The Arches (Glasgow)

The Arches

Death Disco club night
Location	City Centre, Glasgow, United Kingdom
Owner	Arches Retail Company Limited
Type	Bar, Theatre, Music venue, Nightclub
Genre(s)	Multi-genred
Seating type	Seating/Standing
Opened	1991
Closed	2015
Website
The Arches, Glasgow

The Arches was a bar, arts venue, theatre, live music venue and nightclub in Glasgow, Scotland, which first opened in 1991. It was a not-for-profit organisation, and was situated in the City Centre under Glasgow Central station and the West Coast Main Line in the brick arches of the viaduct leading into the station, with entrances on Midland Street, and (since 2001) an entrance underneath Hielanman's Umbrella on Argyle Street. The venue had 7,800 square metres (84,000 sq ft) of floor space which is spread over two floors and seven arches. In June 2015, The Arches announced on their website that the company would go into administration and had no choice but to close down the facility. Due to licensing issues caused by a drug related death of a young woman

The site of the venue was a previously derelict area below the Glasgow Central railway station, which was converted to house the exhibition Glasgow's Glasgow during the city's year as European City of Culture. In 1991, after the exhibition had ended, the space was obtained by Andy Arnold, who would become the venue's artistic director, for the purposes of creating a theatre. Realising that theatre productions required substantial funding, Arnold decided to stage nightclub events to support his projects, and this practice continued until the venue's closure, the clubbing revenues helping to fund what became one of Europe's leading cultural venues.

In early 2007, The Arches was voted 12th best club in the world by DJs in a DJ Magazine poll.

In January 2008, Andy Arnold left The Arches to become the artistic director at the Tron Theatre. He was succeeded as Artistic Director and Joint Chief Executive by Jackie Wylie, formerly the venue's Arts Programmer.