Former Temperance Billiard Hall

FORMER TEMPERANCE BILLIARD HALL

This building at the corner of Fulham High Street and Church Row is a Temperance Billiard Hall built in 1910, designed by Norman Evans, company architect to Temperance Billiard Halls Ltd. It is constructed of brick, painted white in places, with green and red tile-work.

The building contains two rectangular hall spaces positioned side-by-side. The plan makes prominent use of its corner position in the streetscape, with architectural detailing concentrated on the facades to the two streets. The entrance is positioned on the apex through a circular portico surmounted by a small dome with flagpole.

The High Street facade features a large gable with a single central oriel stained glass window tucked under the eaves. At ground level, modern shop units advance at a 45-degree angle from the facade, replacing Evans's original bow window design. The stained glass on the shop to the south echoes the original stained glass on the side elevation but is late 20th-century work, as are the pilasters and panels below the windows. The shop to the north is entirely modern. Fragments of the former bow window remain visible in two piers decorated with green and red tiles.

The Church Row facade comprises six bays with full-height bows to the second and fifth bays. Each pilaster is decorated with a diamond pattern of red and green tiles set within specially-cut bricks. The middle four bays have elegant shallow bow windows with five-light mullion and transom casements and Art Nouveau stained glass. A course of green glazed bricks runs beneath the windows, which sit under a deep overhanging stringcourse surmounted by a parapet decorated with dentils on all but the second and fifth bays. These taller bays are adorned with plasterwork, including waterleaf cornice, cherubs' heads and garlands. A small cupola sits to the roof.

The rear gable end is plain except for a circular window set in the centre. A late 20th-century extension abuts the building on the north elevation, obscuring the facade. The roof has four dormers to each slope, all with Art Nouveau stained glass: the centre two are six-light mullion and transom with semi-circular hoods; the outer two are three-light mullion and transom. In the centre of the roof is a square cupola with a diminutive leaded dome.

Interior

The building originally contained two halls divided by a wooden partition, though this has since been removed and the spaces have undergone subdivision. The first hall is vast; although a mezzanine level has been inserted into the rear section, the sense of space is maintained and the iron roof trusses remain visible across the length of the building. The second hall, to the south, is smaller and has segmental curved braces. It has been more intrusively subdivided by the insertion of a staff room and toilets to the rear, though the roof structure remains intact. Both halls receive good natural light from the dormer windows in the first hall and from the row of bay windows in the second. Art Nouveau detailing appears in the roof structure, notably where the trusses meet the piers in scrolled brackets decorated with acanthus leaves or cartouches.

Historical Context

Temperance Billiard Halls Ltd was founded in Manchester in 1906 at the height of the Temperance Movement, possibly in response to the world convention on Temperance held in London that same year. The company built around seventeen billiard halls between 1906 and 1911 under Evans's direction: five were in London and the remainder in Manchester.

The Temperance Movement sought to combat alcohol dependency by building 'dry' recreational halls and hotels which competed with the architecture of opulent public houses of the late 19th century. These buildings often employed the same decorative materials as pubs—tiled facades and stained glass windows—to create a convivial atmosphere without access to alcohol. The Temperance Billiard Company targeted London's suburbs, where many new pubs had been built in the late 19th century.

The Fulham site became available following the widening of Fulham High Street to accommodate trams after 1908. It had previously been occupied by houses.

The Fulham hall represents the best surviving London example of this building type. The design uses Art Nouveau elements through which Evans portrayed the temperance movement as respectable and fashionable, in contrast to public houses of the period. With its exuberant range of eclectic features and carefully designed facades, it exemplifies Edwardian street architecture at its liveliest. The building retains special architectural interest despite external alterations, most notably the flat-roofed extension at acute angle to the main facade on the north elevation, which is of no special interest.