Community website backs positive ‘Paisley is…’ campaign
December 17, 2009Flyglobespan and Glasgow Airports future
December 19, 2009
Due to donations from some of our volunteers and with much kindness we thought we would help out an other organisation and setup hosting and purchase a domain name for them and build it into a website.
In its heyday Paisley was full of cinemas and entertainment venues.
People look back with fond memories at The Astortia, The Picturehouse, The New Alex, La Scala, The Alex, The Regal, The Kelbourne and The Glen.
Today they’re all gone. Demolished, converted into retail units or Bingo Halls. If a Paisley buddy wants to catch a movie these days they have to travel to Linwood to a retail park. The whole of Britain was horror-struck on Hogmanay 1929 to learn of the dreadful cinema catastrophe in Paisley that afternoon, in which 70 children lost their lives and over 40 were injured.
About 1000 boys and girls, mostly from working-class homes, were witnessing a matinee performance at The Glen Cinema, when dense clouds of smoke, caused by a film which had started to smoulder in the spool-room, were swept into the cinema. The cry of “Fire” was raised, and the children stampeded in a panic to the back entrance. This was closed, and in the frantic struggle which ensued many children were trampled and others were suffocated by the fumes. In 2003 a project was created to commemorate the terrible tragedy of the Glen
Cinema. 2004 is the 75th Anniversary of the disaster and a new exhibition telling an accurate story of events that day. The exhibition pays tribute to the survivors, many of whom are still here today to tell the tale. The Paisley Development Association, in partnership with Fablevision and Renfrewshire CVS secured funding and a community led cultural project was created. The project was split into four sections: A mini excavation of the Glen Cinema Building Coordination of a new Artist in Residence Programme A survivor’s archive project The creation of a new exciting exhibition
Due to our efforts as a group we were able to help an organisation get going from nothing and join the ranks of other Paisley websites which aim to promote the town and also help people learn the lesson of this tragic disaster killing so many young life’s and changing others for ever.
Any donation that goes into the website and if we see an organisation that can be helped then we would be more than happy to help out.
Feel free to visit the new www.glencinema.co.uk website (formerly .org.uk)
