Belle Vue Zoological Gardens - Kings Hall

Kings Hall

The Kings Hall, opened in 1910, was a converted tea room, enlarged in 1928 and reconstructed as a "saucer like arena" capable of seating 7,000 people. The name "Kings" was chosen in reference to the two kings who reigned during the six-week period of the Hall's construction: George V and Edward VII. The Hall was designed to stage "Demonstrations, Exhibitions, Social Gatherings, etc", and was a popular concert venue until the 1970s, with appearances by artists such Jimi Hendrix, the Who, the Rolling Stones, and Led Zeppelin. The Kings Hall became home to the Hallé Orchestra in 1942, when their previous base, the Free Trade Hall, was damaged by bombing during the Manchester Blitz; the orchestra continued to perform concerts in Belle Vue for more than 30 years. The last piece of live music heard in the Hall, on 14 February 1982, was played by the Glossop School Band, who were taking part in the North West Amateur Brass Band Championship.

From 1961 until 1966, bingo sessions were held in the hall. Able to accommodate up to 3,500 players, it was advertised as the "largest bingo club in the world". Many exhibitions were also held in the hall, which with its 100,000 square feet (9,300 m2) of floor space was one of the largest venues outside London. It was split into three separate halls in 1956, to allow three exhibitions to be run simultaneously.

The final event staged in the Kings Hall was the North West Amateur Brass Band Championship, on 14 February 1982, in front of a crowd of 1,700. The Hall had been sold 18 months earlier to a development company, Espley Tyas Development Group, and was by then scheduled for demolition to allow the site to be redeveloped. News of the sale had triggered the formation of local action groups, who organised a petition signed by 50,000 people in an unsuccessful effort to save the Hall. The exhibition halls were sold to Mullet Ltd. in 1983, but competition from the newly opened the G-Mex exhibition and conference centre in central Manchester led directly to their closure. The site was sold to the British Car Auction Group in 1987, and the buildings demolished to make way for a large car auction centre.