‘Try the alternative’: the built heritage of the temperance movement - Brewery...

92 The Journal of the Brewery History Society

At a time when newspapers are full oflurid stories about binge-drinking and thealleged ill-effects of the liberalisation ofthe licensing laws, it is hard to conceiveof a time when the total suppression ofthe alcohol trade was seriously debated.The cause of temperance has almostcompletely vanished from view, yet forover a century, from 1830 to the outbreakof the Second World War, the control, oreven the total abolition, of the liquor tradewas a major political issue - one that splitthe country, brought thousands onto thestreets in demonstrations and counter-demonstrations, and on more than oneoccasion significantly influenced the out-come of a general election. The temper-ance movement has largely vanished,killed off by the practical example ofAmerica, where prohibition of the legalsale of alcohol served only to handcontrol of the liquor traffic to organisedcrime. The rise and fall of the temperancemovement has been widely studied bysocial historians; this paper, in contrast,examines the architecture of the thetemperance movement, and particularlythe buildings which the movement leftbehind.

Alcohol was all-pervasive in early 19th

century Britain. The proliferation of drinkoutlets - notably for spirits such as gin -and the social consequences of drinkingprovoked increasing concern amongstthe middle and upper classes. Officialattempts to control or moderate alcoholconsumption were less than effective -the Beer Act of 1830, for example,although intended to boost the consump-tion of good old British beer at theexpense of foreign spirits, caused anexplosion in the number of outlets fordrink, and loosened the control of localmagistrates over them. In these circum-stances, the concept of temperancefound a sympathetic audience.

The first temperance societies appearedin the USA in the 1820s. The idea sooncrossed the Atlantic; societies wereformed in Belfast, Dublin and Glasgowduring 1829, and in February 1830 thefirst English society was formed inBradford. Others rapidly followed inWarrington (April), Manchester (May),Liverpool (July), Bristol (October) andLondon (November 1830). By the end ofJune 1831 there were 30 societies in

‘Try the alternative’: the built heritageof the temperance movement

Andrew Davison

93Brewery History Number 123 Summer 2006

England. The early temperance societieswere opposed to the drinking of spirits,but endorsed the drinking of beer andwine in moderation. They drew significantsupport from the middle classes, from theestablished Church, and even from thebrewers. The character of the movementchanged radically during the 1830s,following the adoption of the 'total absti-nence' pledge in Preston on 1st

September 1832. Numerous other soci-eties followed the lead of the Prestonone, until by 1840 the 'moderation' tem-perance movement was effectively dead.With its demise, temperance lost many ofits middle-class supporters, as well asthat of many in the Church of England.For the next couple of decades thetotal abstinence movement found mostof its religious allies amongst theNonconformists. It was not to regain thesupport of the Church of England or ofthe middle and upper classes until the1860s.

The move to total abstinence createdmany problems for its adherents.England in the 1830s had few public hallsor assembly rooms. Most facilities formeetings and social gatherings were pro-vided by inns and public houses; it is noexaggeration to say that the country'ssocial life revolved around these facilities,and the drink available in them. The oddroom might be available to rent on anoccasional basis, or meetings might beheld in sympathetic chapels their school-rooms, or the few public halls available,but the lack of readily available accom-modation placed additional pressure on

an organisation whose supportersalready faced considerable hostility andpressure to conform with a society whosemain social lubricant was alcohol. Whilstthe pages of the numerous journals andbroadsheets produced by the movementcontain many accounts of triumphantmeetings and the signing up of eagernew recruits, they also chronicle meet-ings broken up by angry mobs or bythugs in the pay of the brewers andpublicans. The Preston TemperanceAdvocate for August 1835, for example,reported that in Chester ‘the Mayor, adecided friend to the TemperanceSociety, had kindly lent out the Town Hall,but owing to repeated outrages ... hehas withdrawn the use of it for thepresent’. To resist the pressures upontheir members, and to ensure that newconverts were supported in their resolveto avoid the demon drink, the temper-ance movement needed to providealternative facilities for their meetings, fortheir education, and for their refreshment.

