Main Page
Updates and News
(most recent at the top)
31/12/04
30/12/04
A couple of photos of recent developments at the Kingsway in Glasgow have been added -
it seems the developers were seeking permission to demolish the
building last week on public safety grounds, but were only allowed to
'make safe' the building by cutting down some of the pediments and pull
off some loose render on the facade. More news as we get it.
Thanks to Hugh Thomson, some archive photos of the Regal and Queen's
cinemas in Stirling are now
available.
Interior pictures of the Cameo
in Edinburgh have been added, as well as interior photos and detailed
information on the Dundee CCA, thanks to Pete
Naples.
Stuart Kelly has send a large gallery of interior photos from inside
the Haymarket
cinema in Edinburgh, as well as some photos from the last night of the Odeon Clerk Street.
Thanks to Gordon Adams of the marvelous www.eastglasgowhistory.com
website, we can show you some archive photos of the Orient when on bingo, and on the Demolished Glasgow cinemas page,
the Dalmarnock and the Strathclyde Picture Houses.
22/12/04
Thanks to David Low, have added some additional photos to the Elgin and Callander pages.
21/12/04
Added the Albert Hall / West End
to the Edinburgh cinemas page.
The long gone Hippodrome / Ritz in the Gorbals is now featured on the Demolished Glasgow cinemas page,
thanks to Norrie Mcnamee.
A photo of the staff of the Allanpark cinema in Stirling on opening night in 1938
was kindly provided by Stewart Donaldson.
20/12/2004
Thanks to John Millin, have added lots of information and an archive
photo of the original facade to the page for the Cumnock
Picture House, where he was a projectionist for many years. He's
also kindly provided information on the cinema in Auchinleck, which has
been added to the database (and hence the to-do list - does anyone know if this building
still exists or not?).
Added new photos of the Pavilion in Dumbarton,
thanks to Emma Watson, who also has a great page with cinemas in
Maidenhead here.
Courtesy of Laura Dudley, we have some photos of the gutting of the
ex-Robin cinema in Dunfermline
- sadly a textbook case of how not
to treat a listed building by the look of it...
Pete Naples has kindly sent some photos of the surviving projection
equipment in the long derelict A-listed Hippodrome in Bo'Ness.
Two archive photos from Campbeltown
in the late 1970s have been added thanks to Frank Watson - one of the
Picture House, and one of the demolition of the Rex.
Information about the Abbey Cinema in Mauchline has been added to the database thanks
to Ron Tannock.
The page for the Bombay cinema in
Glasgow (formerly the Capitol) has been updated with new photos, some
new close ups showing the current dilapidated state of the Lyceum in Govan, and a photo of the
current state of the retained facade of the Toledo / ABC Muirend have also been
added.
10/12/2004
Right, that should be everything restored and working again! Now for
some news and updates from the last week.
Historic Scotland have granted permission to completely demolish the
derelict B-listed Kingsway cinema
and put housing on the site.
To commemorate the 75th anniversary of the Glen cinema disaster,
there is to be a lantern procession through Paisley on December 20th.
Details below:
9/12/2004
A
power surge on the morning of 6th December knocked out the machine that
hosts this website. We've recovered everything up till the 27th
November, but some updates made after that have been lost. They will be
gradually recreated as I work my through them in the next day or so,
but in the meantime,
unavailable updates appear in light grey below. Everything else,
including the database, should now be ok (hopefully!) - though please
let me know if you spot any other problems or anything missing.
Also, if you have sent me any emails between the 27th November and the 6th of December,
can you please resend them,
as anything from between those dates has unfortunately been lost.
Thanks for your patience over the last few days!
1/12/04
Updated the Olympia page with
photos from yesterdays fire. Todays Evening Times
also has an updated story on the fire.
Added a previously missed
cinema to the Edinburgh page - the Star
in Canongate.
Added a more recent and
improved photo to the Grand Central
page in Glasgow, and
upgraded and enhanced the page for the ex-Caley cinema in Edinburgh. Also in
Edinburgh, the Lyceum Theatre, Traverse
Theatre and the Usher
Hall have been split into
their own individual pages.
New page for Cove thanks to Graham
Kelly, plus new and archive pictures from Norrie Mcnamee for the Apollo
in Saltcoats, the Arrow in Wishaw,
the Radio in Kilbirnie, the
Glasgow Coliseum and New Bedford, a new page for Whitley Bay, and on the Demolished
Glasgow Cinemas page,
the Green's Picturedrome and the Paragon.
