“Then and now” pictures of the Cleveland Hotel in Northgate, which building stands today still at the corner of Northgate and Brig Open. It was the place where the first Rugby Club in the Hartlepools was formed when the Hartlepool Foot Ball Club held its first meeting there in 1875 just after the end of the cricket season. However, Football may have been played in the town prior to that as at the 1890 AGM of Rovers,  Arthur Hill recalled playing "17 years ago" i.e. 1873, when the sides were 30 a side. 

A pic.  of the building today looking along Northgate with St Hilda’s in the background, today divided off into apartments.

A post card from the Robert Wood collection showing the existence of another Junior club, Empress Rovers, who took part in quite a Cup Saga to reach the Final of the Junior Cup.

Disputes between clubs were common at this time as happened during the 1901/1902 season the Empress’s Durham Junior Cup run; when they drew New Stranton Celtic, with the first meeting being abandoned due to poor light, 20 minutes early. The replay saw Empress home by 16-9, however Celtic protested and the game was ordered to be replayed.  Empress failed to show for this new date but at the 4^th attempt Empress came out on top by 3 – 0.

Empress Rovers then went on to eventually win the County Cup defeating Hetton Old Boys at Hollow Drift in Durham City by 6 pts to 3. Scant records of the club survive even the winning XV is elusive but in the semifinal (where they defeated West Hartlepool Nomads) the side was A N Other, H Daurge, T Stratford, A Frame, A Richardson, R Lindsay, T Walker, T Brogden, A Foggon, A Ryton, J Scott, W Gowan (Captain), H Randall H Havelock, T Whitecross, T Hardwood.

The Club name, besides reminding us of the Queen Empress of those times, Victoria, appears to have come from the Empress theatre better known as the Palladium in later years, which had changed its name to the Empress in 1899 and was near the Cleveland Hotel.   The building still stands at the corner of Brig Open and Northgate though nowadays it is converted to flats, there was also an Empress Hotel in Durham Street, Like so many of the Junior clubs of this era, they do not appear to have lasted long, the name next appears a few seasons later when a team of that name was playing Soccer.  The name also briefly appears at the end of the 1880s when another Empress Rovers was playing Rugby in the area!

The Cleveland Hotel, 67 Northgate, Hartlepool Headland. Closed in 1970.

A group of men on an outing from the Cleveland Hotel in 1958?

Hartlepool Mutual Marine Insurance Association, Ticket for Annual Dinner at the Cleveland Hotel in 1875.