Former Temperance Billiard Hall

Former Temperance Billiard Hall, Kings Road, Kensington and Chelsea

Built between 1912 and 1914, this is a former temperance billiards hall designed by T G Somerford for Temperance Billiards Halls Ltd. It was altered in the 1960s when it was converted to an antiques centre, and was later connected internally with the adjoining former garage.

The seven-bay façade facing King's Road is rendered in rough-cast with exposed banded brickwork and extensive plasterwork and tile decoration. It displays the flamboyant, free Queen Anne-style typical of Edwardian billiard halls. The building is two storeys tall, with six shops and an entrance at ground floor level and alternate projecting bays above. These upper bays are accentuated by oversized pediments, brick banding, and flamboyant plasterwork featuring volutes, garlands and cartouches. The majority of the ground floor shop-front joinery is modern sensitive replacement, though the stall-risers on the two right-hand shops may be original. The first floor fenestration survives as originally built: very shallow three-light bow windows recessed into the elevation.

Rising behind the tall parapet is an octagonal central tower with a domed cupola, modillion cornice and blind oeils de boeuf, positioned above the former entrance bay which features a steep, almost equilateral triangular pediment and plasterwork swags. Art-Nouveau green tiles with a design of blue ribbons and oranges clad the pilasters that mark the bays between the shop fronts. These pilasters have decorative consoles. The building's corner position is exploited by the continuation of the theme on the return elevation, which features further tiled pilasters, oeils de boeuf, banded brickwork, a shallow bow window, Venetian windows to the two gable ends, and a band of green tiles across both sections. The return to the east is plainer but also has green tiled bands. The rear of the building abuts the former Chelsea Garage.

Internally, the billiards hall retains some original features. It was originally accessed through the narrow central bay on the Kings Road frontage, though this is now a shop with surviving plasterwork on the ceiling. The arrangement of a hall accessed via a corridor from the street is preserved, but the entrance has been relocated one bay to the left and now occupies a former shop. The hall runs parallel with the row of shops. Although it has been subdivided into retail units, it retains its general appearance with a decorative metal truss roof, Art-Nouveau stained glass skylights, and stained glass in the bow and Venetian windows to the western end. The hall connects internally with the former Chelsea Garage next door.

Temperance Billiards 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. T G Somerford was the company's second architect. Under the firm's first architect, Norman Evans, the company built around seventeen billiard halls between 1906 and 1911.

The temperance movement aimed to combat alcohol dependency by building 'dry' recreational halls and hotels which rivalled the architecture of opulent public houses of the late 19th century. These buildings often used the same decorative materials as pubs, such as tiled façades and stained glass windows, to create a congenial atmosphere without the availability of alcohol. Temperance Billiards Halls Ltd initially targeted the suburbs of south London, where many new pubs had been built in the late 19th century, as well as north-west England where the firm originated. By the beginning of the First World War, billiards halls had been built across London by both Temperance Billiards Halls Ltd and Lucania Temperance Billiards Halls Ltd, the two principal firms in operation. By 1939 there were over 50 temperance billiard halls in London, though few are of comparable quality to those built before the First World War. After the Second World War, billiards declined in popularity, as did the temperance movement at a much faster pace. Many halls were converted to snooker or bingo halls and public houses. This Kings Road hall, however, became an antiques market in the early 1960s just as the area was emerging as the hub of Swinging London.