Cornwall Coliseum, Carlyon bay - August 2010

The Cornwall Coliseum is situated on Carlyon bay beach just outside of St Austell. It was opened in the 60s and I think it started off as a family amusement arcade. Later on, the building was converted and The Cornwall Coliseum became one of the most popular Westerly venues in England and, in the 1980s, played host to many major artists such as The Cure, Status Quo, Tears for Fears, Bryan Adams, Ultravox and Paul McCartney. Not only was it one of the biggest gig venues in the south west, later on, the Coliseum developed one of the most well known and popular night clubs in the south west which was called Gossips. We're not quite sure when the place shut down but I think it was sometime around 1998. The security guards told me that there have been plans for the past few years now to turn the buildings into flats, but the recession has hit hard and developers are having trouble finding money to fund it's conversion.

In addition, Alison Moyet's music video for her hit single 'Is This Love?' was actually set in and around Cornwall Coliseum and along Carlyon bay. You can spot different signs and parts of the Coliseum in her video here: [nomedia]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7W4a4V5Tvgg&feature=av2n[/nomedia]

Anyway, I came here with my Dad when we were on holiday and most of the information above is what he has told me as he was a regular at this place back in the day, there isn't much about this extraordinary place on the internet so i relied on him to give me the facts. There was a lot of security surrounding the place so i think it would have been impossible trying to get inside the buildings but here are a few shnaps anyway...


thanks for looking!

went to check this out in winter almost two years ago - security was so active i didnt bother getting in!

Blast from the past, thought that place was redeveloped years ago
Seen most of the bands that played there, Meat Loaf played there on his birthday managed to get on one of the videos they made that night.

Seem to remember that it held the record for the longest bar in Britain or something like that


Is the nudist beach still there

Nice post Saz - I remember this place from holidays in Cornwall in the 80's.

When was this done ? as have been really interested in doing this place for a long time now.Just a shame you didnt get inside the place to take some pics as really need to see what it looks like inside the old quazars (cossips) and the old arena area that had the longest bar in the south west at one time,plus are the security pleasent enough to people?

crazyjon said:

When was this done ? as have been really interested in doing this place for a long time now.Just a shame you didnt get inside the place to take some pics as really need to see what it looks like inside the old quazars (cossips) and the old arena area that had the longest bar in the south west at one time,plus are the security pleasent enough to people?

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Visited middle of August this year, and yes i wish i could have got inside it looked a good explore! I'm not sure i did ask him if he would let us inside and he said that it was too much of a dangerous site now or something!

Didn't they try to build some holiday flat type buildings in the car park ??
The scheme got halted for some reason and people who put money down lost a bucket load of cash ?

114 072 22 said:

Didn't they try to build some holiday flat type buildings in the car park ??
The scheme got halted for some reason and people who put money down lost a bucket load of cash ?

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I've heard that it had something to do with the sea defences why the work stopped aparently they have to sort them out. Who knows its been going on for a good while now what ever the reason why they have not knocked the rest of the building down,i no this though its been in this state for a good 5 years or so.