The ground-floor exhibition space of the Vigadó Gallery was created during the 1980 renovation and was expanded with a lower level in 2014. Even in the era of the Redoute, the venue hosted highly successful exhibitions: in 1842, at the proposal of Lajos Kossuth, the First Hungarian Exhibition of Applied Arts opened here and was visited by nearly fifteen thousand people within a single month.

In the early 20th century, the café operating at this location became a regular meeting place for the writers of Nyugat. Dezső Kosztolányi, Endre Ady, and Frigyes Karinthy were all frequent guests.