 | |
 | |
| Location | Empire Way, Wembley, England |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 51°33′26″N0°17′05″W / 51.5572°N 0.2847°W |
| Capacity | 2,500 |
| Construction | |
| Broke ground | May 1973 |
| Opened | 31 January 1977 |
| Closed | 2006 |
| Demolished | September 2006 |
| Architect | R. Seifert and Partners |
| Tenants | |
| Benson & Hedges Masters (1979–2006) | |
Wembley Conference Centre was a conference centre in Wembley Park, London, England, that existed from 1977 to 2006, located next to Wembley Arena.
In the later 1970s, modern multi-purpose halls began opening in British towns and cities. The first was Wembley Conference Centre on Empire Way in Wembley Park, designed for the British Electric Traction Company by R. Seifert and Partners. Construction began in May 1973 and it was officially opened by the Duke of Kent on 31 January 1977. Its main auditorium (called the Grand Hall) could seat 2,500 people. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5]
The Conference Centre was part of a larger development. Next to it were the 7,770 square feet (722 m2) Greenwich Rooms and Elvin House, a futuristic triangular office block, [6] as well as the Wembley Exhibition Centre. Like the Conference Centre, the Exhibition Centre was part of a national trend for such venues. [7]
The addition of the Conference Centre and exhibition hall to the list of visitor attractions at Wembley Park led to Wembley Hill station being renamed Wembley Complex in May 1978. [8] It would retain this name until May 1987, when it was again renamed, this time as Wembley Stadium.
In preparation for a major redevelopment of both Wembley Stadium and the area immediately surrounding it, the conference centre building was demolished in September 2006. A mixed-use development called Quadrant Court was built in its place. [9]
An early event was the January 1977 Model Engineer Exhibition, which had previously been held at the Seymour Hall in Marylebone. [10] On 7 May 1977 the centre was the venue for the 1977 Eurovision Song Contest, where the United Kingdom came second. [11] On 18 October 1977 it hosted the first ever Brit Awards ceremony (then called the 1977 BPI awards). [12]
The centre was used for numerous conferences, trade events, exhibitions, corporate hospitality, annual general meetings, university graduation ceremonies, banquets, indoor sport popular music and dance competitions. It hosted the World Cup Disco Dance Championships in May 1987 won by Jeanette Doughty (Len Goodman Dance Centre) as reported in Dance News
A classical music concert by the National Youth Orchestra suggested the centre's acoustics were at best mediocre, in addition to which it was hard for classical music to attract large enough audiences to fill the Grand Hall. [1]
Between 1979 and 2006, the centre hosted the Benson & Hedges Masters snooker tournament. Other sports held there included boxing, wrestling, body building and darts. [13]
On 30 August 1995, the Centre hosted the first ever National Television Awards presented by Eamonn Holmes.[ citation needed ]
On 7 November 1999, it hosted the darts match between the reigning PDC World Champion Phil Taylor and the reigning BDO World Champion Raymond van Barneveld, with a 60-minute clock ticking down to zero and with a short break around the half-way stage. The match was broadcast on ITV. Taylor won the match 21–10 in legs.
It hosted three Ricky Hatton boxing matches where he was victorious. 21 October 2000, he defeated fellow Briton Jon Thaxton by unanimous decision, On 26 March 2001, he defeated Canadian Tony Pep with a fourth round TKO two and a half minutes in and on 15 December 2001, he defeated Australian Justin Rowsell with a second-round TKO with thirty six seconds to go.
During Live Aid on 13 July 1985, the conference centre and exhibition halls were used to provide dressing rooms for the performers. [14]
Between 10 July 2004 and 22 April 2006, it hosted ten Cage Rage mixed martial arts events.
| Cage Rage event | Date |
|---|---|
| Cage Rage 7 | 10 July 2004 |
| Cage Rage 8 | 11 September 2004 |
| Cage Rage 9 | 27 November 2004 |
| Cage Rage 10 | 26 February 2005 |
| Cage Rage 11 | 30 April 2005 |
| Cage Rage 12 | 2 July 2005 |
| Cage Rage 13 | 10 September 2005 |
| Cage Rage 14 | 3 December 2005 |
| Cage Rage 15 | 4 February 2006 |
| Cage Rage 16 | 22 April 2006 |
In 1979 the Conference Centre was considered sufficiently futuristic to stand in for a conference centre on the colonised planet Atlay in the BBC science fiction series Blake's 7 , in an episode called "Voice from the Past". [15]
The entrance to the conference centre was also used in Superman IV: The Quest for Peace.
The climax of The Professionals episode "The Madness of Mickey Hamilton" takes place inside the conference centre.
The former Wembley Stadium was a football stadium in Wembley, London, best known for hosting important football matches. It stood on the same site now occupied by its successor and by its predecessor, Watkin's Tower.
Utilita Arena Birmingham is an indoor arena and sporting venue in central Birmingham, England. It is owned by parent company the NEC Group. When it was opened in 1991, it was the largest indoor arena in the UK.
Wembley Arena (originally the Empire Pool, now known as OVO Arena Wembley for sponsorship reasons) is an indoor arena next to Wembley Stadium in Wembley, London, England. The 12,500-seat facility is London's second-largest indoor arena after the O2 Arena, and the ninth-largest in the United Kingdom.
