The Embankment, Nottingham - Pt.2

My previous post featured the excellent Skittle Alley in the basement of The Embankment, a real rarity now in Nottingham, and almost certainly the closest available for play to the city centre. However, the main focus of games play at this venue can be found in the spacious 'Billiards Room' on the ground floor, equipped with four full-size tables for Snooker, and comfortable raised banquette seating for viewing play.

The game of Billiards is not one you'll find played much these days, and yet Billiards tables like the ones shown here at The Embankment are still common enough. The three ball game of Billiards has been almost entirely superseded by it's more sophisticated sibling Snooker, but since the two games share a common playing surface the old Billiards tables remain and continue to give good service.

The four very fine old tables at The Embankment include this model from a local Nottingham manufacturer. Elston & Hopkin still operate in the cue sports field, albeit under different ownership and from a base in Lincolnshire. The firm don't appear to manufacture tables or equipment anymore, rather they are dealers in a range of new and pre-owned tables, and provide a repair and fitting service. Some of the current score boards at the club were also manufactured by Elston & Hopkin, including the one shown here. (see update below)

According to Arthur Taylor in his excellent book 'Played At The Pub', there may now only one remaining pub in the UK with a fully functioning Billiards room, the grade II listed Lamb Hotel in Eccles, snooker now being almost exclusively a club game with the cheaper and more compact games of Pool and Bar Billiards preferred in pubs nowadays.

Update (10/01/2022) re. Elston & Hopkin c/o Geoff Large 

Elston & Hopkin never made full size billiard tables, the tables at Boots Social Club before the embankment club name change, where a mixture of E J Riley and John Gent billiard tables and so where the scoreboards but with later Elston & Hopkin badges put on them as a form of advertisement only.

John Gent was a Nottingham billiard table manufacturer based just behind the Palais de Dance on convent street in the late 1880s , he produced tables until around the 1920s when he died, and a young employee called John Elston took the firm over, but mainly for the billiard hall they owned on George street in the lace market. He stopped producing tables when John Gent passed away but you still see some of these Gent tables around the Nottingham area.

Roll on 1931/2 and John Elston had moved from Geroge street billiard hall and offices, into the side of the theatre Royal on Shakespeare street to open up a billiard hall, around this time another Billiard hall owner of 13 billiard halls dotted around Nottinghamshire also had a small billiards firm of one fitter and a few labourers and family running the different halls, that firm was Run by John Stuart Hopkin, in 1938 Elston joined up with J S Hopkin to form Elston & Hopkin, but they never made tables, they just maintained them and ran a spares and accessories shop at Shakespeare street and had a ran billiard halls around Nottinghamshire.

I worked for Elston and Hokpin from 1980 having worked for another firm from 1976, in 2004 Elston & Hopkin where sold to the Lincolnshire firm of Universal Logic, the owner was Ted Roberts who passed away in 2012, I worked for Ted for 7 years, Eslton & Hopkin ceased to trade around 2012 / 13.

I started up GCL Billiards in 2012 having been a time served billiards fitter since 1976, I am now 67 years old and probably the last remaining fitter from the firm of Elston & Hopkin still working full time. Three spin off firms from Elston and Hopkin are GCL Billiards run by myself Geoff Large, Direct Snooker run by Roger Perchynski, and Anthony & Pykett run by Brian Anthony. An older firm spin off was Belvoir Billiards run by Mick Robb my mentor who I served under for 4 years before I joined Eslton & hopkin. John Hopkin the Grandson of the original owner of J S Hopkin billiards of Hyson Green is still alive and in his 90's and lives in Wollaton.