Britannia Panopticon

Famed as the place where 16-year-old Stan Laurel made his debut, the Britannia Panopticon is the oldest surviving music hall in the world.

Converted from warehouse to music hall in 1857 and licensed in 1859, the Britannia Music Hall entertained Glasgow’s working classes for nearly 80 years. It began as the back room to a pub with comedy acts and dancing girls. By the time it closed in 1938 it had also accommodated cinema, carnival, freak show, wax works, zoo, art gallery and hall of mirrors and was latterly known as the Panopticon (meaning “to see everything”). Today the Britannia Panopticon Music Hall is an ongoing conservation project which was begun in 1997 and everything we do in the auditorium is to ensure the continuation of that project and the future of the music hall.