The British Empire Exhibition was a colonial exhibition held at Wembley Park, London England from 23 April to 1 November 1924 and from 9 May to 31 October 1925.
The SEC Centre is Scotland's largest exhibition centre, located in Glasgow, Scotland. It is one of the three main venues within the Scottish Event Campus.
Wembley Park is a district of the London Borough of Brent, England. It is roughly centred on Bridge Road, a mile northeast of Wembley town centre and 7.6 miles (12 km) northwest from Charing Cross.
The London Arena was an indoor arena and exhibition centre in Millwall, close to the Cubitt Town area of Poplar, on the Isle of Dogs, in east London, England which was inaugurated in 1989 and demolished for housing in 2006.
Håkons Hall, sometimes anglicized as Håkon Hall and Haakons Hall, is an arena located at Stampesletta in Lillehammer, Norway. With a spectator capacity of 11,500 people, it is the largest handball and ice hockey venue in the country. Håkons Hall is regularly used for handball and ice hockey tournaments, concerts, exhibitions, conferences and banquets. The venue is owned by Lillehammer Municipality via the subsidiary Lillehammer Olympiapark, which owns all the Olympic venues in Lillehammer. The Norwegian Olympic Museum is located in the arena, which is located next to the smaller Eidsiva Arena.
Palasport Olimpico, officially operating with the sponsored name Inalpi Arena except during events prohibiting sponsorship names when it is usually known as simply PalaOlimpico, or occasionally PalaIsozaki after its architect, is a multi-purpose indoor arena located within Torino Olympic Park in the Santa Rita district of Turin, Italy. Opened in December 2005, the arena has a seating capacity of 12,350 when it is configured for ice hockey, and it is the largest indoor sporting arena in Italy.
The British Open Squash Championships is the oldest tournament in the game of squash. It is widely considered to be one of the two most prestigious tournaments in the game, alongside the World Squash Championships.
Rotterdam Ahoy is a multi-purpose complex with a convention centre and an indoor arena located in Rotterdam, Netherlands. Opened originally in 1950, the current complex consists of three main venues: a fairs and events hall, a congress and conference centre, and the main venue the Ahoy Arena. The latter opened on 15 January 1971 and is the largest multi-purpose venue in the Netherlands, with a capacity of 16,426 as of May 2019.
Veeraswamy is an Indian restaurant in London, located at 99-101 Regent Street. It was opened in 1926 by Edward Palmer, an Anglo-Indian retired British Indian Army officer, the grandson of an English general and an Indian princess. It is the oldest surviving Indian restaurant in the United Kingdom. In its early years, Veeraswamy served Anglo-Indian cuisine, but in recent decades, based on the popularity of authentic Indian food in the UK, has served a menu of regional Indian cuisine, including dishes from Punjab, Lucknow, Kashmir, and Goa. Edward Palmer used the name E. P. Veeraswamy for his food business and the book; Veeraswamy was his grandmother's family name. Initially it was spelled Veerasawmy, it became Veeraswamy because of a printing error.
The Braehead Arena is a multi-purpose arena in Renfrewshire, Scotland. The arena was built in 1996, and is located within the Braehead Complex. The arena was formerly the home of the Scottish Eagles ice hockey club and is now the home to the expansion Glasgow Clan ice hockey team of the Elite Ice Hockey League.
The Winter Gardens is a large entertainment complex in Blackpool, Lancashire, England, which includes a theatre, ballroom and conference facilities. Opened in 1878, it is a Grade II* listed building, operated by Blackpool Entertainment Company Limited on behalf of Blackpool Council, which purchased the property from Leisure Parcs Ltd as part of a £40 million deal in 2010.
Liverpool Arena, known for sponsorship reasons as the M&S Bank Arena and previously the Echo Arena, is a multi-purpose indoor arena in the city centre of Liverpool, England. The venue hosts live music, comedy performances and sporting events, and forms part of Liverpool event campus ACC Liverpool – an interconnected arena, exhibition and convention centre. The venue serves a regional population of 2.5 million people and over 6.6 million across England's North West.
The Heydar Aliyev Sports and Exhibition Complex is the main exhibition space of Baku, Azerbaijan. Named after the former President Heydar Aliyev), it is located on Tbilisi Avenue between Hyatt Hotel and Grand Hotel Europe. Since its opening in 1990, it held about 40 international competitions in different kinds of sports.
Sir Arthur Elvin was a British businessman who was best known as the owner and operator of Wembley Stadium, London, and supporter of the 1948 Olympic Games.
The Wembley Stadium Bowl and Starlight Restaurant was an entertainment and dining venue situated just west of the Empire Pool in Wembley Park, Wembley, north-west London.
The Canada Pavilion was the Dominion of Canada's display area at the 1924–25 British Empire Exhibition at Wembley Park, north-west London. Like most of the Exhibition's structures it was built of ferro-concrete and designed by John William Simpson and Maxwell Ayrton, assisted by Owen Williams. According to the Metropolitan Railway's British Empire Exhibition number of its Metro-Land guidebook, the Pavilion was "an imposing building in neo-Grec style."
The International Exhibition Centre in Kyiv is the largest exhibition centre in Ukraine. Located in the western portion of Livoberezhna microdistrict, the center was opened in October 2002, and the head of the center since its construction was Anatoly Tkachenko.
| Authority control databases: Geographic |
|---|