30/11/04
|
The derelict Olympia in
Bridgeton
is seriously on fire. Roads are closed - 10 fire engines and 2
ambulances are in attendance, and a man died after being taken to
hospital for smoke inhalation.
Details in the Evening Times story here. |
25/11/04
A page for Lerwick, with
photos of the interior of the 1913 North Star cinema - remarkably still
with its projection equipment intact! - has been added thanks to
Gillian Boll, with additional acknowledgement due to the manager of the
club, Alan McCleod, for his time and enthusiasm.
23/11/04
Added a photo of The Wee Thee cinema in Hawick,
and the Playhouse, Kelso thanks to
Joe Skivington.
Picture of the Pavilion Cinema in the Vikingaar Centre in Largs, and the exterior auditorium of
the Vogue, Girvan, thanks to Norrie
Mcnamee.
Updated photos of the ex-Green's Picturedrome in Irvine thanks to Graham Kelly.
Updated or improved photos have also been uploaded for the Johnstone, Clydebank, and Kilbirnie pages.
19/11/04
A new page has been added for Hawick,
thanks to Ian Miller, Joe Skivington and Norrie Mcname, as well as an
additional archive photo of the Pavilion in Galashiels.
Stewart Donaldson has kindly sent an archive photo of the Alhambra
cinema in Stirling.
Thanks also to Donald Kirkbryde for some additional information on some
Dundee cinemas for the the database.
17/11/04
It's exactly one year since I first put a counter
on the website - and in that time, the main index
page has received an amazing 11,100 hits! On average, we've been
getting around 70 hits a day recently.
Thanks to the launch of the Cinema Database,
yesterday was our busiest day ever, with over 140 hits!
The site has also grown so that we now cover 379 cinemas in 157 towns
in Scotland - plus of course many more further afield as well.
Thanks to everyone that has visited in the last year. Please keep
visiting - the work so far is just the beginning, and we have big plans
for the future... :)
Now - the first two updates from items on the new look to-do list - added a page for Kelty in Fife and some wonderful
souvenirs from the now sadly demolished Gothenburg Picture House there
thanks to Steve Lynch, and also added the Corn Exchange Picture House
in Kelso thanks to Joe Skivington (via Norrie Mcnamee).
16/11/04
In a major step forward for the site, I'm very proud to announce the
immediate availability of the Scottish
Cinemas Database.
This fully searchable interactive resource includes information on
every known cinema ever built
in Scotland, with (where available) opening & closing dates,
architects and owners/circuit affiliations etc.
Searches can be performed on cinema name, town, address, etc. and where
appropriate, results include direct links to further information and
pictures on the dedicated pages elsewhere on the website.
As with all endeavours of this nature, the database is incomplete and
has drawn on a number of sources of varying reliability. If you find
any errors, or have any additional information to add, or any other
feedback, we would be delighted to hear from you!
A huge thank you must be made at this point to Helen Hopwood, who
collated most of the information in the database from lots of sources
over several years, and was generous enough to share it with us.
As a nice side effect, the To Do List page
is now automatically generated from the database as well, meaning it is
always up to date with the latest information we have. If you've not
looked through it recently, now is a good time for another browse to
see if you have any information or pictures about the buildings we're
lacking details on. If so, please get
in touch!
15/11/04
Department of hiding under your very nose: 2 more cinemas added to the
main Glasgow page - the Alexandra Parade Picture Palace,
and the Empire Electric.
New from Norrie - archive shots of Biddle's Cinema in Annan, the Kelburne in Paisley, Poole's
Roxy in Edinburgh and La Scala
in Saltcoats, plus new pages for
Glenrothes, Galashiels, and some additional
cinemas added to the Inverness
pages.
10/11/04
Additions to the Lanark and Rosyth pages, again thanks to Norrie.
8/11/04
Added the Breadalbane Cinema to the Wick
page (thanks to Norrie Mcnamee).
5/11/04
Added or updated pages for Penicuik,
Inverness (pre-closure La Scala),
Aberdeen (pre-demolition
ABC) and Lochwinnoch,
thanks to Norrie Mcnamee.
29/10/04
As an experiment, we have added a search box to the bottom of the main page. This allows you to search the entire
site for any keyword of interest. If people seem to find it useful, we
may keep it there. Feedback welcomed!
