whaurs yer Glen Cinema noo?

Facelift for old music hall in £1.2m revamp

THE Glasgow theatre credited with discovering Stan Laurel is to get a £630,000 facelift.
The revamp of the Britannia Panopticon Music Hall is part of a £1.2million investment by Scottish Enterprise Glasgow in the Merchant City.

The A-listed Trongate theatre is where comic Stan Laurel made his stage debut in 1906 and where Hollywood legend Cary Grant performed in 1920 as acrobat Archie Leach.
And it was the only Glasgow building to be featured in BBC2s Restoration series in 2003.
This is the latest project in the drive to turn the Merchant City into a cultural hub and thriving cafe scene.
SE Glasgow's operations director Stuart Patrick said: "If we are serious about creating a thriving cultural quarter then conserving the outlook of the finest surviving example of a Victorian music hall in the country must be on our list."
The £1.2m is going to the Townscape Heritage Initiative - a joint venture between SE Glasgow, city council and Heritage Lottery.
The £630,000 slice will help restore the exterior and shop frontage of the former theatre.
There are talks with owner Bradley Mitchell about bringing the upper floors back into use.
Merchant City councillor Gordon Matheson welcomed the new cash.
He said: "I warmly welcome this latest investment by SE Glasgow."

Evening Times Publication date 31/08/06

Hi Folks,

I might be wrong but I am sure that there is a group in Paisley that is campaigning to have the Glen Cinema converted from a furniture shop back into a cinematic resource centre similar to the story above. Aparently there was quite a big splash about it 2 years ago during the 75th anniversary of the disaster at the cinema.

But all that happened was the the provost got his face on telly and the memorial at the cemetry got a much needed face lift.

I am informed that the group got no further with the council on the project other than being allowed to have the provost lead the memorial procession through the town to the Abbey.

What we need in the town, apart from ripping down the Piazza, is a centre for the cinematic arts, this would create an inflow of people to visit it thereby bringing in further investment to Paisley.

What is a centre for the cinematic arts? I hear you ask, its a U.S.P. that means a Unique Selling Point. Something different that we would have that no other town in Scotland would have. Dundee is the city of Discovery, you know why, because they have the boat called that, there. sounds good eh?

Read the article again.....cultural hub and thriving cafe scene.... "If we are serious about creating a thriving cultural quarter then conserving the outlook of the finest surviving example of a Victorian music hall in the country must be on our list." ...... Ring any bells? now read the bit I did earlier about the Vision board.

Vison my Butt!!!

For over two years the Glen Cinema has been in national focus, has the "Vision Board" seen fit to look into the possiblity? Not a bloody dickie bird.

I am reliably informed that several approaches were made to the board and various members of the council and even our parlimentary representatives were asked to promote this unique part of our town.

Ask your local representative, what are you lot thinking about? Tell them in no uncertain terms do something or you will not be elected again.

Tell them you mean it.