Grand Central Hall is a Grade II listed building located in Liverpool

Liverpool

Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

. It is a former Methodist

Methodist Church of Great Britain

The Methodist Church of Great Britain is the largest Wesleyan Methodist body in the United Kingdom, with congregations across Great Britain . It is the United Kingdom's fourth largest Christian denomination, with around 300,000 members and 6,000 churches...

 church that is now used as accommodation for many alternative

Alternative lifestyle

An alternative lifestyle is a lifestyle generally perceived to be outside the cultural norm. Usually, but not always, it implies an affinity or identification within some matching subculture...

 shops of the type formerly based at Quiggins

Quiggins

Quiggins was home to many small 'alternative' stores that were housed within three linked adjacent warehouse buildings on a site between School Lane, Peters Lane and College Lane in the city centre of Liverpool, UK...

, Liverpool.

History

Grand Central Hall was opened in 1905 as the Central Hall of the Liverpool Wesleyan

Methodist Church of Great Britain

The Methodist Church of Great Britain is the largest Wesleyan Methodist body in the United Kingdom, with congregations across Great Britain . It is the United Kingdom's fourth largest Christian denomination, with around 300,000 members and 6,000 churches...

 Mission

Mission (Christian)

Christian missionary activities often involve sending individuals and groups , to foreign countries and to places in their own homeland. This has frequently involved not only evangelization , but also humanitarian work, especially among the poor and disadvantaged...

, replacing a former mission and Wesleyan chapel

Chapel

A chapel is a building used by Christians as a place of fellowship and worship. It may be part of a larger structure or complex, such as a church, college, hospital, palace, prison or funeral home, located on board a military or commercial ship, or it may be an entirely free-standing building,...

 dating from 1790. Built to a design by Bradshaw and Gass

Bradshaw Gass & Hope

Bradshaw Gass & Hope is an English firm of architects founded in 1862 by Jonas James Bradshaw . The style "Bradshaw Gass & Hope" was adopted after J. J...

 of Bolton

Bolton

Bolton is a town in Greater Manchester, in the North West of England. Close to the West Pennine Moors, it is north west of the city of Manchester. Bolton is surrounded by several smaller towns and villages which together form the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton, of which Bolton is the...

, the new building had a capacity of 3576 people, and was also used from its opening until at least 1944 as the New Century Picture Hall cinema

Movie theater

A movie theater, cinema, movie house, picture theater, film theater is a venue, usually a building, for viewing motion pictures ....

. From 1933 to 1939 the hall was the home of the Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra

Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra

The Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Society is a society based in Liverpool, Merseyside, England, that organises concerts and other events mainly in the field of classical music. The society is the second oldest of its type in the United Kingdom and its orchestra, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic...

 while the Philharmonic Hall was rebuilt following a fire.

In 1990 the Methodists sold Central Hall. Major restoration work was undertaken in 1997/98 and from November 1998 to around 2000 or 2001 the building became the Barcelona bar

Bar (establishment)

A bar is a business establishment that serves alcoholic drinks — beer, wine, liquor, and cocktails — for consumption on the premises.Bars provide stools or chairs that are placed at tables or counters for their patrons. Some bars have entertainment on a stage, such as a live band, comedians, go-go...

 and nightclub

Nightclub

A nightclub is an entertainment venue which usually operates late into the night...

.

Current Use

After the closure of the Quiggins

Quiggins

Quiggins was home to many small 'alternative' stores that were housed within three linked adjacent warehouse buildings on a site between School Lane, Peters Lane and College Lane in the city centre of Liverpool, UK...

 Centre on School Lane in 2006, a dozen of the 30 plus traders relocated to the Grand Central Hall whilst others moved on to and around Bold Street

Bold Street, Liverpool

Bold Street is a street in Liverpool, England. It is known for its cafés and for the Church of St Luke, which is situated at the top end. The bottom end leads into the area surrounding Clayton Square, which is part of the main retail district of central Liverpool. The bottom end contains more...

or dissolved themselves. In early 2007, Roscoe Hall on the first floor opened with many new and diverse shops. In October 2011 a performance area opened in the Domed area.