The aspirations of the total abstinencemovement were set out in the Star ofTemperance for September 1835, wherethe committee of the Manchester andSalford Temperance Society announcedthat they were ‘sensible of the importanceof not only persuading the drunkard toleave those dangerous places of resort,the public-houses and beer and ginshops, but the imperative necessity ofproviding them with suitable and innocentplaces of amusement as substitutes’.They hoped to achieve this by:


‘establishing in various parts of the towncoffee-houses and eating-houses’.

‘opening reading-rooms, either separate-ly or in conjunction with coffee-houses,supplied with generally useful books’.

‘endeavouring to form….writing andreading schools’.

‘the delivery of monthly or weekly lec-tures on important subjects connectedwith the interests of the working classes,in addition to meetings held on behalf oftemperance’.

‘establishing friendly societies or sickclubs … in private rooms and not in pub-lic-houses’.

It seemed to many in the movement thatthese aspirations could only be realised iftemperance societies acquired their ownpremises. The opening of a temperancehall at Garstang, Lancashire, on 24th

November 1834 heralded the move toacquire dedicated facilities. The Garstanghall was a simple wooden hut erected byvoluntary labour following objections fromsome of the congregations of theMethodist and Independent chapels inthe town to their use by the local temper-ance society. Its most impressive featurewas the nickname, the 'Lighthouse', con-ferred upon it by members of the neigh-bouring Preston Temperance Society.1

Inspired by the example of the Garstangsociety, who despite 'being only labouringmen', had raised funds from sympathis-

ers in the town and in the surroundingarea as well, had located and purchasedland, and erected their hall, all within amatter of a few months, other temper-ance societies began to raise funds toobtain their own accommodation. ‘If wehad had accommodation on neutralground, for 1000 people, I believe theywould have been present. We have againagitated for a large public building, andshares amounting to £600 are availablethrough humble individuals’, wrote a cor-respondent in Darlington to the PrestonTemperance Advocate in April 1835.

The second temperance hall in England,that at Burnley, opened on ChristmasEve, 1837, was a conversion of an earli-er building, but it was followed by one atBradford, opened on 27th February 1838,which was purpose-built at a cost of£1400 [Fig. 1]. This contained not only alarge assembly room or lecture theatre,but an educational institute where les-sons in arithmetic, book-keeping andother skills were given, and a librarycontaining a wide range of novels, techni-cal handbooks and temperance tracts.2

The Bradford hall provided a model formany others in combining facilities for arange of functions. The RotherhamTemperance Institute, for example,opened in 1842, was on two floors. Onthe lower were two news-rooms, one forbusinessmen and other middle classpatrons, the other for working-classusers, whilst on the upper floor were alibrary containing 1200 books, reading-room and class room, together with living


accommodation for the librarian. The newTemperance Hall and Mechanics'Institute opened at Woodhouse, Leeds in1850, was described as ‘a noble struc-ture 66 feet by 33 feet … [which] contains8 classrooms and a lecture hall’.3 TheTemperance Hall at Pocklington, openedin 1840, was unusual in that it incorporat-ed an hotel, perhaps as a way of sustain-ing its running costs.4

The Bradford hall, now demolished, alsoprovided an architectural model for thefirst wave of temperance halls, beingdesigned in a classical style echoing thatof many contemporary Nonconformistchapels. ‘The style of architecture is ofthe Grecian order’, reported the British

Temperance Advocate and Journal for15th January 1840 of the TemperanceHall, Bolton, which had been opened onNew Year's Day, ‘[and] great pains havebeen taken to make it at once worthy ofthe cause and an ornament to the town’.The interior of the Bolton TemperanceHall was also reminiscent of a chapel,with a long gallery along its south wall,and a smaller one on the north, whichwas reserved for lecturers or an orches-tra. Where the Temperance Hall differedfrom the typical chapel was in the provi-sion for making and serving tea. TheBolton Hall could provide tea for up to900 people at a time, and was fitted outwith ‘apparatus for boiling the water … onan enlarged and improved scale’. Thetwo boilers held 50 gallons of water each,and would boil within 20 minutes; theBritish Temperance Advocate thought itparticularly noteworthy that the water wassupplied direct from the Bolton water-works.

