the cinema continued to be called Winter Gardens. It closed in January 1959 but reopened in May 1960, after the Kingsway had closed and also after Entertainments Tax had been abolished. It nearly closed again nine months later but was saved by a petition of 700 signatures. Essoldo was taken over by Classic cinemas in 1972 and a year later, after a much-needed modernisation, the cinema was renamed Classic. Attempts to change it to a bingo hall in 1973 and again in 1975 were fought off, by me. The Classic circuit was taken over by Cannon Cinemas c. 1982 and shortly afterwards the cinema was remamed Cannon. They disposed of it in 1990 to Mrs. Mottram, of Caldy, who renamed it Hoylake Cinema and ran it for a futher five years, until 2nd March 1995. It lay empty for another four years (during which time it changed hands twice) before being demolished to make way for Sandpiper Court. The lady who worked at the cinema and also at the station kiosk was Mrs. Annie Moore (who was always known by the cinema staff as ‘Nicky’). She had worked at the cinema in the 1930s, returned in 1963 and retired finally in 1981. She had a sister Edna who worked at the cinema and possibly also at the kiosk, but by no means for as long in either case. They had a brother, Albert Marchbank, who was once a doorman at the cinema and later started a taxi business which operated from the station kiosk, which no dobut is why the sisters worked there. I have stacks of information about the cinemas if anyone is interested.
Fascinating history Charles. I remember way back- in the days when our parents were friends and we were childre- that you were very interested in all matters pertaining to cinemas. You might remember that my family lived next door but one to the Winter Gardens.
I recall the twice weekly film delivery in metal canisters. My bedroom was on the front of the house and the clanking of these containers would wake me up on I think Thrusday and Monday mornings.
Sue
Dear Sue,
Yes, I remember your parents, yourself, your brothers and your home – Sandtoft Hotel – very well and with affection. I have often wondered where you all got to. My mother died in 1992 and it then took us two years to sell 18 King’s Gap, not helped by the fact the deeds had disappeared. We eventually sold it for £80,000 and were glad. About four years later, it and the adjoining house each went for £250,000 for redevelopment….
It saddens me that several buildings in Hoylake which I held dear – my home, the Winter Gardens and Broomfield, where our wedding reception was held, have all gone; also the Stanley Hotel and the swimmming baths. All my educational establishments still stand, though some of these I hold in less esteem !
You are dead right about the film deliveries to the Winter Gardens. Monday and Thursday were the film change days and the films might arrive at any time during the previous night. They were delivered by a company called Film Transport Specialists who had keys to all the cinemas.
Best wishes,
Charles
As a young boy I remember the weekly notice with Winter Gardens’ film times that I think you used to put on the tree in a garden in The King’s Gap where Sandbanks retirement complex is now. It was very useful!
Dear Peter,
Did you live in Curzon Road ? If so, I remember you. Yes, I used to advertise the Winter Gardens with hand-painted posters (painted every Sunday evening, after evensong at St. Hildeburgh’s)displayed outside the house. Curiously it was my father who suggested it, which on reflection is most odd because he was a very straight-laced Liverpool solicitor and a stickler for form, and I would have imagined he thought it would lower the tone ! Through the good offices of Alf Smith, the milkman, who knew the cinema manager Mr. Shalless, I was granted at age 10 a permanent free pass to the cinema for my efforts. As a result of this I got to know the projectionist and the rest, as they say, is history. After spending some years in engineering I took over my first cinema, in Yorkshire, and now have four in Yorkshire and two in Cumbria. I would have dearly loved to have the Winter Gardens and did in fact make several attempts to buy it. At the time of its demise my money was committed to cinema projects elsewhere, though I did put in an offer and it annoyed me greatly to discover, later, that it had been sold for development for the same price as I had offered. Thereafter the developers wanted that much more to sell it on. Ah well….
Regards,
Charles
Charles. Yes, that’s right Our family lived in Curzon Road. And you have reminded me of Alf, the Express Dairies’ milkman, with his electric milk float. He was an institution in the locality. Anyone else have any memories? Keith the postman was another long standing local institution, he used to bring letters addressed to a previous home a decade or more later.Not sure the Royal Mail would manage that now.
Interested and very sorry to hear of your efforts to buy the Winter Gardens and that you now have a string of cinemas across the north! It was wonderful as a kid to be able to stroll to the cinema, not sure we would ever have gone if it had meant going to Birkenhead or Liverpool. Reading your memories reminded me that in 1987 you wrote the history of Hoylake’s cinema, then a Canon, to celebrate 75 years of entertainment’. I found it on my bookshelf and it has some super pictures. In the final sentance you express the hope that ‘another chapter can be written on its 100th birthday’. Sadly this was not to be…..
When did it finally close by the way?
