Here’s another great image from Syd Bird’s archives and this one is an artists impressions of the Hoylake YMCA building. Syd says that the building was originally called the Hoylake Institute.
I can’t really remember what the old YMCA building looked like but what recollections I do have are of an ugly looking building rather than the one pictured above. Many of you will have memories of the old YMCA so please do leave a comment on what you can remember of the place.
The building, on the corner of Hoyle Road and Market Street was demolished some years ago and is now retirement flats (I think). I’ve not seen it, but I think there’s a floor tile in the building that recognises that the YMCA building used to be there.
A quick google search suggests that back in 1936, Hoylake YMCA were the very first National Basketball Champions – there’s a claim to fame!
Following up last weeks photo, a few of you correctly recalled Finnigans Steak House. But I’m disappointed that nobody mentioned Finniland …Hoylake’s attempt at a theme park! Was it Mr Finnigan who attempted to create a unique theme park on land adjacent to the railway line, alongside Grosvenor Road?
I remember going through that side door of Finnigans on a few occassions for a late night drink …followed, predictably, by a sore head in the morning! You had to pay a pound I think it was for your ticket for a portion of chips. Presumably this is how such places got around the licensing restrictions in the early 90′s by making sure everyone had had food? The Grape Escape wine bar in The Row (remember that?) used to charge 75p for a slice of pizza. I never did understood why in Finnigans you had to walk through the kitchens to get to the gents toilets?
I wonder if it was ever a school? My grandfather was born in West Kirby in 1902 and my mum recalls he said he went to school at an ‘Institute’ that wasnt Birkenhead. Hmmmm.
Gosh I remember travelling past that funland on the train, we never went though. That would be late seventies early 80s or am i dreaming?
I’d say Finniland was around even in the late 80′s
Finniland was still there in 1993 when I moved to Hoylake.
I think it had just been closed down by the council as it was built without planning permission.
Finnigan died 8 or 9 years ago. His best mate Little Irish Ian died last month.
both ‘remarkable’ local characters !
I worked at Finnegans both in the bar and building the infamous Finniland. The owner was actually called Frank Sheridan and I think calling him a ‘remarkable character’ is probably the nicest way of describing him – not wanting to speak ill of the dead you understand! I’m trying to recall the wine bar further down Market Street, opposite the Punchbowl, it was upstairs but I can’t recall the name………?
well at one point in time that wine bar opposite The Punch Bowl was called Streets. I think it was also called another name …maybe Clowns …but I’m struggling to remember!
I worked at Finnigans for Frank Sheridan (jeez I was 15 or 16 when I started there), I used to start work at 4pm to get prepped for the evenings events complete with floppy white hat like a maid haha & I’d finally get home at 4am after serving all the late nighters with their ribs & chips. Can’t believe Liam (the best steak chef ever!) has sadly passed away.
Have just realised that the left bit of the building is quite likely what is now Hoylake Evangelical Church?
I too used to go to the YMCA, to keep me off the streets! Played Table Tennis, Snooker etc. Long before video games. But it was not like in the picture above, but a much plainer building, from what I can remember.
I too remember Finniland, but never went into it, I was maybe a bit wary of it’s ‘jerry built’ construction as it looked like it would collapse at any moment, especially due to vibrations from the trains going past!
Also one of the first venues for The Beatles,and they didn’t get a great response!Haha!
Yes, that building on the left is now Hoylake Evangelical Church.
The Beatles played there in 1962, and the site below has a photo of the current plaque:
http://www.harveystevens.com/BeatlesGigs1962.html
Hi Darren,
Thanks for the link, I didn’t realise the Thistle Cafe in West Kirby was so important to the Beatles success.
I wonder how come I missed that “gig”, perhaps it was the Co-op’s Social Club Bachelor & Spinster Hop !!!
..and back on topic, we Parade School kids got to do many activities in the old YMCA, including how to dance the military 2 step !
Hi John
Hoylake YMCA was a fantastic place for the “young” of Hoylake/West Kirby/Meols etc. for many years and I’m sure Jackie Hall will give you a lot of valuable information about the place and it’s groups and activities as she was a major influence in it’s success in the 50′s and 60′s.
Many of the “Mersey Sound” groups played the stage – Cilla Black (or Prisilla White as she was then) The Big Three, The Searchers, The Merseybeats and many more so not only the Beatles – Gerry Marsden was a great favourite and a good supporter of the place opening Summer Fayre’s etc. which at that time brought the crowds.
It was a sad day when places like that went “out of fashion”.
went to the ymca for a number of years but the photo doesnt look the same was it rebuilt ?
b jones
Hello Brian,
I first came across this artists impression of the Institute/Y.M.C.A. in the 1960`s and made a photo copy of it. From the way the lady in the scene is dressed it looks as though the painting was made early in the last century. I suppose it is quite possible that the artist used his/her imagination to make the building look more attractive than it actually was. I spent a good deal of time in the 1950`s playing snooker football and basketball in the Y.M.C.A and I do seem to remember that to the immediate right of the main entrance there was a flight of steps leading to the upper floor. This flight of steps do not appear in the painting and I wonder if various modifications were made to the building over the years. Funnily enough I have never seen an actual photo of the building except for the one I have taken during it`s construction.