The move to acquire dedicated facilitiesinvolved many temperance societies infund-raising activities which distractedthem from their core function of reclaim-ing drunkards and sustaining their new,abstinent lifestyle. After the first flush ofacquisition, many societies found them-selves saddled with buildings whichwere expensive to run and maintain; nodoubt this contributed to the loss ofmomentum suffered by the movement inthe mid 1840s. Not all activists wereconvinced that dedicated facilities weredesirable, feeling that the fundraisinginvolved in providing them in the first

Figure 1. The Bradford Temperance Hall, asillustrated in the Preston TemperanceAdvocate for June 1837. Despite the dateshown, it did not open until 27th February1838.


place, and the effort necessary to main-tain them, diverted the efforts of themovement away from the essential workof reclaiming drunkards. JosephLivesey, the ‘Father of Temperance’,expressed a widely held view in replyingto an MP who had claimed that temper-ance buildings needed to be of superiorquality in order to fight the public houseson equal terms. ‘The temperance peoplehave not the cash to begin with’, heargued in the Staunch Teetotaller forMay 1867, ‘and to do as here suggestedmeans getting into debt and difficulties’.He preferred to see temperanceactivists working among the people -‘We must attack the drink traffic with

something more effectual than paint,plate glass, and gilding’.

Despite opposition from some in themovement, temperance societies acrossthe country raised funds for the provi-sion of halls and institutes. Fund-raisingmight involve soliciting donations orloans from well-to-do supporters, butmore typically involved the issue ofshares to raise the necessary capital.The Clarence Temperance Hall,Liverpool, for example, opened on 23rd

November 1846, cost £3500 to build andfit out, which was raised by the sale of£1 shares.5 Not all were newly built; theTemperance Hall in Whitby, for example,

Figure 2. The Temperance Institute, Keighley, of 1896 (now a Wetherspoon's pub). It incorporat-ed a separate hall for meetings.


opened on 25th September 1840, was ‘alarge building, formerly occupied as a sailmanufactory’.6

Like many popular movements, the tem-perance movement experienced an initialsurge in support, which was followed by aperiod in the 1840s when support dwin-dled, the enthusiasm of its supportersdampened by the apparent failure toachieve its objectives. The foundation ofthe Band of Hope in 1847, and of theUnited Kingdom Alliance in 1853, sig-nalled a renewed vigour, whilst the foun-dation of the Church of EnglandTemperance Society in 1861 demonstrat-ed a renewed commitment from theestablished Church which was particular-ly evident in the work of its membersamongst the urban poor. From now onthe movement was to experience steadygrowth until the first decade of the 20th

century, with periodic injections of cam-paigning spirit epitomised by the appear-ance of the Blue Ribbon Association in1877 (whose headquarters, Hoxton Hall,was a converted London music hall) andthe foundation of the Salvation Army in1878.

The growth of the temperance movementduring the second half of the 19th centurywas reflected in the increasing number oftemperance halls and institutes con-structed across the country. By 1900 vir-tually every town had its temperance hall;many villages could also boast one. Inmany places the growth of the movementled to the construction of larger, moresophisticated premises. In Keighley, for

example, a mid-Victorian hall wasreplaced in 1896 by a magnificentTemperance Hall and Institute, with a rowof shops on the ground floor to providerental income [Fig 2]. The Keighley hall,with its baroque corner turret and detail-ing, also reflected the greater choice ofarchitectural styles available in the later19th century. Whilst many of the earlierhalls were clearly influenced by theclassical style of contemporaryNonconformist chapels [Fig. 3], laterexamples were rather more eclectic indesign. Some had few architectural pre-tensions, such as the West EndTemperance Hall, Carlisle, of 1861, theTemperance Hall and Mechanics'Institute of 1866-7 at Armley, Leeds, or

Figure 3. The Temperance Hall, KirkbyStephen, Cumbria, of 1856, is typical of earlytemperance halls in resembling a contempo-rary Nonconformist chapel.


the corrugated iron shed which served asthe temperance hall in Hexham,Northumberland. Some, such as the hallof 1868 at Finedon, Northamptonshire[Fig. 4], adopted the Gothic style whichwas increasingly seen as appropriate forrespectable public buildings, whilst oth-ers, like the hall at Morley, WestYorkshire, of 1895, were designed in aclassical Renaissance style [Fig. 5].

