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Embassy Roller Rink Walford Road

J

jake

Guest
anyone remember the embassy roller skating rink just off the stratford road sparkhill, i had many happy hours there, hire the skates, really loud music, and always packed, just thinking i had a great childhood, without causing problems for others those were the day's.(its a mosque now or an asian cinema)

jake
 
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Hi Jake
The Embassy was in Walford Road and was reputed to be the biggest roller rink in Europe, Me and my brothers and all our pals went there regular on saturday mornings
It burnt down completely a few years ago and was replaaced with houses
The Mosque you're thinking about used to be the Waldorf Picture House
Great memories
Jerry
 
Hi Jake
The Embassy was in Walford Road and was reputed to be the biggest roller rink in Europe, Me and my brothers and all our pals went there regular on saturday mornings
It burnt down completely a few years ago and was replaaced with houses
The Mosque you're thinking about used to be the Waldorf Picture House
Great memories
Jerry
 
There is another thread somewhere on the site with lots of memories of the Embassy Roller Skating Rink. Perhaps when Pom gets up she will give us a link.
 
i remember the embassy roller rink when all the big names of wrestling used to wressle there all the stars of time gone bye in the early fifties , and the number eight bus used to stop just at the very front door before they moved the bus stop back to the walford picture house , and that was when they turned the embassy into a roller rink . and the number eight no longer stopped at the very front door of the place the walford picture house changed to an asian picture house the old billard hall still stands i believe .
 
Stan handed out the skatess and also acted as a second at the wrestling.I used to sit in the front row with my Dad every week. Iwas given a kiss for i think my eleventh birthday by Kendo Nagasaki who always wrestled in a mask.Conrad Davies promoted the wrestling and some of the wrestlers played snooker with my Dad (he had a full size snooker table in the attic), we lived in one of those rambling houses in Walford Road. My husband was in the speed skating team and still has the scars and missing elbow to prove it! Amazing how three little words "Embassy roller rink take you back 40+ years
 
Memories of the Embassy Roller Rink

I came across this wonderful site by chance today!...................And guess what I was one of those mad, fast skaters at the "rink" I first went with a friend at age 11 and was hooked from then on! Every day I skated my heart out, Saturday morning, afternoon and evening you would find me there, the carnival nights with the loud music and races! The kids of today think they can skate! well not as well as us!!!!........we would then skate home on our wooden wheels much to our mother's dismay. I tasted my first bottle of ice cold Coke from the machine in the cafe, and we used to all go to a shop a few doors away and have dandelion & burdoch ice-cream floater, delicious! Does any one have any more memories of the rink? I often drift back there in my dreams...............such happy days!

Barbara Howells (nee Bennett)
 
rollerrinklass, yes I too have happy memories of the roller rink, one that comes to mind is that you used to tip the blokes that were giving out the skates, looking back I am not sure it made any difference.
I don't know the years you are talking about but do you remember Jeanette Arnott she used to skate for the roller rink team in the early fifties.
 
roller rink

Hi Darby
Cannot recall the name sorry, but I always was rubbish at names! I started skating in/around 1956, I remember the chaps used to tip the guys giving out the skates, they always reckoned they got a better set of wheels(with out the flat, worn out wooden wheels that made a humming noise!) But as you say whether they did or not? Do you remember Keith Hearne ? he worked in the skate shop, he is married to a very dear friend of mine. I still have scars on my knees from bad falls on that wooden floor! Best time of my life though!

Barbara Howells
 
My 'auntie', Madge Morris, was manageress of the Embassy Roller Rink in the 1940's. I used to go there with my Dad quite often and there was a lane on the outside for beginners or those not sure of themselves if I remember rightly. We always had a great time there - usually falling over!
 
rollerrinklad

Hi Barbara!!
Just discovered this site and saw your thread.I was also one of those mad, fast skaters started when i was age 13 or 14 and went day and night it was around 1958 till the day it closed. in the early 60's my friends and myself always gathered around the top left corner from the entrance under the big tall tower. I wonder if we ever bumped into each other on the rink, I was also one of the guys who was at the front or the back of the big chain we had in the free for all session.
Tony.
 
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Skated there as a teenager, have photographs of the place when Louis Armstrong and the All Stars played there in 1955. Also went there for the wrestling and that must have been late fifties early sixties?
 
For those who are interested here is a snap of the front entrance to the Embassy not long before it closed.

I have a couple more of some of the skaters and of the inside if anyone is interested.