New pages for Oban, Newmilns, Granton-on-Spey, Pitlochry, Aviemore and Forfar - thanks to Norrie Mcnamee.
28/10/04
|
Thanks to Frank Watson, we
have added a program booklet for the Tivoli in Partick (Glasgow's
Wonder Cinema!), from May 1930.
(Yes, the Tivoli is not a surviving cinema, but it's far too nice a
piece not to add to the site!)
It can be accessed from the Tivoli section on the Demolished Glasgow Cinemas page, or
by clicking the thumbnail on the left.
|
New additions and updates thanks to Norrie Mcnamee for Rothesay (added the Palace
cinema), Lockerbie (a
photo of the Rex when it was still a cinema), Inverurie (the Victoria cinema), Melrose (the Picture Palace) and Dundee (photo of the ABC / Regal
before it closed).
Major thanks are also due to Helen Hopwood, for providing us with a
priceless wealth of detailed information on hundreds of Scottish
cinemas. Information from this will filter through to the to-do list
and other areas of the site over time.
25/10/04
|
A newly illustrated and very
detailed history of the ex-Salon
Cinema
on Sauchiehall Street in Glasgow is now available. This was another
building we had assumed had
little of interest remaining due to the many dramatic reconstructions
over its lifetime, but some very ornate original Moorish-style
plasterwork arches, and much of the original Rooftop Garden Tearoom
remain intact!
Many thanks to Sandy Forbes and the management of the
Moon nightclub for being such enthusiastic hosts for the evening! |
21/10/04
Continuing the recent hectic pace of updates, a few very nice additions
for today:
|
A gallery of photos from
inside the Pavilion, Bathgate -
many thanks to Robert
Kelly for the invitation and showing us around. With perfect timing, we
got there just 3 days before the cinema seats in the balcony are due to
be removed to increase the space available for bingo!
Also in Bathgate, some interior
shots of the Regal have
been kindly provided by Bill Matthews.
|
|
A very atmospheric gallery of
images taken inside the burnt out and
long derelict New Palace cinema in Burntisland,
Fife has also been added. You might wonder how much of interest there
might be in a building that has been burnt out and had no roof for
nearly 20 years, but the answer is - lots! |
In news, the Evening Times is reporting that the new owners of the Odeon Renfield Street are in discussion
with several casino owners to use much of the leisure space in the
converted building as a 'Super Casino' - full story here.
The other derelict cinema in Burntisland,
the Porte, is to be largely demolished for flats behind a retained
facade. Work appears to have started as of yesterday...
18/10/04
Major updates and tidy up and rationalisation of the main Glasgow and Edinburgh pages - they should be a lot
more user-friendly and nicer to look at now!
Added a newspaper advert showing what films were being advertised in Greenock's cinemas in 1965.
New photos for Falkirk, Keith, Broxburn,
Hamilton, Airdrie, Kilmarnock and Demolished Glasgow Cinemas,
courtesy of Norrie Mcnamee.
Also from the mislayed for ages pile of photos - this time from Harry
Rigby - I have added new interior shots on the Cowdenbeath, Dunfermline and the Leith Capitol pages.
15/10/04
|
Updated the page for the White Elephant
cinema in Shawlands, to have more information and the complete scans of
a programme booklet from March 1928. |
Added some shots Alistair Kerr sent me ages ago, but I managed to
mislay until now - late 1970s shots of the County, Craigmillar, the Central, Portobello, the Cinema de
Luxe, Lochgelly, and the Astoria and Salon
in Edinburgh.
Some more shots from Norrie on the Bellshill,
Linlithgow, Perth, Nairn and Forres pages.
Tidied up some information on the To Do List
page thanks to Kenny Duncan.
12/10/04
Added a couple of photos from a recent visit to Prague.
Some additional photos have been added to the Kirkwall page, thanks to Kenneth
Thomson.
A local councillor is calling for the facade of the burnt-out and long
derelict Palace cinema in Burntisland
to be retained in any future redevelopment. Full details from Fife
Today here.
11/10/04
Updated pages for Auchterarder,
Wishaw, Hamilton and Dalkeith, and new pages for Dunoon, Castle Douglas, Larkhall, Stewarton, Bellshill and Barrhead, thanks again to Norrie
Mcnamee.