The halls and institutes of the main-stream temperance movement were gen-erally to be found in the better parts oftown, reflecting the respectable status oftemperance in the later 19th century. TheSalvation Army, in contrast, dedicated to

work amongst the urban poor, built itscitadels in the areas where their clientslived; areas of poor housing and fewopportunities for escape, except thoseoffered by the public house. Their oftenfortress-like architecture reflected theSalvationists' view of themselves asworking for good whilst surrounded bythe forces of evil. Many of the SalvationArmy's citadels have been demolished,along with the slum districts which theyserved. However, as one of the feworganisations dedicated to temperance tohave survived into the 21st century, theSalvation Army continues to erect newbuildings where required. Most are pure-ly functional in design, but the Salvation

Figure 4. The Temperance Hall, Finedon (now the Town Hall). Built in 1868, it had a meeting hallon the first floor, with living accommodation for the caretaker below.


Army always preferred to spend itsmoney on its campaigning activitiesrather than the architectural detailing ofits buildings.

Whilst halls and institutes provided afocus for the movement, providing asecure base from which the gospel oftemperance could be spread, it soonbecame clear that different facilities wererequired if converts were to be sustainedin their commitment to total abstinence.Inns and public houses provided the soleaccommodation for the traveller in the1830s, whilst most refreshment to befound on sale in the streets was alco-holic. ‘We still lack one thing, the neces-sity of which we feel more and more

every day, and that is a “TemperanceHouse”’, lamented the Moral Reformerfor July 1832, ‘… here persons would besupplied with good water, milk, tea, cof-fee, or any sort of harmless beverage,and meet with all the accommodations ofa respectable eating house ... and if bedsand stables were kept for travellers,these houses would be complete estab-lishments for temperate persons’. InJanuary 1834, the Preston TemperanceAdvocate gave a more detailed specifica-tion, following the opening on ChristmasEve, 1832, in Church Street in Prestonitself, of the first temperance hotel, to befollowed very shortly afterwards by hotelsin Bolton, Huddersfield, Manchester andOldham. ‘Temperance Houses, called bydifferent names, have been attempted inseveral towns in Lancashire. Of their util-ity there can be no doubt, and it is vainever to expect Temperance to prevailwithout houses of this sort’, ‘… whetherthey be called simply Temperance Houseor Temperance Coffee House, orTemperance Hotel, they should havesomething in their designation to indicatethat they are eating houses … and per-haps Victualling House is as appropriateas any other …’.

The Advocate listed ‘four objects whichshould be sought to be accomplished …’:

‘A respectable eating house.

‘A respectable lodging house, to accom-modate persons who object to stoppingat public houses’.

Figure 5. The Temperance Hall, Morley, of1895.


‘A place of casual accommodation, wherepersons can come to transact business,read the papers, or enjoy social inter-course, or where parties, societies andcommittees can meet for similar purpos-es’.

‘… rather than let people go to the public-houses … it is also recommended to sup-ply various liquids which are pleasant tothe taste ... coffee, tea, milk, ginger beer,lemonade, peppermint water and rasp-berry vinegar. The latter are much in use,diluted with hot water, and sweetened’.

In its November 1835 issue the PrestonTemperance Advocate was able to list 22temperance hotels spread across north-ern and midland England from Newcastlein the north to Birmingham in the south,and Leeds in the east to Knutsford in thewest. Not all these 'hotels' providedovernight accommodation - some provid-ed only food and drink, plus usually anews or reading room well stocked withimproving tracts, but most, like theCommercial Coffee House at 38 OldhamStreet, Manchester, which opened in late1833, provided beds for travellers. Sopopular did this particular establishment

Figure 6. The former ‘Drayton's Temperance Hotel’, 1-3 West Street, Crewkerne, Somerset, wastypical of small-town temperance hotels.


