The O₂ Apollo Manchester (known locally as The Apollo and formerly Manchester Apollo) is a concert venue in

Ardwick Green Ardwick Green is a public space in Ardwick, Manchester, England. It began as a private park for the residents of houses surrounding it before Manchester acquired it in 1867 and turned it into a public park with an ornamental pond and a bandstand ...

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. It is a Grade II

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

, with a capacity of 3,500 (2,514 standing, 986 seats).

History

The building was designed by architects Peter Cummings, Alex Irvine, and R. Gillespie Williams, in an

Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unite ...

style. The building’s frontage consists of a glazed white terracotta

façade A façade () (also written facade) is generally the front part or exterior of a building. It is a Loanword, loan word from the French language, French (), which means 'frontage' or 'face'. In architecture, the façade of a building is often t ...

. Its original purpose was as a multi-purpose cinema and variety hall and was opened by actress

Margaret Lockwood Margaret Mary Day Lockwood, CBE (15 September 1916 – 15 July 1990), was an English actress. One of Britain's most popular film stars of the 1930s and 1940s, her film appearances included ''The Lady Vanishes'' (1938), ''Night Train to Munich' ...

. In the 1970s, it stopped presenting films and became solely a concert venue. It also hosts seated events to a capacity of 2,693. Split into two levels, the upstairs contains permanently fitted seating, whereas the larger downstairs can be altered to suit the event; both levels view a single concert stage. The venue has no air-conditioning except in the "Whiteroom" hospitality area. The venue hosts a large number of

popular music Popular music is music with wide appeal that is typically distributed to large audiences through the music industry. These forms and styles can be enjoyed and performed by people with little or no musical training.Popular Music. (2015). ''Fun ...

-based concerts and other events throughout the year. Concert management and advertisement is handled by

Live Nation Live Nation Entertainment, Inc. is an American global entertainment company and monopoly that was founded in 2010 following the merger of Live Nation and Ticketmaster. The company promotes, operates, and manages ticket sales for live entertainme ...

, merchandise is sold by the permanent resident concession company CMI Ltd, and

first aid First aid is the first and immediate assistance given to any person with either a minor or serious illness or injury, with care provided to preserve life, prevent the condition from worsening, or to promote recovery. It includes initial in ...

cover for all events is provided by St. John Ambulance. In September 2010, the venue was rebranded as the O₂ Apollo Manchester.

References

;Notes ;Bibliography *

External links

* {{Authority control 1938 establishments in England Buildings and structures completed in 1938 Former cinemas in Manchester Music venues in Manchester Art Deco architecture in England Wrestling venues

History

See also

References

External links