Britain's first palais de danse ended as a student-housing site

The Hammersmith Palais opened on 28 November 1919 as the Palais de Danse — the first purpose-built commercial dance hall in Britain. The Original Dixieland Jazz Band played it from opening night; Joe Loss's orchestra held residence for a decade from 1959. Through the rock era the room on Shepherd's Bush Road hosted the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, David Bowie, the Sex Pistols and the Clash — the last of whom immortalised it in '(White Man) In Hammersmith Palais' after a reggae all-nighter.

By the 2000s the hall, owned by property company Parkway Properties, was worth more as land than as a venue. It was condemned for demolition on 20 March 2007. The send-offs came in layers: the Good, the Bad & the Queen played the billed farewell on 31 March, the Fall recorded their 1 April show as 'Last Night at The Palais', and the very last gig fell to Groove Armada on 3 May 2007.

The end still took five years of planning fights. The council rejected a 429-flat scheme in October 2009 and an appeal failed in July 2010 before an amended plan passed; demolition began in May 2012. In September 2013 a luxury student hall of residence, Pure Hammersmith, opened where the palais stood — 88 years of British music traded for 418 student rooms.