LIFE GOES ON: NOV 2018

Above: 1956 advert for Prince's Water Phantasy at the council-owned Open-Air Bathing Pool ('The Baths') on the prom, featuring exhibition divers, swimmers and novelty acts: Tarzan and his mate, The Famous Lambert Trio, Prince Zahoor the 'brilliant Indian balancing star', and The Water Phantasettes.
When these performers were out of the way you could go and have a dip. The location was roughly where the Events Arena is now.

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During November 2018 the following posts were updated:

Electrip Records, letter from Italy -

https://rhyl-life.blogspot.com/2015/11/quiz-answer-115.html

Grand Theatre, ‘A Little Bit Of Fluff’ -

https://rhyl-life.blogspot.com/2016/10/grand-times.html

Gronant, more old pix -

https://rhyl-life.blogspot.com/2016/05/quiz-answer-135.html

Hovercraft, another pic -

https://rhyl-life.blogspot.com/2009/02/back-to-drawing-board-2.html

J.A. Elliott-Jones, artist -

https://rhyl-life.blogspot.com/2016/02/quiz-answer-127.html

Jasper Maskelyne in Rhyl -

https://rhyl-life.blogspot.com/2009/10/cinderella-49.html

Monorail 1980 -
https://rhyl-life.blogspot.com/2009/03/monorail.html

Pont y Ddraig aka Dragon Bridge, Foryd -

https://rhyl-life.blogspot.com/2015/08/quiz-answer-105_23.html

Promenade ‘walking photos’, another pic -

https://rhyl-life.blogspot.com/2009/07/toms-story.html

Rhuddlan, vintage pic of High Street -

https://rhyl-life.blogspot.com/2017/10/rhuddlan-request.html

St. John’s Church, Wellington Road -

https://rhyl-life.blogspot.com/2017/11/flashback-31.html

Westcliffe Hotel, West Parade -

https://rhyl-life.blogspot.com/2009/06/western-front.html

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RECAP ON THE QUEENS

Earlier this month, Denbighshire County Council announced a £5 million redevelopment plan that targets the run-down Queens Indoor Market which has entrances in West Parade, High Street and Sussex Street.

Queens Market (established 1960) was previously Queens Ballroom which was established in 1920s. The splendid dance floor was taken up and sold at the time of conversion. Queens Theatre upstairs closed shortly after the ballroom.

Queens Theatre & Ballroom were preceded by the Grand Theatre upstairs with indoor roller skating rink below. Early film shows started at the rink and then moved upstairs to the theatre which operated off-season under the name Futurist Cinema.

Grand Theatre and the skating rink comprised a redevelopment of the Queen's Palace i.e. palace of varieties, which included theatre, ballroom, exhibitions and novelty sideshows. Queen's Palace opened in 1902, was open only in summer seasons, and closed down after a fire in 1907.

[Note for romantics: For two or three seasons Queen's Palace had in its basement a 'Little Venice' exhibition which included a gondola ride. This was taken out a couple of years before the fire and was nothing special in that day and age.]

A lot of genuine history is associated with the building and, up to 5 or 6 years ago, I would have thought it worth preserving if enough public money could be found. But since then the town centre has nose-dived and is in urgent need of something new.

At this point in its history Rhyl needs something new more than it needs something old.

Also in the proposed new scheme is Queens Market's next-door neighbour in West Parade, the Savoy Enterprises' building at Nos. 7-13. For a long time until fairly recently this was owned by the Trehearn family and operated under the name Vern's Amusements.
Readers may remember its corner of Queen Street as The Bistro night club (originally Savoy Cafe).

At present Denbighshire Council is seeking match-funding from Welsh Government for the proposed scheme and has not yet announced what it would intend to create on these sites.

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Above: I like the idea of a tobacconist named Mr. Stubbs . . . and indeed a sprinter named Mr. Bolt!

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Colin Jones / email: rhyl.colin.jones@live.co.uk

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MARK HAMBOURG

Mark Hamourg
portrait by F.W. Schmidt, Manchester

Mark Hambourg (1879-1960) was a Russian-born, naturalised British pianist of international repute. He played at Rhyl Pavilion on Sunday October 10th 1943, presumably as part of a concerted effort to keep the collective pecker up during World War 2.

Mr. Hambourg was accompanied by the Bournemouth Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by William Rees. The dodgy acoustics at the old Pavilion would have done them no favours but it was by all accounts a  rattling good concert, a big success!