prove that its proprietor, Sarah Brown,was able to move to larger premises at22 Oldham Street only a year later.7

Like the temperance movement itself,temperance hotels soon began to spreadbeyond its northern and midland heart-lands. In April 1836 the first establish-ment to open in London, the British Tee-total Temperance Coffee-Rooms andHotel, began trading at 159 AldersgateStreet, an address convenient for thosewith business in the City. Larger townsbegan to offer a choice of accommoda-tion for the traveller who preferred toavoid alcoholic drink; Bristol, for example,could offer the Temperance Hotel andCommercial House at 17, Narrow WineStreet, opened in late 1835, and theBristol Temperance Hotel, on the cornerof Bath Street and Thomas Street,opened in December 1836. The latterwas operated by the Bristol Tee-totalTemperance Society.8

By the 1850s it was entirely possible forthe teetotal commercial or business trav-eller to stay at a temperance hotel in anylarge town in the country, and the greatmajority of the smaller ones. Not alloffered a comfortable experience for theirguests, however, and there were regularcomplaints in the temperance pressabout the quality of the accommodationoffered. Many hotels, particularly in theearly years of the movement, wereowned and operated by individualswhose primary motivation was the oppor-tunity to make money. The majority of theearly hotels were, in any case, conver-

sions or re-fittings of existing buildings[Fig 6], and the accommodation wasoften cramped and spartan as a result.The 1870s saw the appearance of firmsdedicated to providing a better experi-ence for the teetotal traveller. TheTemperance Hotels Company Ltd wasfounded in 1872 to provide quality hotelsin larger towns, whilst TrevelyanTemperance Hotels offered superioraccommodation in London, Leeds andManchester. These hotels were, in manyinstances, purpose-built. Leeds, in partic-

Figure 7. Westminster Buildings, 25-41 NewYork Street, Leeds, built in 1877 to thedesign of Thomas Ambler, incorporated apublic hall and shops as well as a temper-ance hotel.


ular, has a number of surviving buildingswhich were purpose-built as temperancehotels, including the former TrevelyanTemperance Hotel of 1872 on the cornerof Boar Lane and Briggate, andWestminster Buildings, 25-41 New YorkStreet, which included a public hall (StJames's Hall) and dining rooms as wellas an hotel; this was aimed at the morecost-conscious traveller, offering accom-modation in dormitories rather than inindividual rooms. Built in 1877 to thedesigns of the fashionable local architectThomas Ambler, it was enlarged in 1884to deal with the volume of trade [Fig 7].

As mentioned above, some of the earlytemperance 'hotels' did not provideovernight accommodation. Whether dig-nified with the title 'hotel' or not, coffee-houses and eating houses were animportant feature of the temperanceeffort from the beginning. Offering tea,coffee, soft drinks and hot and cold food,most also provided news-rooms or read-ing-rooms, where patrons could read aselection of newspapers, journals, andtemperance tracts, whilst some alsooffered rooms for meetings. They werenot aimed solely at the temperance con-vert, but were intended to spread thegospel of temperance to those attractedby their cheap, good-value food anddrink, and were soon to be found acrossthe country.

Early temperance coffee-houses werestraightforward establishments, whichmade no attempt to replicate the appear-ance or atmosphere of the public house.

However, there was a change in tactics inthe 1850s, with the appearance of ‘publichouses’, very basic bars, not dissimilar tothe beerhouses of the day, selling coffeeand snacks. The first appeared inDundee in 1853, and within a decadesimilar establishments had appeared inManchester and London. In September1867 the first British Workman's PublicHouse opened in Leeds. This was delib-erately designed to look like a pub, andto provide a similar social ambience, butwithout the alcohol. It provided a range oftemperance drinks, as well as coffee andfood. It was an instant success, and themovement spread rapidly, with branchesopening around Leeds and in other north-ern towns over the next few years. The

Figure 8. The former 'Rising Sun' temper-ance tavern, 30 Silver Street, Reading, wasbuilt in 1877 for the local Parish Council.


formula reached London a few yearslater - in October 1872 Dr Barnardobought the Edinburgh Castle,Limehouse, and re-opened it in 1873 asthe Edinburgh Castle Coffee Palace; theDublin Castle, Mile End Road, followed in1875.

