Rochdale and District Reform Club. Drake Street Rochdale

THE EARL OF ROSEBURY AT ROCHDALE: OPENING OF THE REFORM CLUB - Lord Rosebury yesterday afternoon opened the new Reform Club at Rochdale, a handsome structure which Mr Alderman Duckworth has made over to the various Liberal organisations of the town and district. The purpose of Mr Duckworth’s gift - for it is in effect a gift, though some necessary conditions are attached to it - is to provide headquarters for Liberal work, and to assist in again placing Liberalism in Rochdale and the adjacent county divisions in a supreme position. With this object in view not only the club itself been housed in very comfortable and commodious premises, but rooms have been given free of rent to the Rochdale Reform Association, the Rochdale Women’s Liberal Association and the Middleton Division Registration Association. The new Reform Club was until recently an hotel, known as Duckworth’s Hotel, and the ground floor is still retained for café purposes. The three floors above have for some months past been in the hands of the builders, who under the direction of Messrs Butterworth and Duncan, architects, have established a clubhouse on which the Liberals of the town have good reason for priding themselves. On the first floor is the reading room, one of the chief apartments of the club. It is a large room, finely furnished, looking on the main street of the town, and on its tables are to be seen the leading newspapers and a good supply of magazines. On the same floor is the assembly room, which under pressure was made to accommodate yesterday afternoon about three hundred people. On the floor above are the dining and smoke rooms, the latter containing portraits of Mr Gladstone and Mr John Bright. Conversation rooms, card rooms, chess rooms, and the like are found on each of the two floors, as also on the upper floor, where is placed the billiard-room, furnished with two good tables. The billiard-room is fairly lofty, and has a gable roof. The entire premises are lighted by electricity. [Manchester Guardian 29 April 1896 Page 6]

At Rochdale, Duckworth's Hotel, in Drake-street, which has just been converted into a Reform Club, has been reopened. Messrs. Butterworth and Duncan, of Rochdale, were the architects, and the chief contractors were Messrs. J. and J. Coates, of the same town. [Building News 10 April 1896 page 526]

Reference    Manchester Guardian 29 April 1896 Page 6 – opening
Reference    Building News 10 April 1896 page 526