Wembley Conference Centre was a

conference centre A convention center (American English; or conference centre in British English) is a large building that is designed to hold a convention, where individuals and groups gather to promote and share common interests. Convention centers typica ...

Wembley Park 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 northwest from Charing Cross. The name Wembley Park refers to the area that, at its broade ...

, London, England, that existed from 1977 to 2006, located next to

Wembley Arena 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, used for music, comedy, family entertainment and sport. The 12,500-sea ...

History

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

, designed for the

British Electric Traction Company British Electric Traction Company Limited, renamed BET plc in 1985, was a large British industrial conglomerate. It was once a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index but was acquired by Rentokil in 1996, and the merged company is now known as Rentok ...

by R. Seifert and Partners. Construction began in May 1973 and it was officially opened by the

Duke of Kent Duke of Kent is a title that has been created several times in the peerages of Great Britain and the United Kingdom, most recently as a royal dukedom for the fourth son of King George V. Since 1942, the title has been held by Prince Edwar ...

on 31 January 1977. Its main auditorium (called the Grand Hall) could seat 2,500 people. The Conference Centre was part of a larger development. Next to it were the Greenwich Rooms and Elvin House, a futuristic triangular office block, as well as the Wembley Exhibition Centre. Like the Conference Centre, the Exhibition Centre was part of a national trend for such venues. 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. 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.

Events

An early event was the January 1977 Model Engineer Exhibition, which had previously been held at the Seymour Hall in

Marylebone Marylebone (usually , also , ) is a district in the West End of London, in the City of Westminster. Oxford Street, Europe's busiest shopping street, forms its southern boundary. An Civil parish#Ancient parishes, ancient parish and latterly a ...

. On 7 May 1977 the centre was the venue for the 1977 Eurovision Song Contest, where the United Kingdom came second. On 18 October 1977 it hosted the first ever

Brit Awards The BRIT Awards (often simply called the BRITs) are the British Phonographic Industry's annual popular music awards. The name was originally a shortened form of "British", "Britain", or "Britannia" (in the early days the awards were sponsored ...

ceremony (then called the 1977 BPI awards). 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 10 Dance Champions This page lists the official World Champions and the countries they represented in the Professional 10-Dance of the World Dance Council (WDC). The championships are authorized and organized under the auspices of the WDC. The first World 10 Dance Ch ...

hip in May 1987 won by Jeanette Doughty (Len Goodman Dance Centre) 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. Between 1979 and 2006, the centre hosted the Benson & Hedges Masters

snooker Snooker (pronounced , ) is a cue sports, cue sport played on a Billiard table#Snooker and English billiards tables, rectangular table covered with a green cloth called baize, with six Billiard table#Pockets 2, pockets, one at each corner and o ...

tournament. Other sports held there included

boxing Boxing (also known as "Western boxing" or "pugilism") is a combat sport in which two people, usually wearing protective gloves and other protective equipment such as hand wraps and mouthguards, throw punches at each other for a predetermined ...

wrestling Wrestling is a series of combat sports involving grappling-type techniques such as clinch fighting, throws and takedowns, joint locks, pins and other grappling holds. Wrestling techniques have been incorporated into martial arts, combat ...

body building Bodybuilding is the use of progressive resistance exercise to control and develop one's muscles (muscle building) by muscle hypertrophy for aesthetic purposes. It is distinct from similar activities such as powerlifting because it focuses o ...

and

darts Darts or dart-throwing is a competitive sport in which two or more players bare-handedly throw small projectile point, sharp-pointed projectile, missiles known as dart (missile), darts at a round shooting target, target known as a #Dartboard, dar ...

. On 30 August 1995, the Centre hosted the first ever National Television Awards presented by

Eamonn Holmes Eamonn Holmes (; born 3 December 1959)Holmes receives honorary degree
BBC ...

. 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 Raymond van Barneveld (born 20 April 1967) is a Dutch professional darts player. Nicknamed Barney, although originally known as The Man, he is one of the most successful darts players in history. Van Barneveld is a five-time World Darts Champ ...

, 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 ITV or iTV may refer to: ITV *Independent Television (ITV), a British television network, consisting of: ** ITV (TV network), a free-to-air national commercial television network covering the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islan ...

. Taylor won the match 21–10 in legs. It hosted three

Ricky Hatton Richard John Hatton (born 6 October 1978) is a British former professional boxer who competed between 1997 and 2012, and has since worked as a boxing promoter and trainer. During his boxing career he held multiple world championships at li ...

boxing matches where he was victorious. 21 October 2000, he defeated fellow Briton

Jon Thaxton Jonathan Thaxton (born 10 September 1974) is a British former professional boxer who competed from 1992 to 2009. He held the British lightweight title from 2006 and 2007, and the EBU European title from 2008 to 2009. Professional career He h ...

by unanimous decision, On 26 March 2001, he defeated Canadian

Tony Pep Tony Pep (born September 14, 1964) is a former professional boxer from New Westminster, British Columbia. He has a record of 42 wins (22 of which were by knockout), 10 losses, and 1 draw. Boxing career During his career, Pep held the Commonwe ...

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 Live Aid was a multi-venue benefit concert held on Saturday 13 July 1985, as well as a music-based fundraising initiative. The original event was organised by Bob Geldof and Midge Ure to raise further funds for relief of the 1983–1985 fami ...

on 13 July 1985, the conference centre and exhibition halls were used to provide dressing rooms for the performers. Between 10 July 2004 and 22 April 2006, it hosted ten

Cage Rage Cage Rage Championships, also known as Cage Rage, was a United Kingdom-based, mixed martial arts promotion that premiered on 7 September 2002 in London. Cage Rage went into liquidation and is now no longer trading. Cage Rage had been owned and ma ...

mixed martial arts events.

In popular culture

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 ''Blake's 7'' (sometimes styled ''Blakes7'') is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. Four 13-episode series were broadcast on BBC1 between 1978 and 1981. It was created by Terry Nation, who also wrote the first ...

'', in an episode called "Voice from the Past". 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.

References

External links

Official Wembley City site
{{Authority control Exhibition and conference centres in London Snooker venues Buildings and structures completed in 1977 Buildings and structures demolished in 2006 Former buildings and structures in the London Borough of Brent Demolished buildings and structures in London Wembley 1977 establishments in England 2006 disestablishments in England 20th-century architecture in the United Kingdom Defunct sports venues in London