8/10/04
Added pages for Porthmadog and Tywyn, thanks to David Crooks.
More from Norrie: new pages for Alexandria,
Kelso, Craigmillar and Dunkeld, as well as additional
pictures on the Dumbarton, Kilbirnie, Paisley, Greenock and Motherwell pages.
1/10/04
More from Norrie Mcnamee: additional cinemas for Aberdeen, Arbroath, Bo-Ness, Peterhead, and new pages for Alva, Ardrishaig,
Auchterarder, and Riccarton.
30/09/04
All thanks to Norrie Mcnamee, have updated the pages for Aberdeen, Arbroath, East
Kilbride and Leven, and added
new pages for Arran, Banchory, Beith, Crief,
Dufftown, Methil, Peterhead, Shotts, South Queensferry, and Tarbet.
Thanks to new information from Mervyn Gould of the Mercia Cinema Society,
moved the now identified Pringles
Picture Palace from the Unknown page
to its rightful place on the Nottingham
page.
29/09/04
More details, models and artists impressions of the proposed Sean
Connery Film Centre in Edinburgh have just been published on the
Edinburgh Architecture site.
27/09/04
Added a few photos of the Regent in Brisbane thanks to Cara
Strachan, a cinema in Galway,
Ireland thanks to Norrie Mcnamee, and ex-Odeons in Bridgewater and St. Albans thanks to Graham Kelly.
Thanks to Ian Williams of the Australian Cinema and Theatre Historical Society
there are a few corrections, clarifications and additions to the
Melbourne pages - including donating some fantastic interior shots of
the Capitol
and Regent
and Plaza Theatres!
24/09/04
Time
to catch up on some of the backlog of submitted images...
Just in time to mark its complete demolition, a page for the former Cinema House in Edinburgh
has been added.
Brand new pages are also added for: St.
Andrews, Dumfries, Annan, Lockerbie, Gretna, Moffat, Stranraer, Strathaven, Blairgowrie, Leslie, Pittenweam, Ormiston, Lossiemouth, Buckie, Callander, Elgin, Cirencester, Rushden, Workington,
as well as the cinemas in the Secret Bunker in
Fife and - further afield - a selection of cinemas in Nijmegen and Amsterdam (including the
glorious Tuschinski).
- many thanks to major contributions from Marie Smith & Sylvain
Brugnot, Graham Kelly,
Sue Cole, Norrie Mcnamee, and David Low for those.
Updated pages include Brecon (thanks to
Peter & Irene Davies for additional photos and information), Inverness (an original interior
of the La Scala, thanks to David Low), Ayr (additional Odeon interior
pics from Gary Painter, and some shots of the Orient on bingo from
Robert Kelly), archive photos of the Parade,
Dennistoun, the Rosevale,
Partick and a small gallery of archive photos of some long demolished Glasgow cinemas
courtesy Norrie Mcnamee), Odeon
Clerk Street (with exterior shots of the front and rear of the
building), the Glasgow Grosvenor
and Edinburgh ABC Lothian Road,
the ABC Regal in Falkirk,
the Allanpark and other now demolished cinemas in Stirling,
and the now demolished Kelburne
in Paisley (original archive and projection room photos courtesy Andy
Simmonds).
Thats all for today, but there's still more to come...
18/09/04
Glasgow City Council today granted planning
permission for the demolition behind a retained facade of the Odeon
Renfield Street, and the conversion of the interior space to
leisure and retail use. It must now be only a matter of time before a
closure date is announced. The good news is that the plans involve
reinstating a neon lighting scheme resembling the original, which once
extended much further down West Regent Street than the current one
does, and also removing the paint on the granite facade. Also, there is
a requirement to strip out all non-original features to search for any
plasterwork or other original decoration prior to demolition starting -
and despite what people would have you believe, there is a surprising
amount of fragments left if you know where to look!
A new website with information on Glasgow's historic cinemas has been
set up by Stuart Neville at www.glasgowcinemas.co.uk.
This nicely designed site has a lot of archive photos and drawings, and
should grow to become a useful resource (and give us a bit of healthy
competition! :-) ). It should be especially useful for its coverage of
buildings that are now long gone, and hence tend not to be covered on
this site.
