Edinburgh pool hall owner tells locals ‘we’re still open’ following Jock’s Lodge demolition
The owner of Edinburgh’s largest pool hall has moved to reassure the community his business was not knocked down during the Jock’s Lodge development after rumours began circulating online.
The Ball Room, at 25 Jock’s Lodge, has been a popular snooker and pool hall for the last two decades, but the family-run business has seen a drop in footfall in the last week after its neighbouring buildings were demolished.
The Ball Room owner, Gennaro Cortellessa, has received numerous enquiries as to whether the pool hall is still open, and now wants to quash rumours that they have closed as part of the student housing development.
Gennaro said: “People are just assuming that our building has been demolished as well. After videos of the demolition site appeared on social media I even saw comments of people saying "oh, I used to play pool there, it's such a shame’.
“People are calling in daily checking to see if we’re still open because they have heard our building had been knocked down. We’ve also had customers who pay for annual loyalty cards calling in and ask what’s going on - so we're having to make people aware that we're staying.
“The Murrayfield Sports Bar in Gorgie was also demolished recently to build student accommodation so I think people are seeing these stories online and just putting two and two together.
“When the works started we definitely felt it, and footfall dropped instantly so this isn’t what we need and we're not happy that people think we’ve been knocked down.”
The former Jock’s Lodge pub, more recently known as The Willow, was demolished to make way for a 191-student bed student accommodation block towards the end of last month. Several other buildings have since been taken down, including The Ball Room’s neighbouring building the Limelite bar. And with the pavement outside now narrower due to the building works, Gennaro wants to remind customers the business is ‘still part of the community’.
Gennaro said: “My family bought this place in 2001, but it’s been a snooker and pool hall since the 1970s. And over the last 25 years a lot of pool halls in this area have closed - there used to be the Leith State Snooker Club on Great Junction Street, pool halls on Leith Walk and Easter Road, and one in Portobello.
“Since they’ve closed, all those players have merged have come to us, so we cover the whole of the Leith and north Edinburgh area.
“We’ve got 12 snooker tables, which is the most in Edinburgh, 11 American pool tables, 13 British tables and 13 dartboards. When people drive past it I don’t think they realise just how big this place is – it’s an 18,000 square feet unit.
“We have customers from all walks of life, from pensioners coming for their weekly meetup all the way to families with young kids - everyone's welcome. We've been part of the community for 25 years now and we are still part of the community so we just don't want people to assume we're not here anymore.”
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