Venue: The Gregson Centre
Town: Lancaster, GB

The Gregson Centre in Lancaster, England (previously known as the Gregson Institute) is an arts and community centre, music venue and Cafe-bar. There is a small cinema space, function room, 'Yarden' and a lift enabling access to all public areas. It is one of the last medium-sized music venues in the area, and is owned and managed by a charity, the Gregson Community Association. The Gregson Institute was founded in 1889 as a memorial to Henry Gregson. The Gregson family included his father Samuel Gregson and his brother Samuel Gregson, Mayor of the City of Lancaster and Liberal MP 1847, co-founder of the Natural History Museum, and one of the Victorians responsible for giving the world the word "dinosaur". Following in the family tradition, Henry himself was elected Mayor of Lancaster in 1850. The funds for the building came from many notable sources including James Williamson (later Baron Ashton) and the Storey Brothers. It was designed by Paley and Austin. Henry also gave funds to establish the nearby Christ Church. A hall was added in 1912, named "The Bartlett Hall" after the first vicar of Christ Church. The building was originally Temperance run by "The Lancaster Coffee Company", then used by Christ Church Primary School as the School Hall until becoming surplus when the new School was built on Derwent Road. After it had stood empty for several years, a group of like-minded souls in 1984 created a charity called The Freehold Community Association and bought the building to run as a community centre. The charity has since changed its name to The Gregson Community Association, later still (2006) incorporating to form the Gregson Community Association Limited. In the early 1990s, the centre was close to bankruptcy. Even the valiant efforts of volunteers and the founding committees of the charity (FCA) since 1983 were not enough. The Gregson had lost its entertainment licence in 1993 and could not pay its debts. The main priority, therefore, was to get the licences