17/09/04
In another overdue move, the site now has a proper domain name - from
now on, the address www.scottishcinemas.org.uk
brings you here. No need to update bookmarks or anything; the site has
not actually moved and will remain available at the old address as
well. This just makes it easier find, and to tell people the address
verbally ! Note that its an .org.uk,
not .co.uk or .com - as we're not a commercial
organisation, .com would be inappropriate.
Technically a .info would
describe us best, but they are quite expensive, so .org is the best compromise I think!
16/09/04
In a long overdue move, long time contributor Gary Painter has been
promoted to full joint site editorship! Right, time to put him to
work...
15/09/04
More
tidying up in Glasgow: updated the New
Bedford, added a couple more shots to the ABC
Regal, a newer picture and details for the Odeon
Renfield Street, some nice exterior night shots of the Ascot,
Anniesland, and much better shots for the Coliseum.
The Glasgow
Theatres page has also had the Old Atheneum added to it, along with
some interior shots from the Pavilion.
Updated the Edinburgh Odeon
Clerk Street page, to show it in its temporary guise as the Pod
Deco venue.
14/09/04
Updated and improved the quality of the photos and information for the ABC
Regal, Norwood,
Vitagraph
/ King's, Charing
Cross Electric Theatre, Picture
House / Gaumont, the Ascot,
Anniesland, the Waverley,
Shawlands and the Salon,
Sauchiehall Street. Various other Glasgow
pages have been tidied up a bit as well.
In particular, have finally got a couple of decent pictures of the Kelvin
Cinema up as well.
13/09/04
Read about the proposed Sean Connery
Film Centre in Edinburgh here-
this 6 screen development would replace the current Filmhouse,
and provide a permanent home for the Edinburgh Film Festival.
The former King's
Cinema
/ Vitagraph in Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow is amongst 15 buildings
in the city that have been proposed for listed building status,
according to the Evening Times.
The Buildings at Risk
website has now been updated with Glasgow buildings, and features the Kingsway,
the Govanhill
Picture House, the Britannia
Panopticon, and the ABC
Toledo amongst many other buildings. I've correspondingly updated
this sites own list of Cinemas at Risk.
Glasgow City Council has granted permission to demolish the former Kelvin
Cinema - now Creme de la Creme restaurant, to be replaced with
flats. No timescale known for the demolition yet (and I really need to
get some better photos of it before they do!).
Plans to use the former Glen
Cinema in Paisley as the basis for a cinema museum are being
explored.
Some dead links have been trimmed from the Links
page.
11/9/04
Just back from a Doors Open Day visit to the Rex, Stonehouse - amazing
place! A huge gallery of photos has now been added - well worth a look
(trust me on this one!)...
A gallery of interior photos from the derelict and soon to be
demolished Olympia, Bridgeton
has been added, thanks to gap74 and turbozutek.
8/9/04
Some cinemas and theatres that are going to be open for the Scottish
Doors Open Days in September are as follows:
Aberdeen – 11th September
Beach Ballroom
Tivoli Theatre
South Lanarkshire - 11th
September
Rex Cinema, Lawrie Street, Stonehouse
Dundee - 18th September
Whitehall Theatre (ex-Alhambra Cinema)
Fife – 19th September
Adam Smith Theatre, Kirkcaldy
Glasgow - 18th & 19th
September
The Arches
Britannia Panopticon Music Hall
Cottier Theatre
Gilmorehill G12
Glasgow Film Theatre
Oran Mor
Ramshorn Theatre
Tron Theatre
Edinburgh 25th September
Edinburgh Festival Theatre
Traverse Theatre
Royal Lyceum Theatre
King’s Theatre
Full details, opening times etc. at http://www.doorsopendays.org.uk/
8/8/04
Finally got around to plugging some embarassingly large gaps on the
site, and added a proper comprehensive page for Dundee, and updated the Perth page to have some more
places of interest!
26/6/04
Added a page for the Glen
Cinema in Paisley, thanks to
a visit there courtesy of Martyn Robertson of Fablevision.
22/6/04
The exhibition on the Glen Cinema in Paisley has been extended for
another four weeks due to popular demand.
A website about the exhibition is online at www.glencinema.org.uk
Tidied up the References page a bit.
21/6/04
Some more bits and pieces... - gradually getting through the backlog!
Added some pre-subdivision interior photos from 1982 of the ex-Odeon Clerk St thanks to Alistair
Kerr.
A page for Peebles has been
added thanks to Gary Painter.
Pictures from inside the Phoenix in Kirkwall
prior to closure have been added thanks to Kenneth Thomson.
