Palace Theatre

Located in the Gorbals district in the south of the city centre. The Palace Music Hall was built alongside Her Majesty’s Theatre and shared some of its frontage. It was designed by London-based architect Bertie Crewe for the Thomas Barrasford chain of music halls. Designed in a richly decorated East Indian-Moorish style, complete with plaster elephant heads. Seating for 1,821 was provided in stalls, pit, dress circle and upper circle, with four boxes on each side of the proscenium. The Palace Music Hall was opened on 4th March 1904. It was equipped with a projection box and short films were part of the variety programme. From 1914 it presented cine-variety. In 1930 it was equipped for talkies when a Western Electric(WE) sound system was installed and it became a full-time cinema, operated by Harry McKelvie. It was closed in 1962 and was converted into a bingo club, still operated by Harry McKelvie.

It was compulsory purchased by Glasgow City Council in 1975 and bingo continued for a while longer but eventually closed. The building was heritage Listed Grade B. But after years of bad maintenance the building was in a state of disrepair. Following a heavy rainstorm in October 1977 the highly decorated auditorium ceiling collapsed. Some of the unique plasterwork was saved and was installed in the adjacent Her Majesty'’s Theatre (now Citizens' Theatre) next door. The plaster fronts of a set of boxes were removed and installed in the Theatre Museum in London’s Covent Garden. The Palace Theatre was demolished in November 1977.

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