Paisley's grand A-listed Victorian Town Hall will be reopening its doors over the coming weeks after a £22m transformation into one of Scotland’s finest entertainment venues.

The iconic building – a centrepiece of life in the town for more than 140 years – has been fully refurbished as part of a wider investment by Renfrewshire Council in the town’s cultural venues.

The transformation includes a complete redesign by leading Scottish architects Holmes Miller. 

The Gazette:

The Gazette:

Key features include:

  • The preservation and restoration of the unique and ornate Victorian architectural features throughout the town hall
  • New rooms added in previously-unused spaces, such as a new bar and terrace overlooking Paisley’s iconic Abbey, a dance studio, and a screening room – adding a greater range of uses than ever before
  • Adding state-of-the-art performance facilities such as new sound and lighting, retractable seating and lowered stage
  • Transformed audience experience, with improved acoustics, more toilets, room for pop-up bars, and repositioned seating to offer better sightlines
  • Major improvements to accessibility with new lifts and ramps– previously only 20% of the public areas were fully accessible, this is now 80%
  • New back-of-house facilities including new kitchen, and improved artists suites
  • A full replacement of decades-old mechanical and electrical equipment

The town hall will be the main venue for the Royal National Mòd - Scotland’s largest celebration of Gaelic language and culture – when it comes to Paisley between Friday, October 13 and Thursday, October 21.

The Gazette:

The Gazette:

Before then, it will host a special performance by Paisley Opera of Verdi’s 'Macbeth' – set in 1970s Paisley – with support from the Scottish Opera orchestra and local dance group Righ2Dance, on Friday, October 6 and Saturday, October 7. 

Tickets for this event are on sale now.

The town hall will be operated by OneRen – the local charitable trust providing culture, leisure and sporting opportunities to help people enjoy active, healthy and fulfilled lives.

OneRen will deliver a year-round programme of events and performances in the town hall which will help drive new footfall to the town, day and night.

As well as being a striking venue for concerts and performances, the town hall will also be available for weddings, conferences and other events.

Construction was completed in the town hall in July and the venue has been fitted out over the past few weeks to get it ready to welcome visitors.

The Gazette:

The Gazette:

Councillor Lisa-Marie Hughes, Renfrewshire Council’s cultural spokesperson and chair of OneRen, said: "Paisley Town Hall will be the area's big stage and we are delighted the curtain is now coming up.

"We believe this will be among Scotland’s finest entertainment venues - the building has a wow factor and the feedback we’ve had from those who've seen inside so far backs that up.

"It has been at the heart of life in the town for more than a century but had become tired and needed upgraded – the work done over the past few years will keep it in use for future generations.

"We've preserved the 19th-century grandeur that people know and love, while seamlessly integrating all the modern facilities you could hope for from a 21st-century venue.

"At the same time, modern standards of accessibility are very different to those Victorian architects worked to. The town hall has been redesigned with audience experience and comfort in mind, and we’ve made extensive changes to the layout to create step-free access to most areas of the building.

"We expect the programme of events it will host will bring new life and footfall into the town day and night, with all the benefits that will bring for local traders."

The Gazette:

The Gazette:

Paisley Town Hall was opened in 1882, and stands as a monument to the town's rich history as a centre of global textile production, having been gifted to the town by George Aitken Clark of the thread-mill-owning Clark family.

The town hall will be the first of several cultural venue investments currently being delivered by the council to open. That also includes:

  • Transforming Paisley Museum into a world-class visitor attraction showcasing Renfrewshire’s internationally-significant collections and bringing to life like never before the stories of how Paisley’s name went around the world (opening 2024),
  • A new modern home for library services in a formerly-empty unit at the heart of the High Street, to reopen in late November
  • An upgrade of and extension to Paisley Arts Centre

For more information on how to hire the venue, visit www.oneren.org/venue-hire/cultural-venues/paisley-town-hall/.