20/6/04
First proper update in a while...
Pictures of the Orient during
demolition are now available here; there's not a
lot left unfortunately.
Updated the page for the Theatre de
Luxe on Sauchiehall Street such that the photo is of the correct
building! - thanks to Ronnie Scott for the info there.
Added a page for the former Queen's/Tonic
cinema in Battlefield Road (now the Mission pub), and the Vaudeville Picture House on
Argyle street, both places that were missing from the site before.
New pages have been added for Arbroath,
Brechin and Broughty Ferry (thanks to
Graham Kelly), and Lochgilphead
thanks to Gary Painter.
'TO
LET' signs have now gone up on the Odeon
Renfield Street, which will now not be closing before February 2005.
Despite the temporary reprieve of Edinburgh Odeon
Clerk Street building being used as a venue called Pod Deco in this years
Edinburgh Festival Fringe, plans to redevelop the B-listed ex-New
Victoria have been continuing. A winning scheme was chosen from three
submitted, and will involve the complete demolition of the auditorium,
and the building of a series of flats overlooking a central courtyard.
The facade on Clerk Street will be retained, and may become a shop or
restaurant.
Have added a page of links to
pictures of demolished Glasgow cinemas that are featured on other
websites.
Finally, a list of cinemas on the Scottish Buildings At Risk list is
now available here.
8/6/04
And another one bites the dust.... outline planning permission has been
granted to demolish the Capitol /
Bombay cinema for a housing development. No word as yet on
timescales for this however.
A free booklet - Cinema City
- Glasgow and the Silver Screen has been created to tell the
story of some of Glasgow's cinemas, and also highlight places in the
city that have been used as locations in feature films. It's available
free from the GFT and CCA box office, and several other locations - see
www.glasgowcinemacity.com
for more information.
4/6/04
The Britannia Music Hall is having
an open weekend on the 26th & 27th of June; a great chance to see
inside this fabulous building. For more details, go here.
1/6/04
Scaffolding and fencing has appeared around the long-derelict Orient
cinema in the Gallowgate; looks like demolition is about to take place.
5/5/04
Quick news update - people may be interested in the following press
release:
|
The Paisley Development Trust and
Fablevision
Present
'Cinema Buddies'
A Cinema Exhibition
commemorating the
Glen Cinema Disaster of 1929
Spectacular Public Opening, Saturday 22nd of May 2004 at 1.30pm
Opening Times:
Wednesday-Friday until 19th June, 10am - 4pm
Saturdays 1.30pm - 4pm
See local press for programmed discussions and exhibition events.
Admission by Small Donation
Venue: The Gallery Space, 27 School Wynd, Paisley. For more information
please call 0141 425 2020
The Paisley Development Trust and Fablevision are currently directing a
project which will culminate with a community cinema exhibition of
artefacts and exhibits.
The project focuses on The Glen Cinema, Paisley, Scotland where a
terrible disaster occurred in 1929.
We have created an exhibition in order to raise awareness and
commemorate the 75th Anniversary of the disaster.
The exhibition project includes an artist residency in the community
and children's workshops for the duration of the exhibition (4weeks).
The whole of Britain was horror-struck on Hogmanay 1929 to learn of the
dreadful cinema catastrophe in Paisley that afternoon, in which 71
children lost their lives and over 40 were injured.
About 1000 boys and girls, mostly from working-class homes, were
witnessing a matinee performance at the Glen Cinema, when dense clouds
of smoke, caused by a film which had started to smoulder in the
spool-room, were swept into the cinema. The cry of "Fire" was raised,
and the children stampeded in panic to the back entrance. This was
closed, and in the frantic struggle which ensued many children were
trampled and others were suffocated by the fumes.
The BBC will be featuring the Glen Cinema Project on the Restoration
Programme later this year.
|
28/4/04
Added a page for Rothesay,
thanks to Des Gorra.
Pages for Wick, Fort William, Stornoway and Dingwall added thanks to Ian
McIver.
Finally, not cinema related at all, but still old and interesting -
some people may be interested in seeing Glasgow's remaining Police Boxes....
27/4/04
Bit of vintage-themed update today... and while the main thrust of this
website is cinema buildings that still exist today, I'm more than happy
to feature older, demolished sites if people provide the pictures and
information!
