London Places

The decision to close the venue was taken by Hammersmith and Fulham councillors at a meeting in January of this year.

The building is expected to be bulldozed to make way for office blocks by developers Parkway Properties. No date for the closure has been given.

The venue, which opened after World War I, was hailed in The Clash's (White Man) In Hammersmith Palais in 1978.

Paul Stokes, NME's news editor, said the Palais' demolition would be a huge loss.

We want your memories and photos of the venue. Which bands did you see there?

email your thoughts to yourlondon@bbc.co.uk

What was your favourite night? Will you miss the Palais or was it past its best as a top night spot?

Here's what you've been telling us so far.

From Ken Rumsey:

For me this venue was one of my fondest memories, going back to the early 1960s. Friday night was "Pally night" for my generation. We would rush home from work. Mum would be cooking the meal while I was ironing my best shirt, polishing my best shoes, and watching "Ready Steady Go" at the same time.

We were suited and booted, which if you wanted to meet the best girls, was the attire to be in. Not only did this venue attract local talent, many came from good suburbs, such as Surrey, Virginia Water and Epsom, and they travelled in by Greenline bus.

When you entered the foyer, it was all very impressive. The opening band would have been Lou Prager and when the second band appeared, it would arrive on the revolving stage playing all the latest hits by the Beatles, Rolling Stones, Kathy Kirby and Cilla Black.

The Pally was always split into two groups of people, because there were three drinking bars, two upstairs and one downstairs. If you weren't "trendy" with the smart "clobber"  and good looks, you steered clear of the upstairs top bar at the back. But in general, everybody mixed in on the dancefloor and there was hardly any scuffles or upsets, bearing in mind you had Hammersmith Police Station next door!

From Rosalind Cullen:

The last gig I saw there was Embrace in October last year - the venue was great!

What are the council thinking of?

From Freddie in Kingston:

I've seen so many fantastic old buildings disappear, particularly during the last 15 - 20 years, since it was realised just how many ridiculously expensive flats you can build on a small plot of land. I was sitting having a beer with the chaps recently when we counted up how many pubs have been lost to developers within a 5-mile radius from Kingston town centre during the last 15 years. We counted 23, some were magnificent old buildings that appeared to be doing a decent trade before they closed.

Your chosen tracks including The Clash

Unfortunately, it seems that the organisations closing and developing these sites know that if the local council reject their planning application, the next step is to appeal to the Dept of the Environment - knowing that sooner or later some faceless bureaucrat with no local knowledge will squash the council's rejection and allow the developer to destroy these architectural gems.

At this rate it won't be long before we're all sitting in our multi-million pound flats and houses with nowhere to go and socialise other than some fancy burger bar in a new shopping development. I fear for our culture.

From Dan O'Neill:

I just had to write about the ridiculous decision to remove yet another monument to our cultural heritage for the purpose of building more flats.

Obviously this is a decision motivated by revenue and directed by administrators and bureaucrats who only ever see the bottom line.

However, surely it should be obvious by now (at least from all the mistakes made by planners in the 60s and 70s), that a great city is not about how many people you can cram into modernistic monoliths in glass and steel. A city is defined by its collective experience, by the cultural landscape defined over generations by its inhabitants and by the level of appreciation shown to its buildings, open spaces and artefacts. This is best represented by preserving it and displaying a willingness to share with outsiders and generations to come.

The Hammersmith Palais may be fairly generic as early 20th century music halls go in terms of architecture, but is significant in many people's minds as evocative of an era when money didn't dominate every creative pursuit.

In fact the Palais came to prominence in an era when the type of bureaucrats who now want it gone, had run the city and country into the ground. Why should we ever trust their decisions? Keep the Palais!

From Gabby Papier:

I am sad that the Hammersmith Palais is to be demolished. I remember when I accompanied my dad, Charles Papier, onstage there when I was 7! He was in a band called the 'Sands of Time'. Does anyone remember them? It was a great place, shame to see it go.