Alex Burns
With the latest IT film terrifying audiences with its evil clown villain, it is perhaps not surprising this child seems reluctant to look too closely at the clown here. Taken during the Kelvin Hall circus in Glasgow in 1969, this image captures what was a fond Christmas memory for many families across the west of Scotland. Starting in the festive period of 1924 and continuing for more than 60 years, people would flock to see the circus or have a go on the dodgems. The circus featured trapezes, jugglers, acrobats and several animal acts: with the smell of elephants and lions said to be quite overwhelming when you first walked in. Kelvin Hall itself was rebuilt in 1926 after being burned down in a fire, hosting the circus right through until 1987 when the building was converted to accommodate the Museum of Transport and the Kelvin Hall sports arena. The building also hosted the country’s first full public showing of colour television on a demonstration unit in 1964, three years before the first colour broadcast on TV. In 2012, the Transport Museum was moved out of Kelvin Hall to the purpose-built Riverside Museum, and in 2014 the building was closed for refurbishment. It now serves as a hub of cultural teaching and research and hosts collections from the Hunterian museum – but sadly none quite as exciting as the circus.
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