GLASGOW'S City Halls is a building with a long and lively history.

Built in 1841, the Merchant City hub has been a theatre venue, a granary and a fruitmarket and has played host to Hollywood stars, politicians and circus acts.

But this week it marks a special 10-year anniversary - as the home of the BBC's Scottish Symphony Orchestra (SSO).

Previously, the orchestra was based at the former BBC headquarters on Queen Margaret Drive, in the west end.

Players remember it as a cold and draughty venue with "abysmal" acoustics and completely unsuitable for carrying out their work.

So the move to the purpose-built city centre venue was a godsend.

Alex Gascoine joined the orchestra on April 30, 1990, and is second violin.

He said: "The move was years and years in the planning. It looked like the BBC was going to be moving out of Queen Margaret Drive so we needed to find a new home.

"The move to City Halls is possibly the best thing that has happened to the orchestra.

"The halls are in the heart of the city and it is wonderful to be based in the heart of the city.

"The acoustic is great, it's a beautiful place to go to work and we can record and do live radio from here too.

"The positive to Queen Margaret Drive was that we were part of the BBC and it is a shame that we are not part of the building any longer but, as I say, this is a fantastic place to go to work and purpose built for our needs.

"Queen Margaret Drive was built for broadcast and the acoustics were abysmal whereas City Halls has everything we need."

The City Halls were Glasgow's first purpose-built performance space.

In its early years it hosted a wide variety of events - from 3500 people in 1843 for the first General Assembly of the Free Church of Scotland to seeing circus performer General Tom Thumb - 25inches high and weighing 15lbs - put on a show in 1843 that drew crowds of more than 50,000 over nine days.

Charles Dickens gave readings of his works at the venue in 1847 while Rev Dr David Livingstone receives the freedom of the City of Glasgow in 1857.

Party leaders Stanley Baldwin and Ramsey McDonald were given the chance to make their General Election speeches to the nation from City Halls in 1924, the year Baldwin because Prime Minister.

And more modern notable names who have performed in the venue include Billy Connolly and Suzi Quatro.

The building itself has also undergone many changes over the years.

In 1852 the Fruitmarket is built with space for 72 stalls and cast iron work designed to replicate the original Crystal Palace in Hyde Park in London.

Work in 1882 sees Italianette facade added to the Candleriggs front with a new staircase, foyers and saloons.

During World War II the City Halls are taken over by the Ministry of Food and the main auditorium became a granary.

The fruit market remained trading until 1969 and the venue became a popular spot for concerts in 1972, when Billy Connolly appeared.

By 2002 the space had come to deteriorate and the City Halls and Old Fruitmarket closed while it was decided what to do with both venues.

In 2003 they were handed over to Glasgow Cultural Enterprises, operators of the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, and renovation works began to transform City Halls into a venue suitable for the orchestra.

Alex added: "We were really lucky that we were involved in a small way in the design of the building. We have practice rooms on the ground floor and fantastic dressing rooms.

"We were performing in Spain in 2004 and the theatre we were in, there were these amazing dressing rooms so we told the architects about them and they designed them around those.

"They are just practical, there is somewhere you can hang your suit, we had a say in where our instruments would go.

"Any musician will tell you that when they redesign a concert hall they will do a fantastic job on the front of house but back of house is terrible."

The project took two years to complete and cost £15million, paid for by Glasgow City Council, Scottish Enterprise Glasgow, the BBC, Scottish Arts Council and with input from Historic Scotland and Townscape Heritage Initiative.

Ilan Volkov, who first conducted the orchestra in 1998 and, in 2003, became the youngest Chief Conductor of a BBC orchestra, conducted the first public concert in the regenerated building on January 12, 2006.

He said: "Moving to the City Halls was a large shift for the orchestra in a way, because at Queen Margaret Drive they always had to work harder to hear each other. To make good music in there was always more difficult.

"The moment we arrived in City Halls was a big change in sound and how each section related to one another.

"It has been good for relationships within the orchestra too. We are in this lovely place, full of light and air, not squashed in some basement somewhere.

"We can also play to much larger audiences now so the relationship with the audience is much stronger and we are much more successful now."

The orchestra performs in the region of 75 live recordings a year for the BBC and plays around 65 live concerts, as well as touring and outreach work with the likes of children's orchestra Big Noise.

Since September 2009 Ilan has been the orchestra's Principal Guest Conductor, returning for major events between three and five times a year.

On Thursday night, almost 10 years to the day, he will conduct the BBC SSO as they play Koechlin's rarely performed Seven Stars’ Symphony as well as The Sorcerer's Apprentice and Unsuk Chin's Clarinet Concerto.

He added: "I can't think of the last time the Seven Stars' Symphony has been performed in the UK.

"There has always seems to be an amazing commitment here to do amazing repertoire and the music we will play on Thursday night is quite celebratory.

"It's always a big moment for me to come back here to conduct; it's coming back among friends to a really wonderful place.

"I cannot believe it has been 10 years. It's really crazy."

Ilan co-curates the BBC SSO’s annual Tectonics Festival in Glasgow, which he originated in Reykjavik, and which has also taken place in New York, Adelaide and Tel Aviv.

I thought you might be interested in it being 10 years since City Halls were renovated and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra moved into the building. To mark the occasion Ilan Volkov who conducted the first public concert in the revamped venue on 12 Jan 2006 is conducting a concert on 14 January 2016, almost exactly 10 years to the day.