For St. Andrew's Day: Celebrating Glasgow's Britannia Panopticon Music Hall

travsd

Nov 30

For Scotland's National Day we celebrate a Glasgow venue that many claim is the oldest music hall in Great Britain, The Britannia Music Hall (also known in later years as The Panopticon or The Britannia Panopticon). It opened on Christmas Day, 1859. Others may dispute the distinction. As with all such claims, you can fudge it with various criterion because it comes down to what your definition of a music hall is. Variety shows have been produced in social halls, ballrooms, and pubs as well as dedicated theatres. If we call it one of Britain's music halls we'll be on solid ground.

Anyway I'd like to be able to claim that I learned about the place a long time ago through tireless, intrepid research but that's emphatically not how I roll. I'm sure I'd come across the name while reading about the many famous star who performed there, but in truth it didn't stick in my memory until I saw it as a location in Season Thirty Three (last season) of the Amazing Race! That's show biz.

This theatre is said to have been where Stan Laurel made his stage debut. Other performers who graced its stages include Dan Leno, Vesta Tilley, Bessie Bellwood, Jenny Hill, Harry Champion, Marie Loftus, Walford Bodie, Harry Lauder, and Jack Buchanan. There were exhibitions of boxing, motion pictures, contests, amateur nights. The configuration of the theatre has changed many times over the past century-plus (at one point it sat up to 1700). At various times the complex has included a dime museum with wax statues, and a zoo. Today there is an arcade on the ground floor, and there is an exhibition on the theatre's storied past, in addition to the venue itself, which continues to accommodate performances down to the present day.