Burroughes & Watts, London

Founded in 1836, the firm, set up by Willian Burroughes in partnership with F Watts, became the most famous manufacturer of billiard tables, cues and accessories.

Using the latest innovations for billiard tables of rubber cushions and slate beds they were at the forefront from the beginning and were quickly recognised as a world-class manufacturers.

They helped pioneer the game of professional billiards and later professional snooker.

Continuing to innovate, they introduced vulcanised rubber for their cushions, which minimised the effect of temperature variations and their wooden framed tables made them popular in Ireland, where up until that point, the tables had iron frames. The opened branches in Dublin and Belfast as a result.

Receiving a Royal Warrant from Queen Victoria who was a keen billiards player and her son Edward, the Prince of Wales, the company went from strength-to-strength, eventually opening branches throughout the world, including India, China, Australia, New Zealand South Africa, Canada, Ceylon, Malaysia, Burma, Chile and the Canary Islands.

The modern game of snooker was born on a Burroughes and Watts table in the Indian hill station of ‘Ooty’ invented by Lieutenant Colonel Neville Chamberlain in 1883. The table still remains in the building that was then the Officers Mess,.

The company continued to innovate and develop tables, cues and other ‘cue’ sports accessories as well as a national chain of billiards halls, until the late 1960s when they were taken over and ‘asset stripped’ by selling their table servicing division and later their billiard halls to their great rivals E Riley & Co of Accrington.

The brand was subsequently resurrected in 1986 and after a few legal battles over the name, the company is now consolidated under the name of Burroughes & Watts and specialises in the restoration of antique tables, table servicing and repairs and valuations. They also offer cues and custom-made cues.