New Ownership

In 1909, the Winter Gardens came to the attention of WH Broadhead and Sons’ Variety Circuit, who were the owners of a chain of northern Music Halls.

The company bought the complex and set about completely renovating the interior and adding a balcony and glazed canopy, and six green and white kiosks fronting the promenade, which replaced a jumble of stalls and shacks. On the other side of the Winter Gardens the old cattle fields became the resort’s main funfair. Along the promenade was a mini rink, automatic parlour and the Verandah Cafe; behind was the Katzenjammer Castle ‘a scream from start to finish’ and a zoo containing a young alligator and a giant lizard. ‘See a living boa constrictor coiled round a man’s throat’, ran the advert for the opening of the grounds on Maundy Thursday 1908 (op cit, 149). Following the death of Queen Victoria in 1901, the Victoria Pavilion and Oriental ballroom were renamed the Kings Pavilion and Empress Ballroom, and a sketch plan showing the layout of the some of the extensive improvements appeared in a contemporary newspaper. During this time the entrance fee was sixpence, and this entitled patrons to move between the theatre and ballroom, or below the ballroom to the restaurant, which later became the billiard room and bar. There was also a temperance bar in the theatre.

As the largest place of entertainment in the resort, the Winter Gardens was considered of paramount importance to Morecambe, and shows were kept running by Broadhead long after the summer visitors had departed. ‘The Winter Gardens intend to make Morecambe very lively this winter’ reported the Morecambe Visitor on September 11th, 1911. The newspaper added ‘besides a three-hour picture show each night in the Victoria Pavilion, there is to be dancing in the Empress Ballroom not to mention bowling and admission to the grounds, which are now looking very charming. Who will venture to say that the winter season of 1911 will be dead and dull?’

winter months and variety shows during the summer season, as well as catering for such events as the annual Music Festival and the annual prize giving ceremony for local schoolchildren. ‘Stirring scenes’ were witnessed inDuring and after the First World War (1914-18) the theatre had a policy of showing silent pictures during the the Spring of 1915 when Lord Derby’s Band visited the Winter Gardens, where the allied flags were unfurled to recitations of ‘Abide With Me’ (op cit, 156). Among the many innovations at the Winter Gardens in the 1920s, perhaps the most famous of all was made by the fairground employee Mr Frank Ainsworth, when he introduced the game of Bingo to the world.

The annual Trades Exhibition was held at The Winter Gardens each spring in the early 1920s and demonstrated the growing commercial importance of the town. The Winter Gardens continued under the Broadhead regime until 1933, when a group of local businessmen purchased the block for £24,000.