Nostalgia: George Street’s grand old dame in her youth

IT’S been a long and controversial process but after 18 months’ hard graft, the £9.3 million refurbishment of the Assembly Rooms is complete.

Its stunning new look would surely win a royal seal of approval, just like in June 1966 when a smiling Queen Elizabeth II danced at the Royal Company of Archers’ ball.

Her Majesty and the Duke of Edinburgh enjoyed the event at the George Street venue so much that after a midnight supper, it was 2am before they made their way home to the Palace of 
Holyroodhouse.

Also that year, excited youngsters left the Assembly
Rooms en route for the Junior Cup final featuring Whitburn and Bonnyrigg Rose in Glasgow.

Four years earlier, the venue hosted a fashion show to raise money for the British Legion.

Among many big names to appear on stage at the Assembly Rooms, George Formby was swamped by autograph hunters when he arrived for the Press Ball in October 1956.

In 1951, it hosted the International Union of Public Transport Congress. An experimental trolley bus parked outside the venue on George Street was one of the main talking points.

Inside, the city’s transport manager Mr WM Little was presiding at a 500-guest dinner, which also heard from Glasgow’s Lord Provost Sir Victor Warren.