A popular venue for many people over many years.
Photo courtesy of Bruce Coleman.
Maison de Danse
Picture Stockton Archive
A Pictorial History of Stockton-on-Tees
A popular venue for many people over many years.
Photo courtesy of Bruce Coleman.
Picture Stockton Archive 
I’m a Masters student in southwest England and I’m in the process of writing a novel which is set during wartime in and around Middlesbrough – I was born there. My paternal grandfather worked for ICI during the war but has long since passed. I would have loved nothing more than to hear similar stories from him. Reading your stories of dancing during those times has been an absolute delight. What beautiful memories for you all. Thank you.
LikeLike
I used to go there in 1959 go in the front door get hand stamped and out the back down the alleyway to the Metropole Hotel for a few drinks, then back to the dance
I used to dance the Manhattan Spiritual with a girl name Maureen Hewitt we would meet under the balcony clock whenever that music was played beautiful memories I wonder where she is now?
LikeLike
I met my wife there in January 1957
and we have married 62 years this December
I lived in Norton and she was from Billingham
LikeLike
My mam Effie Cox danced there throughout the war the jive and jitterbug
LikeLike
Hi If anyone knew my mother Vivian Brown (married she was Vivian Williams) she sang at The Maison-De-Danse. I would love any photographs of her that anyone might have – or simply memories would be great too. She also sang with Jimmy Lipthorpe. Thank you so much
LikeLike
Ah yes, the Mayz’n, I remember it well. Packed to the gunwales on a Saturday night. Bee bopping strictly forbidden stated the notice. What a different world it was and in many ways a better one.
LikeLike
This had been the location of the Theatre Royal and after that burnt down, the Royal Rink (roller skating).
LikeLike
I think the roller skating rink was called the Carlton, I used to go there skating every Saturday afternoon when I was nine or ten years old.
LikeLike
There was a roller-skating rink in Norton too, opposite the cinema IIRC. I went there in the late 50s.
LikeLike
The only skating rink I remember was opposite the Moderne cinema & it was called the Carton.
LikeLike
The Roller skating rink was the Carlton next to the fish shop very handy because we used to dance at the Carlton before it was a rink and before that it was a Billiard Hall.
When it was converted to the dance hall it was mainly youngsters like me and we danced what was called “Old Fashioned” although the Policeman who ran it with his wife would put Modern Dance records on in the interval.
From there we progressed to the big boys dance halls, my particular stamping ground being the Palais and Jack O Boyle with his orchestra. The odd occasion at the Maison with Jack Marwood and his very good Orchestra.
I was a none smoker and when the Maison was crowded the low ceiling seemed to send the smoke from all those who did smoke all the time and everywhere back down round my head so I was not a constant visitor there.
Owing to a very convoluted story which saw me walk out of the Palais and end up in the Maison I met my wife, the Maison lives as a wonderful place because of that story.
I loved Dancing in all the Halls in Stockton and the outskirts. We had changed from the “Old Fashioned” dance to “Modern” then as the years passed the dancing round your hand bag era took over and the big halls we had known and loved became redundant. Now my lot who shunned the dancing Mum and Dad did are learning to do those dances, funny old world we live in.
Frank.
LikeLike
Just to the right of the picture would be the entrance to Holy Trinity school. I think the church spire is what you can see poking up in the background.
LikeLike
What was the name of the dance hall ,later roller skating rink opposite the Modern cinema in Norton. I can remember we used to go round the back and listen to the groups playing.n
LikeLike
Great photo. You can see the spire of Holy Trinity church behind (spire long gone, church is a shell now)
LikeLike
The Maison was on Yarm Lane near today’s roundabout, opposite the Garrick rather than the Brunswick. There’s a flat-roofed building there still with shops on ground floor and Room 21 above. Don’t know if any of original building is still there. Went back a long way, with a side door that band used to pop in to Jocker Brown’s pub in interval (was the Theatre, now renamed Jokers). My dad Ron Watson was drummer for Jack Marwood for many years, till it closed. As children, we used to love going in there, sliding on the polished floor and running round the balcony. We also went to the tea dances on Boxing Day afternoon, though we were much too young to join in.
LikeLike
Your Dad was a great Drummer. Often, during the Interval, he would give a sole performance to much applause. Have often mentioned ‘Ronnie on the Drums’ when reminiscing about the Maison in the 50’s.
LikeLike
Ah yes Pat! Dad and mam once took me and my sister to ‘Maison-de-Danse’ for a “tea-dance” in the mid- to late- fifties. I can still recall going round-and-around the dance floor with my little sister, plus noting small pits in the wooden floor from the passage of thousands of high heels… (This likely started a lifelong interest in the “strength of materials”… (Could such a dance have been held on a Boxing Day?)
LikeLike
I used to live in Yarm street.I once watch a crowd from the dance hall turn a police van on its side.
This was in 1951, they called the vans black morias in those days.
LikeLike
Black Marias
LikeLike
A police van on its side?
OH WOWWWEEE – fantastiche!!! (Gorrr: wish I’d been there…)
LikeLike
Yes there was lots of fights and drunken brawls outside our house in yarn street.
Once my mother opened the front door to find a man peeing up the door.
She was not amused.
LikeLike
Went there at the start of the sixties then the groups took over. If you wanted a drink we all went to the Metropole then into the Maison.
LikeLike
I had my first alcoholic drink in the Metropole I think it was Johnny Pine. I had my wedding reception also in the Metropole in 1959, 62yrs this year!
LikeLike
Spent many hours there in the fifties .
LikeLike
I lived in a flat over a dry cleaning shop on the other side of the road for a few years and it was a great source of entertainment to watch the fights at closing time.
LikeLike
Went there many times after a few pints in Jocko’s
On Mon, 18 Jan 2021, 10:45 Picture Stockton Archive, wrote:
> Picture Stockton Team posted: ” A popular venue for many people over many > years. Photo courtesy of Bruce Coleman. ” >
LikeLike
A great venue for us youngsters in the 50’s, no alcohol served just soft drinks! Many couples met there & married, not many lived together before getting wed in those days!
LikeLike
No alcohol in the 60s either. A friend and I used to go for a short while before I left home in early 1964. Sometimes we went to the Brunswick for a lager and lime & a cider respectively beforehand. We were only 16/17 but luckily looked older. Had to get the bus (19 or 74B) home to Billingham afterwards and never saw any fights.
LikeLike
went there in late 1950s
LikeLike
Where abouts was this?
LikeLike
Yarm Lane, on the corner opposite the Brunswick
LikeLiked by 1 person
No, Brunswick was further down IIRC. I remember it between the Theatre pub and Holy Trinity School.
LikeLike
I used to deliver groceries to Jack Marwood after he had retired.
He used to invite me in (he was always my last delivery) and play me ‘record’s’ of his performances – they were fantastic.
My Sister used to go to the Mason de Dance regularly and met her first husband there
LikeLike
Our Annual Christmas Dance for Stockton/Billingham Technical College was there in 1959 ish I felt so grown up because I was only allowed to go to the Butlins Youth Club on a Friday night which was at the back of the Cinema. It was a dance and great fun. I won a Bike in a competition they had. Great place to start your independence and afterwards we used to all go to the fish shop on Nelson Terrace for a bag of chips if we could afford it and sit on the wall outside to eat them. We were so good when I compare the kids these days.
LikeLike