Companies appeared operating chains ofcoffee pubs. One of the largest was theLiverpool British Workman Public HouseCompany, founded in March 1875 with acapital of £20,000. Within a year the com-pany was operating five houses in the

city, and by 1892 there were 92 inLiverpool and the surrounding area. Thecompany's share capital was increasedon several occasions, and it paid ahealthy dividend on shares for someyears.9 A trade association, the CoffeePublic House Association, was foundedin 1877, and amongst other services, pro-vided loans for those starting new busi-nesses.

Some coffee pubs were, like theEdinburgh Castle and the Dublin Castle,former public houses which had beenconverted to the cause of temperance,but many more were purpose-built, anddesigned to look like pubs [Fig 8]. Somewent so far as to replicate the cut glass,mirrors and lamps of the late Victorian'gin-palace'. The Cobden Coffee House,in Corporation Street, Birmingham (nowdemolished), was arguably the mostmagnificent; an enormous Gothic build-ing opened in 1883 by the BirminghamCoffee-House Company, it was designedby William Doubleday to outshine themost splendid pubs the town could offer,with stained and diamond-cut glass andspectacular tilework.10

Others deliberately avoided such vulgari-ty; the coffee pubs designed by ErnestGeorge, for example, are in restrainedarchitectural styles which look forward tothe 'improved' public houses of the early20th century. The Bee-Hive, Streatham(1879) is in the 'Queen Anne' style [Fig 9],whilst the Ossington Coffee Palace,Newark-on-Trent (1882), is in an 'oldeEnglish' style reminiscent of the work of

Figure 9. The former 'Bee-Hive' coffee tavern,496 Streatham High Road, SW6, wasdesigned by Ernest George in 1878. Its con-struction was sponsored by local business-man P B Cow, manufacturer of 'Cow Gum'.


Norman Shaw. It was built on the instruc-tions of Viscountess Ossington in memoryof her husband and nephew. It cost£20,000, an enormous sum for the time,and was described on its dedicationplaque as ‘a perfect model of a 17th centhostelry’. It contained bars, an assemblyroom, reading room, club room and billiardroom, whilst behind it was stabling for 50horses and a garden containing anAmerican bowling alley.11

Although the Ossington Coffee Palacewas an unusually large and elaborateexample, it was typical of the coffee publichouse in several ways. It owed its exis-

tence to aristocratic sponsorship, and itwas a commercial failure, closing within afew years. A significant number of coffeepubs were sponsored by the local aristoc-racy or committees of the well-to-do [Fig10], and survived whilst their sponsorswere prepared to subsidise them.However, few of these businesses seemto have been profitable, partly because theattempt to replicate the public house expe-rience was difficult without the social lubri-cation of alcohol, partly because many ofthose running them were idealists, butlacked business experience or ability, andpartly because customers who might oth-erwise have patronised them resented the

Figure 10. Dedication of the former 'Lamb Coffee Tavern', Alma Place, Redruth, Cornwall.


tendency of the temperance movement topreach at them. Coffee pubs survivedrather longer in the north of England, notonly because the temperance movementwas stronger in Yorkshire and Lancashire,but because many were operated by com-mercial companies on strict businesslines.

Rather more successful than the coffeepublic houses were the cafés, coffee-houses and cocoa-houses which began toappear alongside them in the later 1870s.Developing from the earlier temperancecoffee-houses, they provided non-alco-holic refreshments, food and entertain-ment in buildings which made no pretenceat being public houses. The Leicester

Coffee and Cocoa House Company, forexample, was founded in July 1877, withthe object of establishing ‘houses, rooms,coffee carts, stalls and other places’ in andaround Leicester to provide non-alcoholicrefreshment. The first of the coffee-hous-es, the Granby, opened only three monthsafter the foundation of the company, was aconversion of an existing building, but themajority of the company's houses werepurpose-built, designed by the architectEdward Burgess. Several of these build-ings survive, although no longer in use fortheir original purpose. The High Cross, onHigh Street (now operated as a pub byWetherspoon's), is built of red brick withwhite masonry detailing [Fig 11], whilst theEast Gates (1885), on the corner of

Figure 11. The former 'High Cross Coffee House', High Street, Leicester, was one of a number inthe city designed by Edward Burgess.