Cheers,

pmc1947

SparkbrookEmbassyRink-1.jpg
 
roller rink

Hi pmc1947
And still the memories keep "rolling rink" in in! I would be interested in any photographs you or any one may have. All my memories of the Embassy rink are embedded in my brain never to be forgotten.

Thanks in anticipation!

Barbara Howells
rollerinklass:)
 
Embassy Rink 1958

Hi Tony
Yes I probably bumped into you a few times. I started skating I think around 1958 ish. I took to it like a fish, in fact I wish it had been a career that I could have taken, but in those days it wasn't an option. I loved the carnival nights, the racing especially. I do remember the dare devil lads who formed the line and the poor devil on the end often ended up in the barrier! hose were the days!

Barbara Howells
rollerrinklass:)
 
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Rollerrinklass

Sorry about the late reply, but I missed your answering post. These snaps were sent to me by a chap called Frederick on another website. He is in the group photo taken on the front steps of the Embassy Rink 5th from the left in the middle row

Cheers

Phil

Embassy Rink 1.jpg Embassy Rink 2.jpg Embassy Rink 3.jpg Embassy Rink 4.jpg
 
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Embassy photo's

Thanks so much pmc1947!
The photo's are hitting some long lost memories! I recall a couple of faces, I will email them across to a chap that used to work in the skate hire at the rink.

Rollerrinklass:yes:
 
:mdr: Oh happy days indeed, the words Embassy Roller rink conjures up so many happy memories for me!
My sister, 15 yeasr older than me was an acomplished ice skater and ballerina. she used to take me at a very early age to Spring Hill ice rink. When it became painfully obvious that i couldn't master the art of skating she took me to the Embassy. She brought me my first pair of skates and taught me how to rollerskate with a mop in one hand and a broom in t'other to give me confidence. I was very lucky at the time Mom and Dad were caretakers of a block of offices in Newhall St, so the long corridors were my playground. Soon I could whiz up and down like nobodys business. Back to the embassy now and I took to it like a duck to water.
As I grew a little older my friend Kathy and I would go to the rink on our own it was great I loved speeding around that rink proper tomboy I was. I was preparing to join the speed skating team when a young man grabbed me to be last in line on the famous chain!!!!!!! Boy I hit that barrier like I was going a hundred miles an hour. Dislocated shoulder, 2 cracked ribs and a broken ankle. My folks were not at all pleased! However they relented after a couple of months or maybe 3/4 ha ha and got me a pair of roller boots. Boy oh boy did I think I was the bees knees. Went there every Sat morning till it closed , well bar holidays.
Yes, indeed happy days despite all the breaks...... oh yes forgot to tell you broke my ankle/leg a couple more times after the barrier crash!
Then I got married and lived down Hockley I was like a pig in much when they reopened Spring Hill as a roller rink. OMG it was so plush no dust on the rink as it had underfloor vacumns, not like the dusty old Embassy and it was great to be skating again and now I had my two kids to teach too.
Happy days? You bet!:D
 
re-embassy roller rink

Hya all Do I remember the rink.Yes, I met my husband there when I was a sweet 16 year old ....
He worked there and I thought he was a big - head. He dressed like Buddy Holly and I found out later his sisters used to perm his hair for him.
He worked on the wrestling as well.
We have been married for over 48 years now. I was then a sweet 17 year old .... the day we got married we did not have a bed to sleep in.
His name is ROY SMITH and he lived in upper highgate street.
I have a picture of him taken in the rink. will have to sort it out.
 
Does any one remember me? Keith Hearne lived in Acocks Green, used yo visit the roller rink as often as possible. Every night and Saturdays, found out about this site from my wifes very dear friend. I was in the speed skating team, and roller hockey team, also worked in the skate shop, with stan when he needed a hand. Dates would be approx 1958 until I went into the army in 1962, when on leave I still found time for the roller rink. I remember Barbara and her crowd who stood in the corner, happiest memories on the whip, those were the days!!! Then worked when at the wrestling, when billy two rivers were there, told them when it was time for them to appear
 
hi keith hearne,

did you know Leon Goodchild died february last year at the age of 84, he had many a good joke didn't he. were you there when he skated the 100 mile none stop.
 
this photo was taken in 1960 a week befor we went on the continent to skate in four countries where we won every race a part from one which we raced in Ghent on a road up a hill round a pile of tyers down the hill round the tyers and back up the hill two of the lads fell over now that made a mess of everywhere :cry:. was anyone on here on that trip.

i am 5th from the left middle row fred ford dose the name ring a bell with anyone.
 
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