This reference is added here for indexing purposes:
Summit Enterprises Limited London.

You can see Mark Hambourg on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WD2IoVbOUpc

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WED 7th MAR 2018 UPDATE: From one pianist to two! On April 2nd 1945 (five months before World War 2 ended) the Pavilion presented piano duettists Marjan Rawicz and Walter Landauer.
Here is the complete programme:

 

 

Click on any image to see a bigger version.

These are added here for indexing purposes:
Harold Fielding agent promoter, Mary Denise singer vocalist, Mannucci cello cellist , Joseph Saxby piano pianist, Keith Prowse old advert.

You can see Rawicz & Landauer on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i82tN2f1t4w&list=RDi82tN2f1t4w&t=2

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FRI 3rd AUG 2018 UPDATE: An eminent visitor to Rhyl Pavilion the year before Mark Hambourg was the Russian/Ukranian naturalised British concert pianist Benno Moiseiwitsch who was given a CBE in 1946 for performing hundreds of recitals to servicemen and charities during WW2.

These are added here for indexing purposes:
Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Henry Holst, Louis Cohen.

The Grand Repertory Ball reference in the flyer was a fundraising event by (and possibly for) Manchester Repertory Company who were resident at the Pavilion at that time.

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SUNNY RHYL WELCOMES YOU

Here is a rare set of advertisements from a 1938 housing brochure, sent in by ex-Rhylite Robert Jones of Dyserth.
Thanks, Robert!

Click on any part to see a bigger version.

In the above the "five up-to-date Picture Houses" would be Plaza, Regal and Odeon - all built in the 1930s in High Street - and the older Cinema Royal also in High Street but this had probably closed down by the time the brochure was circulated; the fifth would be Queens Theatre which showed cinema films off-season.

Click on any part to see a bigger version.

This last one is a reminder that Rhyl Urban District Council ran the gas supply and other utilities before World War 2.

Price guide: £1,000 in 1938 would be about £60,000 in today's money. Not much for a new house!

The following references are added here for indexing purposes:
Botanical Gardens, Halifax Building Society, Harold Smith accountant agent, Burns Drive, Kinard Park Estate (2 refs), London and Lancashire Insurance Company Ltd, Tom Edwards insurance, Barnett & Soans of Prestatyn, Griffiths Farm Tre-Llewelyn Trellewelyn, Astons Furniture.

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QUIZ ANSWER # 191

Last Sunday I posted this photo of a slice of Rhyl townscape. The question: What might you have found here in the 1960s?

The answer is a hotel.

The photo shows corner of Kinmel Street and Elwy Street where Mrs. B.C. Black presided over 'The Central' hotel/guest house/B&B. Her description of the place as being two minutes from the prom and sea might have been a tad optimistic - but that's how landladies tended to be.

[Grammatical note – I tend to write ‘a hotel’ rather than the more correct ‘an hotel’ because the latter now seems archaic. For the same reason I write ‘will’ where ‘’shall’ would be appropriate. Learn the rules then ride roughshod over them, that’s my motto.]

That rounded corner is rather nice. It helps to compensate a little for the angular inelegance of the new-ish medical centre nearby:

Like many small towns in Wales, Rhyl is a remarkably inelegant place. Perhaps this is because - as a poor nation - we can afford only the cheapest and nastiest architects.
Rhyl has also become very prosaic; if you have any poetry in your soul Rhyl would kill it stone dead.

The town is sinking under the weight of people who arrive here already deprived and lacking in spending power.
The latest big name retailer to announce closure of their Rhyl branch is Burton / Dorothy Perkins whose High Street premises are due to close in January 2018.

Top floor of the building in the 1950s & '60s was the Regent Ballroom dance hall. Click here if you wish to read previous posts about this:
http://rhyl-life.blogspot.co.uk/search?q=Regent+Ballroom

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QUIZ QUESTION # 191

Below is a slice of Rhyl townscape photographed today by Yours Truly.
The question: What might you have found here in the 1960s?

No need to send me an email - just check your answers against mine on Sunday 17th September 2017 after 12 noon.

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These days  Tir Prince Raceway in Towyn near Abergele is the place for trotting races but the 1967 advert below harks back to similar events at Prestatyn Raceway.
Click on it to read the small print.

Night Trotting, eh?  We have that in Rhyl West – it's the druggies on a mission to pick up more stuff.

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BREXIT SCHMEXIT

Yesterday in London thousands of people marched in protest against the British government's plan to leave European Union. I am not surprised. Our European citizenship is too valuable to throw away.