Church Gate opposite the Clock Tower,was described as ‘built in the domesticstyle of the fifteenth century’; it is now ashop. The most impressive of theLeicester coffee-houses was the Victoria(1888) in Granby Street, which was ‘inthe style of the French Renaissance’.12

The Leicester Coffee and Cocoa HouseCompany's establishments were wellknown for the quality and value of theirfood and drink, as well as for the range offacilities which they offered, several hav-ing billiard rooms. They were very popu-lar, and not just with the working-classclientele whom they were intended toserve. Trade began to decline in the firstdecade of the 20th century, in the face ofcompetition from more modern cafés andrestaurants, and a number of the compa-ny's premises were sold before the FirstWorld War. The War had an even greaterimpact, and the company went into liqui-dation in 1921. By then, however, thetown could offer a large range of cafésand other establishments offering non-alcoholic refreshments of all kinds; in asense, the aims of the company's pro-moters had been achieved.

Cafés offering a range of food and non-alcoholic drinks became a feature ofmany towns in the twenty or thirty yearsbefore the First World War, many of themdesigned, like the Leicester Coffee andCocoa House Company's premises, byhighly competent architects. The NewCentral Coffee Tavern in Worcester (laterthe Central Temperance Hotel andRestaurant), for example, was built in

1901 to the designs of the local Diocesanarchitect Louis Sheppard, and was animposing example of contemporary com-mercial architecture [Fig 12]. Cafés, tea-houses and cocoa-houses all helped tomake alternatives to alcohol available inpleasant surroundings at low cost.

The temperance movement lost noopportunity to provide alcohol-free ver-sions of leisure facilities more closelyidentified with drinking. There were evenattempts to replicate the music halls, ahighly popular form of working-class

Figure 12. The former 'New Central CoffeeTavern', 59-60 High Street, Worcester, builtin 1901 to the designs of Louis Sheppard.


entertainment with its origins firmly in themid-19th century public house. Theopening of the Colosseum Theatre,Paradise Street, Liverpool, in late 1879,as a temperance music hall, was suc-cessful for a few months, but only untilthe novelty had worn off. In Lambeth, theRoyal Victoria Coffee Tavern Music Hall,offering ‘Variety Entertainments, after thestyle of the ordinary music halls, but freefrom any objectionable features’, wassimilarly unsuccessful, but ultimately sur-vived to become the Old Vic Theatre.13

Billiards had been a popular attractionclosely identified with the public house,

but the late 19th century saw the appear-ance of billiard halls offering only non-alcoholic drinks to refresh the players.They proved extremely popular, perhapsbecause they offered a relatively cheapopportunity to play the game. Formed inthe early 20th century, TemperanceBilliard Halls Ltd was just one of the firmsto offer an alcohol-free environment inwhich to play. Manchester architectNorman Evans designed a number ofhalls in Manchester and the surroundingtowns for the company, as well as sever-al in suburban London. The formerChorlton Snooker Centre in theManchester suburb of Chorlton-cum-

Figure 13. The former Temperance Billiard Hall, Manchester Road, Chorlton (now aWetherspoon's pub) was designed c1907 for the Temperance Billiard Hall Co Ltd of Pendletonby their architect, Norman Evans.


Hardy is typical of his designs, featuring along barrel roof with dormers, plus exu-berant art nouveau glass and tilework. Itsurvived as a temperance establishment,being converted to a public house by theWetherspoon chain only after closure inthe late 1990s [Fig 13]. The unusual dou-ble hall at Bury is now the Bury SnookerCentre. It retains some of the decorativetiling installed by Evans, but it is nolonger a temperance establishment.

