Salisbury Promenade

By John Hinshelwood and Stephen Rigg

Along Green Lanes beyond St Ann’s Road up to Colina Road, there were no buildings before 1910 when the Coliseum Cinema opened. The cinema closed in 1961 becoming a bingo hall and then a furniture warehouse before it was demolished in 1999.

Behind the Coliseum is the Salisbury Promenade that was built in the 1920s, with shops at ground level, including a Woolworths store beside the Coliseum, and two large rooms above; a billiard hall at the northern end and a fashionable concert/dance hall called the Salon Bal adjoining the cinema. A disastrous fire in 1932 burnt out the Salon Bal slightly damaging the cinema’s roof.

Much later on, Woolworth’s moved from Salisbury Promenade further along Green Lanes to numbers 17-19 Grand Parade. From the 1930s to 1960 number 17 was Turners’ a greengrocers and numbers 18-19 was a costumiers run by Louis Cooper. Woolworths took over the three shops in 1960 and continued there until 1985 when the new shop front was installed for the present day Iceland store, which is out of keeping with the rest of Grand Parade.

Today the cream ceramic tiles of Salisbury Promenade survive and the billiard hall has become a snooker club

Salisbury Promenade with its cream ceramic tile facing of the 1920s