If any future British government tried to interfere with workers' rights, consumers' rights and other protections conferred on us by the EU, we could see civil unrest on a massive scale.

We are not Americans, we are not Chinese, we are Europeans –  and now that barriers between European countries are down they must stay down.

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FLASHBACK #29

George Ellis of Colwyn Bay found a reference to the Country Club in Rhyl and wondered where it is/was.
It stood on the corner of Rhuddlan Road and Ffordd Derwen on the site of the present Ffordd Derwen pub. This advert is from Rhyl Urban District Council's tourist guide book of 1948.

In the advert are intriguing references to Ralph "Muffit" Moffat of radio station AFN (American Forces' Network) in Munich and a brochure about High fidelity recordings - Made in your own home . . .

Click on any image to see a bigger version.

In the same guide are details of the council's coupon system in which their coupons were worth twice their face value – even in car parks!

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FLASHBACK #28

Rhyl is an August resort; this month the town has seen plenty of visitors. Nevertheless you would be hard pressed to produce a long list of the attractions. 'Rhyl's 40 Attractions' above is from circa 1904.

- Of items relating to the short-lived Queen's Palace in West Parade, Constantinople was a large model version of the Turkish city of Istanbul. The management installed this after taking out a similar representation of Venice ('Little Venice'). 

- Bijou Pavilion was a tiny theatre on the pier for troupes such as Adeler & Sutton’s Pierrots. Later it was renamed Pier Pavilion. It is under the blue dot in the image below.

 - Phrenology is the study of size and contours of the head as an alleged indication of character and mental abilities. Phrenological Lectures were presumably by Arthur Cheetham who, if you crossed his palm with silver, would feel your bumps.

- The Doll Man would be Professor Millar (sometimes written as Miller) who operated Rhyl's first Punch and Judy booth featuring his 'talking dolls' on the prom opposite Queens Hotel - just west of High Street:

- Victoria Hall Concerts is an interesting item. I suspect Victoria Hall to be the upstairs premises in Market Street known at other times as Lyric Hall and Central Hall. My reasoning is as follows:

Here is a comparatively recent pic of the premises. Underneath the red dot is inscribed the year 1890. So the building was in existence when the list was drawn up and yet the only Hall named is Victoria.

Round the margins of the list are adverts for Sandoe's books and stationery and a plug for E.H. Williams who rented the council-owned minstrel pitch on the sands for comedy & music shows by E.H. Williams' Merrie Men.

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QUIZ QUESTION # 189

The above photos were taken yesterday in Rhyl by Yours Truly.
Question 1: What do these two buildings have in common?

Question 2: How are the following people connected with Rhyl?
a) Albert Cronshaw
b) Mrs. Blake and Miss Grimwood.

No need to send me an email - just check your answers against mine on Tuesday 8th August 2017 after 12 noon.

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Nigel Kerry, now resident in Clun, Shropshire, is hoping for a picture of the Roma Coffee Bar, West Parade, late 1950s/early '60s. 
Here is an advert for the Roma mentioning Ray Rowlands and His Band; Ray was a drummer from St. Asaph.
This is from 1958 and appears in 'Rhyl Music In The Ritz Years 1955-1968' by Yours Truly.
Click on it to read small print.

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TUE 22nd MAY 2018 UPDATE: Being auctioned on Internet this week is the following amateur snapshot of the Roma's exterior without the seller's big blue logo -

The snap is dated 1954 and shows that the design was very modern for the time, more like the '60s.

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HOLD VERY TIGHT

Here are some bus items to add to the strength transport pix in this blog. Above: the earliest form of bus, a coach and horses. This one is in Rhyl and ready to depart on a trip. The word TOURIST is just about visible on side of the coach. The image is from a card postmarked 1913.

Above: Brookes Brothers open-top white double decker outside the White Lion Hotel, High Street, Rhyl (where Jobcentre Plus is now).
On the front of the bus is an advert for E.B. Jones, grocers; on the side is advert for a Rhyl Pavilion show titled This Woman Business.

Below: Crimson Coaches vehicle near the Llanberis Pass. It is made by Vulcan of Southport. Crimson is one of the lesser known Rhyl firms, and the driver in this instance is 'Will Llanfair'.

Above: Late 1930s snapshot of a Crosville Motor Services U8 that ran between High Street, Rhyl, and Sandy Cove in Kinmel Bay.

Below: Late 1950s probably. The double decker is near corner of High Street and West Parade, with Woolworth's (now B&M) on your left.

