This is the former ABC cinema on Sauchiehall Street in Glasgow. It has a beautiful Art Deco facade designed in 1929 by Charles McNair, but it has a facinating and unique history going back a lot further. It started life as a Diorama in 1875, offering the Victorian equivalent of a virtual reality experience, before becoming an ice-skating palace in 1885, the home to a circus in 1904 and then a dance hall in 1927.
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In 1896, while still an ice rink, it was the first place in Glasgow, a city which would go on to have more cinemas per head of population than anywhere in the world, where a film was publicly shown. This was made possible because, in 1888, it was also one of the first buildings in Glasgow fitted with electricity. Once the cinema closed, it became a legendary music venue and featured the largest mirror ball in Europe.
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Unfortunately, it was badly damaged in a fire in 2018, ending almost 150 years as an entertainment venue. The then owners presumably got an insurance pay out for this, but rather than try to rebuilt it, it has been left to decay in its fire damaged state for the last six years. Now a developer wants to demolish it and replace it with a generic-looking, non-descript student housing development.
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#glasgow #architecture #glasgowbuildings #abccinema #02abc #urbandevelopment
This is a building which has been at the heart of Glasgow's entertainment industry for more more than a century, and which is filled with social history. It's crying out not just to be saved, but to be re-built and be conserved for generations to come. As a city, do we really care so little about buildings like this, and the history which they embody, that we are prepared to stand by and let developers bulldoze it?
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After all, once it's gone, it's gone forever, and when that happens its unique history, and its contribution to the lives of generations of Glaswegians, will also be lost forever.
#glasgow #architecture #glasgowbuildings #abccinema #02abc #urbandevelopment
I'd still love to see the watercolour!
It breaks my heart that this building's fate looks so grim. It has so many memories for me and for so many people who lived and played in Glasgow.
This Is My Glasgow
Fraser Smith 🏴
readyStateFail