On that note, have added pages for the State Cinema in Shettleston,
showing its demolition in 1986 thanks to Des Gorra.
Photos of Edinburgh's Ritz cinema
just prior to its closure in 1983 have been added thanks to Alistair
Kerr.
Finally, added an article
on being a projectionist in Edinburgh and Leith cinemas during the
1940s, kindly written and provided by W.L. Hume.
In other news, the ex-Odeon
Clerk St in Edinburgh is to be used as a 5-stage comedy festival
called The Pod this summer during the Edinburgh festival. This
temporary reprieve prior to demolition of the auditorium should provide
an opportunity to visit the building while it still exists!
13/4/04
Updated the Help Wanted list again, thanks
to new information from Darren Manson and David Fergus.
11/4/04
Added a page for Musselburgh,
thanks to the kind submissions from Harry Rigby, Alistair Kerr and
Norrie Mcnamee.
Added or updated pages for Kirkcaldy,
Grangemouth, Inverness, Tain, Hamilton, Newton Stewart, Kilbirnie, Maybole, Coldstream, Alloa, Kinghorn, Leven, Portobello, Rosyth, Lochgelly, Jedburgh, Tranent, Angus, Tayport, Kirkwall, Thurso, Selkirk, Ballater, Dalbeattie and finally Aultbea.
Thanks to (amongst others) Graham Kelly, Alistair Kerr, Frank Beattie,
Findlay Munro, Harry Rigby, Norrie Mcnamee, Gary Painter and Jenny
Yeomans for many of the pictures in the pages mentioned above.
Added a new gallery of photos taken by Frank Watson, during the stripping out of the
ex-ABC Muirend / Toledo - they make an interesting comparison to the
demolition photos available here.
A link to a gallery of photos from inside and outside the
demolition-threatened Kingsway
has also been added.
Finally updated the Help Wanted list
(mainly by removing things people have been kind enough to send me!),
thanks to contributions from a wide range of people.
I think that I've now caught up with all of the backlog of
pictures people have sent me in the last couple of months - so if you
have sent me something that has yet to appear on here, please do email
and prod me into remembering about it!
10/4/04
Closer to home, the page for the Odeon
Clerk St. in Edinburgh has been updated to reflect its sadly closed
status, with some new photos (thanks to Alistair Kerr). The Edinburgh page generally has been
updated with a few more recent photos - and a bunch of new pictures as
well - many thanks to Harry Rigby for kind permission to use those.
Also added a page for the Monseigneur
News Theatre in Edinburgh.
9/4/04
Added a new page for Manchester
cinemas, following a nice morning wandering around the city-centre
there.
Also added galleries for Sydney,
and Melbourne City
Centre and suburban
cinemas.
Also, my apologies to everyone who has contributed to the site in
the last couple of months - your items will make it onto here soon -
I'm slowly working my way through the rather sizeable backlog!
3/4/04
Added special pages for the wonderful Capitol Theatre,
Melbourne and Hayden
Orpheum, Sydney. Many thanks to Craig Cahill and Stuart Greene
respectively for taking the time to show me around.
In local news, it appears that Odeon is negotiating to extend its lease
on the Odeon Renfield Street for a
couple more years, to take it up until the planned Odeon at the
Braehead Shopping Centre opens. However, the recent planning
application lodged by the new owners, Duddingston House Properties, to
convert it for leisure and retail use behind a retained facade, may
well put paid to that.
Also, at least a portion of the ex-ABC
Sauchiehall Street. may become a live music venue, incorporating
the original entranceway. This is the only section of the building that
has yet to find a new use.
Plans are also afoot to redevelop the ex-La Scala cinema in Helensburgh -
plans that may even involve partial cinema use. See http://www.lascala-cinema.com
for more details.
3/3/04
Another long delay - but a major update is in the pipeline, with photos
from Australia and all round the UK. Stay tuned!
In the meantime, here are a gallery of photos from a daytrip to London - including shots from the
film night organised at the ex-Astoria,
Finsbury Park by the Cinema
Theatre Association. All 1300 seats sold out for the showing of
Sunset Boulevard - a fantastic night!
Additionally, I've added a gallery of photos covering the sad sight of
the Toledo (ABC Muirend)
demolition - thanks to Gary Painter and Graham Kelly for many of the
photos.
Archived Updates
2003
2002
2001
If you're looking for the most recent updates, they are now to
be found at the top of the page!
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