Dear Peter,
I go back a bit further than you and just remember John Smith, Alf’s father, when he was still involved in the farm which, I think, was called New Hall Farm and was along the road which is the first right turn off the road through the level crossing at the station. Originally they sold the milk from their own cows but were so browbeaten by ‘the system’ that eventually they pitched in with Wirral Milk, supplying their milk to them and getting milk from them, bottled. They had a horse called Kitty who used to pull the milk cart (on which we children were given rides sometimes). It was a much more satisfactory way of delivering the milk, because Kitty used to know exactly where to stop and when to move on, and Alf and his son Cyril just used to take the milk from the cart and deliver it to the houses.
Postman Keith took over the round in about 1958 / 1959. I think he was also a live-in caretaker at a house in Stanley Road. He would always bring the post into the house, opening the door and calling ‘Morning Post’. I don’t know how long he continued, but he was still there in 1968 to my certain knowledge. A postman in another area of Hoylake, who was also a ‘character’, was Ken Dowden.
A few weeks after I wrote the ‘Cannon 75 years’ booklet I received a letter from the Isle of Wight, from Ken Wolsey, son of Frank Wolsey who created the Lighthouse Pavilion. From him I got a lot more information about the building’s early days, plus a number of photographs. Other information and pictures have turned up over the years and only recently I have been studying the Hoylake and Meols Free Press (1915 – 1929) of which I was unaware when I did the original research. I would now be in a position to produce a much more comprehensive and accurate account of the building, but I fear there would be very little interest in it nowadays. To answer your question, it closed on the 2nd March 1995 (just fifteen years ago) with ‘Black Beauty’.
Best wishes,
Charles
Is Syd Bird, whose is the photo at the top of the page, the same Syd Bird who used to live in Chapel Road and who, in the 1960s, used to give illustrated talks on old Hoylake with his girlfriend Shirley Ledsom ? If so, I would like to get in touch ! Also, the photo is pre-August 1960, because the building to the left is the Kingsway cinema whose demolition began at that time. The building in the second photo does resemble the original (due to the similar placing of the windows, but I can assure you it was a brand new building (which originally opened as the Fine Fare supermarket c. 1961) as the Kingsway was completely demolished. Does anyone have any pictures of the Kingsway ? I have one or two, but deeply regret not accepting my father’s offer to photograph it when it closed.
Charles Morris
Hello Charles,
yes I am the Syd Bird who used to live in Chapel Road,John.C. has sent me your email address and I have replied more fully to you in that,
Syd
Concerning the postmen of yesteryear!
I remember one called Keith- not sure if it’s the same keith that you remember. He was married to Stella and lived in the Alderley Road/Evans Road area. Definitely remember Ken Dowden as he is related to my ex husband- and last I heard (3 or 4 years ago) was still alive and living in West Kirby.
Sue
Charles. Most interesting to hear of the Smith family’s link with New Hall Farm. I think I only remember our milk coming from Express Dairies in the electric milk float. I remember seeing it broken down in Stanley Road, near Field House,with Alf lying down peering underneath! In fact I never knew him except as ‘Alf’ so couldn’t have told you he was a Smith. Is there still a Smith at New Hall Farm I wonder? The farm at Caldy Cross Roads was always known as Smith’s Farm so maybe a link there too?
Keith the postie was certainly still going until the late 70s and I think into the 80s? He also cut the very extensive lawns at The Chase in Barton Road. Before that the gardener there was I think called Bert and he rode a bike and lived over the lines. The Chase, one of Hoylake’s oldest surviving houses, unfortunastely was replaced with a small estate of ‘executive detached residences’in the 1980s.
Going back to the cinema it seems tragic that it survived against all the odds until 1995 and foundered just as cinema was undergoing a huge revival. What a tragic loss. There may not, as you say, be a huge demand for an updated book on the Winter Gardens but perhaps a wider book on the history of cinema in Hoylake would be a real contribution to recording the history of Hoylake. If you don’t write it, it’ll never be written and it could be published on the internet at zero cost….! Just a thought!
Kindest regards
Peter
Hi. Just to add further bit of information to the above. The Farm at Caldy Cross
Rd was Scotts farm last run by John Scott. And Roy Smith of Smiths Farm Hoylake
i think runs a farming and JCB business on the road towards Irby from the Mill Pub
Ah yes,of course, Scott’s not Smith’s!
Dear Charles
I lived and grew up 8 houses down from the cinema, and would love another history booklet on the cinema. I wish someone would write one about the Outdoor Pool. Between the Cinema and the pool is were I seem to have spent my growing up and have wonderful happy memeories of doing so. Hoylake is no longer the twon I remember spending such happy days. I believe when the pool and then the cinema went they ripped the heart and character out, along with of course The Stanley, Kings Gap, the wrought Iron outside the Meatball, etc.
I have the record of events from 1976 to 1981 of the Hoylake Pool and Community Trust if anyone would like to see them.