Crosville's 5000th bus, circa 1980 at Marine Lake end of Wellington Road, near an Esso petrol station and an Elf service station.

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6720. Additional image added in July 2020:

This wonky old advert shows that the Brookes Brothers company mentioned above, pre-dated the era of motor coaches.

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QUIZ ANSWER # 188

1) Last Sunday I posted the above photo. The question: Where was I standing?
The answer: St. Asaph Street.
Looking across the site on which the Grange Hotel once stood.

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2a) The question: Where in Rhyl was the Hippodrome?
The answer: On the sands.
It was a later, fancier name name for the outdoor performance area known originally as the minstrel pitch. This advert for E.H. Williams' Merrie Men, written probably in 1904, refers.
Click on it to read small print.

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2b) The question: Where in Rhyl was Constantinople?
The answer: Queen's Palace.
Constantinople was the name of a new attraction that replaced 'Little Venice' which may have lost its novelty value and/or been a franchise whose time had expired. 
A previous post refers:
http://rhyl-life.blogspot.co.uk/2015/03/without-paddle.html

Now, let's see. You can award yourself one win for the correct answer to Question 1, two for 2a and two for 2b, plus an extra win if you got all of them right = a total of 6 wins.

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• The Marlborough Hotel, 16 East Parade, Rhyl, has been renamed as Braga Hotel. Tel: (01745) 353036.

• Local radio station Point FM appears to have ceased trading. The Wellington Road premises no longer bears the station name.

• Here is a summery snapshot of girls named Terry and Caroline having a tug o’war with unseen forces on Rhyl promenade in 1957. Holiday-makers or locals, I wonder.

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Colin Jones / email: rhyl.colin.jones@live.co.uk

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SPORTING LIFE

Recently the first photo below was on sale on Internet, hence the seller's logo. It shows Rhyl Pickwicks football / soccer team 1899-1900. Chances are, this was a team that played for charities – because the top-hatted gent on your right is E.H. Williams the leader of Rhyl's 'Merrie Men' minstrel troupe; he was involved in fundraising activities.

For indexing purposes the names above are repeated here.
Back row (left to right): E.D. Davies, B. Smith, F. Mudd, E.H. Williams.
Middle row: EL. Jones, J. Fell, Tom Moore, H.H. Davies, J. Brookes.
Front row: R. Salt, E. Nelson, R. Newing, T. Keene, T. Roberts.
Name of the original owner of the photo is given as John Nickels, 14 Vale Park, off Victoria Road, Rhyl.

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The next item is captioned Rhyl Snooker Hall 1911. The location of the hall is not given. The group in the photo would be staff.

Here, a walking race in East Parade, Rhyl,  presumably dating from before World War 1:

The following shot of Rhyl Bowling Green, Seabank Road, is undated and looks like the work of Rhyl photographer Rae Pickard but I've no evidence that it was taken by him:

From 1947-48 here is a medallion inscribed for the Rhyl & District T.T.L (Table Tennis League) Youth Singles Winner. First mention of table tennis in this blog!

Wrestling is a Rhyl favourite and continues this summer at the town hall. Here are the centre pages from a programme of wrestling at Gaiety Theatre (formerly Pier Amphitheatre) on the prom, dated 1964.

For indexing purposes the names above are repeated here.
Wryton Wrestling, Count Bartelli, Alf Rough-house Cadman Bury, Ted Hannon Scotland, Frank Riley Wigan, Bert Royal Bolton, Vic Faulkner Bolton, Martin Conroy referee, Terry Nylands Rochdale, Dennis Wade St. Helens, Seamus Donlevy Ireland, Mike Donlevy Ireland, Francis Gregory, Reg Williams.
Master of Ceremonies is our very own, recently deceased, Roy Turner.

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A seaside resort is not a place you would expect to find a gun shop for field sports, but we have one in Elwy Street where until a few years ago the proprietor was the late Reg Gizzi (airman and ex-musician).
This photo was taken earlier in 2017. Last I heard, a few weeks ago, the business was up for sale.

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FRI 7th SEP 2018 UPDATE: Just arrived here at Jones Towers - an advert for the gun shop, dated 1985:

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My YouTube channel featuring Rhyl videos and slideshows goes by the name of RhylTime. Click on the following link if you would like to see RhylTime's Top Ten:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL7BKgZiQNRSaVpnyTl8PgEpPusmd3dl_z

Only YouTube items labelled RhylTime are mine.

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