Temperance halls and institutes wereprovided by the temperance campaign-ers themselves, often after months oryears of fundraising, whilst the cafés andbilliard halls of later years were typicallyoperated as commercial concerns. A thirdstrand of temperance provision was thebuildings provided by enlightened orpaternalistic employers. In 1860, forexample, the Stockton and DarlingtonRailway Company spent 'upwards of£1000' on a building for its employeescomprising a library, lecture room, read-ing room, committee- and class-rooms,together with a refreshment room fromwhich intoxicating liquors were excluded.In the increasingly complex world of therailways, it was clearly in the Company'sinterest to ensure that its employeeswere sober and alert.

Between 1850 and the First World Warmany other employers followed suit, pro-viding their employees with accommoda-tion or leisure facilities from which alco-holic drinks were banned [Fig 14]. Thescale of provision could range from a sin-gle building to a complete drink-free

estate such as Ackroydon (Halifax),founded by textile mill owner ColonelEdward Ackroyd in 1859, or Saltaire(Bradford), built for mill owner Sir TitusSalt between 1850 and 1872, or even acomplete new settlement, such as theindustrial 'garden villages' of Bournville(Birmingham), largely dating from theperiod 1894-90, or New Earswick (York),begun in 1901.14 The model settlementsat Bournville and New Earswick wereboth founded by employers who had astrong moral and religious objection toalcohol, the Cadbury and Rowntree fami-lies respectively. The founders of

Figure 14. The former Holme Head CoffeeTavern and Reading Room, North Street,Carlisle, designed by George Dale Oliver,was provided by the local firm FergusonBros for their workers in 1881.


Ackroydon and Saltaire had no personalobjections to alcohol per se; however,they were well aware of the impact onproductivity that alcohol might have.Whatever the motivation of their promot-ers, model settlements such as these hada significant impact on urban design,directly influencing the 'garden village'and 'garden city' movements of the firsthalf of the 20th century.

The temperance movement had a majorimpact on the political and social life of thecountry for over a century, yet today it hasalmost completely vanished. This paperdeals only with the main classes of build-ing constructed by the movement - there isno mention, for example, of the statues,drinking fountains and water-troughswhich were sponsored by temperanceadvocates to celebrate their cause, as anadornment to the streets, or to refreshpassers-by and their horses - yet it mayserve to draw attention to the fact that tem-perance had a physical impact on thestreets of our towns and villages. Eventhough very few establishments now oper-ate on temperance principles - a temper-ance bar in Rawtenstall, Lancashire, atemperance pub at Cautley, Cumbria, anda few hotels operated by an arm of theSalvation Army (the Carfax Hotel, GreatPulteney Street, Bath, being an example) -the physical legacy of the temperancemovement is still widely visible today.

References

1. Preston Temperance Advocate,January 1835, p. 6.

2. Winskill, P T. (1892) The TemperanceMovement and its Workers, London: Blackie& Son, vol I p. 183.

3. Ibid, vol II, p.113, 117.4. British Temperance Advocate and

Journal, 15 November 1839, p. 128.5. Winskill, P T. and Thomas, J. (1887)

The History of the Temperance Movement inLiverpool and District, Liverpool: J Thomas, p.49.

6. British Temperance Advocate andJournal, 24 October 1840, p. 123.

7. Preston Temperance Advocate,January 1834, 16; January 1835, p. 8.

8. Ibid, April 1836, p. 32; January 1836,p. 8; December 1836, p. 96.

9. Winskill, P.T. and Thomas J., op. cit., p.76.

10. Girouard, M. (1975) 'Pubs with noBeer', Country Life, 9 October, p. 928.

11. Girouard, M. (1984) Victorian Pubs,New Haven and London: Yale UniversityPress, (reprint of 1975 edition), p. 204.

12. Elliott, M. (1971-2) 'The LeicesterCoffee-House and Cocoa-House Movement'in Transactions of the LeicestershireArchaeological and Historical Society, XLVII,p. 58.

13. Winskill, P.T. and Thomas J., op. cit.,p. xxxi; Girouard, M. (1975) op. cit., p.926.

14. Darley, G. (1978) Villages of Vision,London: Granada Publishing, (paperbackreprint of 1975 edition), pp. 131-5, pp. 139-40, pp. 184-6.

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