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The Britannia Music Hall, 113 to 117 Trongate, Glasgow

Also known as The Panopticon / Britannia Theatre of Varieties / Campbell's Music Saloon / Hubner’s Animatograph / Trongate Theatre / Tron Cinema

Glasgow Index

Above - The Britannia Music Hall, Glasgow in 2003 - Photo M.L.

The Britannia Music Hall, was built by Thomas Gildard and H. M. McFarlane on the site of an old warehouse and opened in 1857 as a Music Hall attached to a public house below. The Britannia is the oldest surviving Music Hall in Glasgow, and one of the few remaining true Music Hall buildings left in Britain. The Britannia was also one of the first Theatres in Glasgow to show silent films, in 1897.

Right - Programme Cover for the Britannia Theatre of Varieties - From the excellent Glasgow Story Website - Click to see the programme in detail.

In 1903 the Hall closed down for three years but then reopened on the 9th of July 1906 and was renamed the Britannia and Grand Panopticon when it was bought by A. E. Pickard. Pickard staged all manor of entertainments in the building until 1938, including Music Hall, Cinema (as the Tron Cinema in 1922), Waxworks, Freak Shows, and even a Zoo. And on Friday nights amateurs would try their luck at the Britannia, including a then unknown Stan Laurel who went on to become part of the famous comedy duo Laurel and Hardy.

Above - The interior of the Britannia Music Hall, Glasgow showing part of its horse-shoe shaped gallery and stage in 2004 - Courtesy Roger Fox.

The Theatre closed in 1938 and that could have been the end of it. The ground floor of the building was put to various uses over the next six decades but remarkably the higher floors were left deserted and forgotten until it was eventually rediscovered as one of Britain's last remaining Music Halls.

Since then there have been many attempts to raise funds for its renovation, including, sadly, a failed attempt in the BBC's excellent 'Restoration' programme. The exterior of the building remains relatively intact despite years of neglect and the interior of the old Music Hall is a restoration waiting to happen.

The Theatres Trust says of the Britannia Music Hall 'The Britannia is of outstanding importance as the only early ‘supper room’ style music hall now surviving in Scotland.... The Britannia is of such rarity and interest in a national context, that a full physical and documentary investigation needs now to be undertaken prior to a full restoration for some appropriate public use. At the very least, urgent repairs need to be put in hand to arrest further decay. See the whole article here.

You may also like to visit the Website of the Britannia Panopticon Music Hall Trust here. And there is also a website for the Britannia Trust & Friends here, and there are a number of events held each year at the Britannia too, the latest information for these can be found here.

Arthur Lloyd is known to have performed at the Britannia Music Hall in 1879 and 1894.

Below are some photographs of the exterior of the Britannia which I took on a visit to Glasgow in 2003.

Above - The exterior of the Britannia Music Hall, Glasgow in 2003 - Photo M.L.

Above - Side elevations of the Britannia Music Hall, Glasgow in 2003 - Photo M.L.

Above - Photographs of the exterior of the Britannia Music Hall in 2003 - Photos M.L.

If you have any more information of images for the Britannia that you are willing to share then please Contact me.