17/08/2026
🎱 EARLSFIELD’S HISTORIC SNOOKER HALL
Tucked away at 569A Garratt Lane, beside St Andrew’s Church, is one of Earlsfield’s more unusual pieces of local history.
The building was once known as the Sylvan Billiards Hall, later becoming the Garratt Billiards Club and, more recently, the Earlsfield Snooker Club.
For generations it was part of local life — a proper old-school South London snooker hall hidden just off Garratt Lane.
🎱 And it had some famous connections.
Locals remember Jimmy “The Whirlwind” White playing there before he became one of the biggest names in world snooker.
White grew up just down the road in Tooting and spent much of his youth in South London snooker halls, often playing money matches around London with fellow Tooting player Tony Meo.
📺 Then came television.
In 1975, Garratt Billiards Club appeared in an episode of The Sweeney called Supersnout, with John Thaw’s Jack Regan entering the club to arrest Stickley.
A few years later it appeared on screen again in another classic British crime series, The Professionals, in the 1978 episode The Rack.
So this rather unassuming Earlsfield snooker hall found itself appearing in two of Britain’s best-known crime dramas.
🎸 And then came rock ’n’ roll.
The Garratt Lane club is also remembered locally as a filming location used for Pete Townshend’s 1980 solo track Rough Boys.
Townshend was, of course, guitarist and songwriter with The Who, giving this little corner of Earlsfield another unexpected link to British music history.
Not bad for a snooker hall tucked away behind Garratt Lane.
There was a wider billiards connection to the area too. In the early 1900s, Garratt Lane even had its own billiard-cue maker, James Henry Bailey, operating further along the road at No. 812.
🏗️ Then came redevelopment.
In 2023, an application was submitted to Wandsworth Council to redevelop the old snooker hall into six homes.
But the application was REFUSED.
Perhaps most interestingly, Wandsworth Council officially regarded the snooker hall as “social infrastructure” — effectively recognising it as part of the community fabric of the area — and said the loss of that use had not been properly justified.
The council also raised concerns about the impact a six-home development could have on neighbouring properties.
No appeal was lodged.
So the old hall survived that particular attempt at redevelopment and remains tucked away at 569A Garratt Lane today.
Which means behind one fairly ordinary-looking entrance sits a pretty extraordinary bit of Earlsfield history:
🎱 Sylvan Billiards Hall
🎱 Garratt Billiards Club
🎱 Earlsfield Snooker Club
🎱 Local memories of Jimmy White playing there
📺 The Sweeney
📺 The Professionals
🎸 Pete Townshend and Rough Boys
🏗️ And a six-home redevelopment that never happened
A little piece of Earlsfield history hiding in plain sight.
Does anyone remember playing there, seeing Jimmy White there, or have any old photos or stories from the club?
I’d love to see them — and I’m sure plenty of other Earlsfield locals would too.
