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The Arches (Glasgow)

1991 establishments in Scotland2015 disestablishments in ScotlandArts organisations based in ScotlandDefunct nightclubs in the United KingdomElectronic dance music venues
Music venues in GlasgowNightclubs in GlasgowTheatres in GlasgowUse British English from January 2013
The Arches Glasgow 22
The Arches Glasgow 22

The Arches was a bar, arts venue, theatre, live music venue and nightclub in Glasgow, Scotland, which first opened in 1991. It was a not-for-profit organisation, and was situated in the City Centre under Glasgow Central station and the West Coast Main Line in the brick arches of the viaduct leading into the station, with entrances on Midland Street, and (since 2001) an entrance underneath Hielanman's Umbrella on Argyle Street. The venue had 7,800 square metres (84,000 sq ft) of floor space which was spread over two floors and seven arches. In June 2015, The Arches announced on their website that the company would go into administration and had no choice but to close down the facility, after its licensing hours had been curtailed.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article The Arches (Glasgow) (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

The Arches (Glasgow)
Steps & Lift between road & platform levels, Glasgow Blythswood Holm

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N 55.859166666667 ° E -4.2583333333333 °
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Steps & Lift between road & platform levels
G2 6AA Glasgow, Blythswood Holm
Scotland, United Kingdom
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The Arches Glasgow 22
The Arches Glasgow 22
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Glasgow International Comedy Festival

Glasgow International Comedy Festival is a comedy festival in Glasgow, Scotland. The comedy festival started in 2002 and is held annually in March in venues across the city. The festival is supported financially by Glasgow City Council and since 2018 has been sponsored by whisky manufacturer Whyte & Mackay. The festival is billed as the largest of its type in Europe and often has acts from all over the world perform during the festival.In 2019 the European Commission named Glasgow as the top cultural and creative city in the United Kingdom. The report citied the Comedy Festival alongside other cultural events as being integral to this status. The festival is recognised for playing host to a number of high-profile comedians alongside providing a platform for new acts.In 2014 the festival arranged for a comedy gig to be held on a Virgin Trains West Coast train service between London and Glasgow. Eight comedians including Patrick Monahan performed aboard a 'comedy carriage' of an afternoon service. In the same year a number of comedians used the background of the 2014 Scottish independence referendum as the focus of their material.Comedy performances linked to charity fundraising have also been a common occurrence during the years of the festival. Most notably Kevin Bridges headlined an event to raise funds for MND Scotland in memory of campaigner Gordon Aikman raising £25,000.The festival organisers have aimed to widen the appeal of the festival to new audiences through accessibility improvements in recent years. In 2017 the festival hosted a show delivered in British sign language, understood to be the first of its kind in the UK and in 2020 a dementia friendly comedy gig will be held in the city's west end.

Alhambra Theatre Glasgow
Alhambra Theatre Glasgow

The Alhambra Theatre, Glasgow opened on 19 December 1910 at the corner of Waterloo Street and Wellington Street, Glasgow under the direction of Sir Alfred Butt and was acknowledged as one of the best equipped theatres in Britain, planned to accommodate 2,800 people.The theatre was designed by architect, Sir John James Burnet. It was built on the site of the popular Waterloo Rooms, which had previously been Wellington Street Church. The name derives from association with the Moorish palace in Granada, and was styled in "a cubic design with a colonnade of deep eaves, topped with twin oriental domes. Its exterior was red brick banded with black and panels of white-glazed tile towards the top. Inside were canopies with sparing Louis XVI decoration." .It was always regarded as a modern theatre and one of the No 1 theatres, known also as A1 theatres, of which by the 1960s there were only 14 remaining in Britain. Throughout most of its life the theatre was owned by Glasgow Alhambra Ltd. In the 1920s it formed an association with Moss Empires who bought 20% of the company shareholding.The Alhambra opened with Yvonne Guilbert from France and specialised in variety, including artistes from America, Australia and Continental Europe. Pantomimes began, using the Wylie-Tate production company. Scottish performers included Harry Lauder, Will Fyffe, Alec Finlay and Harry Gordon; revues and musical plays were added, featuring Cicely Courtneidge, Jack Buchanan, Evelyn Laye, Jessie Matthews and Ivor Novello; and also opera, ballet and dance. In 1941 it was the debut theatre of the International Ballet newly formed by Mona Inglesby.The Alhambra presented variety, ballet, opera, musicals, revues, plays and pantomime; significantly after a major extension in 1927 of the stage and increase in dressing rooms, all with showers, many of its musicals were the British premieres of musicals from America.From 1941, the new Wilson Barrett Repertory Company, not the 19c company, made the Alhambra their largest base in Scotland. In its 14 years of staging plays over 12 weeks each summer, the company produced over 450 plays.The theatre became a part of the Howard & Wyndham Ltd theatre company, in 1953, which purchased the theatre after selling its Theatre Royal, to Roy Thomson, founder of Scottish Television. The theatre had a revolving stage, and from 1961 the stage was doubled in size to become the Starlight Room for the summer season Five Past Eight shows.Shows now included the fabulous Half Past Eight summer shows, later named Five-Past Eight produced by Dick Hurran and the Wish for Jamie pantomimes produced by Freddie Carpenter. These shows included : Rikki Fulton, Jimmy Logan, Stanley Baxter, Fay Lenore, Eve Boswell, Kenneth McKellar, David Hughes, Max Bygraves and Frankie Vaughan. The Bluebell Girls of Paris, based at Le Lido, made their debut in Britain, over two summers, in the Alhambra in 1962 and 1963.The theatre had the distinction of staging Scotland's first Royal Variety Performance on 3 July 1958 attended by Queen Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburgh, and the second in 1963. Likewise the Scottish première of My Fair Lady in May 1964. Glasgow Scouts performed their first Gang Show here in 1936; and Marlene Dietrich performed her Farewell at the Alhambra from 7–11 November 1966. The theatre continued to be well attended but the company were selling off their theatres, and after the final show by Cilla Black on 24 May 1969, the theatre closed. It was demolished in 1971. The site is now occupied by an office block, Alhambra House.