Britannia Panopticon, Glasgow

Last night, our church Men's Group visited the Britannia Panopticon in Glasgow city centre. We had an excellent talk from the curator of "the world's oldest surviving music hall" and discovered a building that few, including myself until last night, don't know exists.

Founded in 1857 the Panopticon closed in 1938 but, remarkably, the building was never demolished and last changed hands in 1997 when the current owner set about making it wind- and water-tight and restoring it to something of its former glory.

The talk gave us a marvellous insight into the history of the Panopticon, including some of the people who performed in the music hall in its heyday: Marie Lloyd, Harry Lauder, an acrobat and contortionist called Archibald Leach, who later went to Hollywood and became better known as Cary Grant, and a sixteen-year-old lad called Arthur Stanley Jefferson making his stage debut and who would later find fame as Stan Laurel, one half of Laurel and Hardy.

The Britannia Panopticon was a real treasure-trove of artefacts and I found this particular setting among the objects on display rather amusing.