Which halls had a balcony view and how did it compare to a ground level view?

In more recent times the traditional Boxing venue York Hall in Bethnal Green has a excellent balcony with tired seating which means there is not a bad seat in the house. On occasions wrestlers have used the balcony to jump and catapult the other wrestler through a table!

Morecambe Winter Gardens had a balcony, one of its boxes directly overlooking the ring, which was situated next to the stage. It used to be occupied sometimes by two vociferous elderly ladies. I recall Roy St Clare v Lee Sharon in an opening bout and Sharon getting so fed up with the booing and noise that he looked up and shouted “Shaddup you old bags”. That silenced them.

The Granada Tooting had a balcony.

So did the White Rock in Hastings.

Hastings Pier had a very odd straight balcony a long way from the ring.

All balconies were quite impractical for anyone obsessed with collecting autographs ....

As for the raffle, it would take ages with about ten prizes and each time Charlie Fisher saying "Another winner on the shelf" and each time we all had to wait for them to make their way downstairs to the ring. By this time Charlie would have moved on to another ticket "to save time", but when the winner from "the shelf" finally appeared, he'd get in a terrible out-of-sync muddle about who had won what and there would be laborious back-tracking through the previous winners.

Hilarious happy days!

Wolves Civic Hall had a balcony. Sometimes the wrestlers gathered to watch a particular contest. It was always well worthwhile to overhear comments about particular wrestlers and also the colourful language

It depended on the hall. There were three halls I remember sitting in the balcony. The Queens Hall (Baths) in Preston only had two or three rows and was poor with little atmosphere. At Preston Public Hall the ring was towards one end of the hall and the balcony curved around. A front or second row seat on the curve gave a great view with good atmosphere. The best was Digbeth Civic Hall where balcony seats gave a sense of being very close to the wrestlers.

St James Hall had balconies on 3 sides of the ring. The fourth side held a little announcer's box.

When I first started going I could only afford the balcony seats ,if any at all. The view was good, but of course you didn't feel right in the action like a ringside seat.

Downstairs at the back of the arena but away from the ring were mid price seats,but I only went there when I got in free. Further away from the action than the balconies.