AS A SMALL CHILD DURING THE WAR ,I REMENBER STANDING BY THE SIDE OF THE YMCA
AND SEEING A LONG LINE OF BREN GUN CARRIERS PARKED UP ON HOYLE ROAD.AFTER THE WAR MY DAD WAS A GREEN KEEPER AND PLAYER OF THE BOWLING GREEN AT THE REAR OF THE YM.
IT BELONGED TO THE YM.AND PLAYERS HAD TO BE CAREFULL NOT SWARE WHEN A WOOD WENT ASTRAY.
DAD TOLD THAT THE PRE-WAR BASKETBALL TEAM HAD BEATEN THE USA AT THE OLYMPICS
WHICH ONE I DONT KNOW
ikipediaThe 1936 Olympics in Berlin Germany was the first time basketball was a sport and was played outdoors. TheU beat Canada 16-8 on a wet court they could not dribble on. Mexico placed third, England was not listed as sending a basketball team. this is from the wikipedia site.
It was a memorable Olympis because for Windsor Ontario, six of the silver medal team played for the Ford V-8 team.
Maybe the Hoylake team played an exhibition before the Olympics.
Shame there are no pre-demolition photos of the YMCA, I found a wife there and my mother in law bought one of the retirement flats and lived on the very spot where I first met her daughter!
The stairs which were added to the right of the main door were obviously an emergency exit needed as the only other exit was at the back of the building. They also provided the secretary with an office. There was a bay window in the main hall window, I housed my spotlights there for the annual panto. (anyone know where they went? I left them there when I moved). Also missing in the photo, the flag pole, the steel bus shelter and the ladies loo which was in Hoyle Road. Built on sand, the hall wall was slowly moving out towards Hoyle Road! Maybe that was a factor in the demise of the building.
Ref the basketball, follow the link above for interesting info about how the YMCA gave basketball to the world. My uncle Eddie told me the best player of all at Hoylake was Yanni (?) Bird, give him the ball anywhere in the oposition half and it would be in the basket. Question for Syd, was that a relative?
Ahh, just seen the other post which answers the above, but still mystified about the knickname – Syd, can you help?
Hello Ian,
it`s a bit of a mystery to me how my father came to have the nickname of Yannee. As is always the way of things I never asked my mother about the nickname of my father and how it came to be . As his middle name was Sydney I wonder if it`s in some way a shortened version of that. I know that he was always known by his nickname, I have a copy of the Hoylake Advertiser from 1941 which contains a report of his funeral and the name Yannee is used consistently,
Regards,
Syd
I was talking to my father about the 1936 Basketball team, which he remembers when he was just a young boy. One of the players was Nathaniel Langley – a few years later my father was apprenticed to Nathaniel’s father (also Nathaniel). Sadly, he recalls the basketball player died of an infected cut finger when working at Cammell Laird’s during the war, and Nathaniel’s brother Joe died just 10 months later of rheumatic fever.
This question is not about the YNCA, but CO_OP 1946 to 1951. I wounder if anybody remember a butcher thier named Jack Hilton he worked their after the war until 1951, when he moved to Canada. I think he was originaly from New Brighton and lived in West Kirby after the war.
The reason I asked is he was my wifes only uncle.
Richard McIntyre
The Hoylake Institute hosted a cinema from 1912 to 1916 and spasmodically thereafter. It was also occasionally a venue for ‘Concert Parties’ (a popular entertainment up to the second world war)and staged local pantomimes annually for many years.
With reference to your article on “The Mortuary”. (4th April 2010) It was situated in Carr Lane, on the left, a short distance from the “Manweb” entrance ( Just before the right hand bend). There were tables for three bodies, and a “veiwing gallery”. The building was small (a single room) and had a pitched roof and stood in its own grounds.
I came to Hoylake in 1960 as a young Police Officer in the Cheshire Constabulary, and at that time we were also Coroners Officrs and as such we had to attend postmortems, when the deceased doctor could not issued a death certificate. In my time as a Pc in Hoylake I have witnessed very many posrmortems performed in the Hoylake Mortuary mostly conducted by a Doctor McLean from Clatterbridge Hospital.
Sadly another “piece of old Hoylake” has been demolished.
Hello John – thanks for your comment!
That’s really interesting and solves another query about Hoylake.
Thanks
John
I started a Rhythmic Gymnastic club at Hoylake YMCA in about May 1971 but then we were told that the building was closing and we had to find somewhere else. In Sept 1971 we moved to the gymnasium of West Kirby Girls Grammar School, where we stayed for about 6 years.
My memories of this building are mostly of standing outside in the early and mid 70s while waiting for the Crosville bus for school in Greasby…an old cast iron(?) bus shelter with many holes that were betrayed every time the rain fell…on dry days there wasn’t much else to look at except the old YMCA building and at the age of 8 or 9 wonder what the letters stood for!