Royal
Incorporation of
Architects in
Scotland

The Scottish dimension of the ‘golden age’ of cinema design is rarely considered despite the country having once had the largest cinema in Europe (Green’s Playhouse, Glasgow, 1927, John Fairweather) with its famous red and gold divans, all now replaced by the 18-screen UGC cinema, Renfrew Street, currently the largest cinema block in Scotland. Moreover, the city of Dundee is at one stage reputed to have had more cinemas per capita than any other provincial city in Britain.

Scotland nevertheless retains some splendid auditoria, even if many are now occupied by bingo-halls or catering establishments. The Salon, Glasgow (Brand & Lithgow, 1913) still survives – albeit as a bar and restaurant – as the oldest, although The Hippodrome, Bo’ness (Matthew Steele, 1911), might well claim this prize even though it was built as a theatre or music hall. The ‘American-classical’ style of the 1920s is well represented by John Fairweather’s surviving cinema buildings at Ibrox (Capitol, 1927), Cambuslang (Savoy, 1928), Ayr (Green’s Playhouse, 1931) and Wishaw (Green’s Playhouse, 1940). There is also, of course, the huge Playhouse in Edinburgh (1928), which is still almost as built and the only auditorium in Scotland where you get a ‘super cinema’ feeling – notwithstanding its success as a home for stage productions.

For streamlined Art Deco, the Capitol, Aberdeen (Marshall McKenzie & Son, 1934) was once a good example but is now irrevocably converted into a nightclub. Some of the smaller cinemas, particularly those by Kilbirnie-based architects Houston & Dunlop, were minor masterpieces of this style.

‘Atmospherics’ – buildings that through the use of interior design imbued the cinema-goer into thinking that they were in a faraway land or a different era – were, however, rather thin on the ground north of the Border. The Muirend Toledo in Glasgow (William Beresford Inglis, 1933) was recently lost, and another Spanish pueblo by the same architect (Ritz, Cambuslang, 1930) vanished long ago. The Glasgow architect, Albert Gardner, produced some extraordinary essays in this style, of which the Orient, Glasgow (1932) and the Orient, Ayr (1932) still survive, but are derelict. This architect was also responsible for the smallest ‘atmospheric’ and oldest purpose-built cinema in the land, The Picture House, Campbeltown (1913), which luckily is still in business. The New Victoria – now Odeon – Edinburgh (W.E. Trent, 1930), was an attempt at evoking a Roman amphitheatre in ‘Pearl and Dean Palladian’ under a starlit sky. It has recently closed as a cinema.

View of the Toledo Cinema, renamed the ABC, Clarkston Road, Glasgow, 1982. SC910811	View of The Picture House, Hall Street, Campbeltown, 1990. SC715024

With regard to exteriors, Scotland had its fair share of faience-coated façades, particularly in the suburbs of Glasgow and the central belt. The remarkable Cosmo, Glasgow (James McKissack, 1939), showing strong Dutch influence, still survives more or less intact externally while the restored 90ft. pylon of Green’s Playhouse, Dundee, designed by Joseph Emberton, is still as audacious in townscape terms as it must have been when first built in 1929. It was, in its day, the second largest cinema in Europe. John Fairweather’s auditorium was destroyed by fire as recently as 1995.

New sources for research into the history of Scottish cinema design have arisen out of the Scottish Architects’ Papers Preservation Project (SAPPP) and the Dick Peddie & McKay Project. Archive material from these two projects has been made available after cataloguing and conservation carried out between 1999 and 2004. This includes drawings, photographs and business records from the Haxton & Watson, Houston & Dunlop and Dick Peddie & McKay Collections, which all stand out as being of great potential to those interested in cinema design.

Perspective elevation of the Regal Cinema, Greendykes Road, Broxburn showing a proposed lighting scheme by Caudegen Neon Signs, c.1936, from the Haxton & Watson Collection. SC800244

The Haxton & Watson Collection contains approximately 15,000 drawings of which 1,982 are for cinemas. Andrew David Haxton (1878-1960) and William Walker (1881-1923) began independent practice in 1907 in Leven, Fife. Adam Watson joined as a partner in 1945 and the business then became A D Haxton & Watson. The practice was best known for its cinema designs and social housing schemes.

The cinema drawings in the Haxton & Watson Collection date from 1914 to 1955 and cover 17 separate sites – mostly in Fife and West Lothian. The earliest cinema drawings tend to show conversions from existing spaces in large buildings such as schools (e.g. Pittenweem, 1920) and public halls (e.g. Coaltown of Balgonie, 1924-27). The bulk of the cinema material is, however, for purpose-built Art Deco buildings of the 1930s (e.g. the Troxy, North Street, Leven, 1934-38). Drawings from the 1940s to the 1960s are usually of alterations to sites that the practice had worked on previously (e.g. alterations to the Star Theatre, Corbiehall, Bo’ness, so that a Cinemascope screen could be installed in 1955).

Detail of decorative ventilation fret for the Troxy Cinema, North Street, Leven, 1938, from the Haxton & Watson Collection. SC757512	Details for decorative proscenium feature at the Troxy Cinema, North Street, Leven, 1935, from the Haxton & Watson Collection. SC910796	Elevations of the Imperial Cinema, Fisher Street, Methil, 1925, from the Haxton & Watson Collection. SC910800

Alongside architects’ drawings are designs by contractors including engineers, interior decorators and lighting specialists. For the Regal, North Bridge Street, Bathgate (1937-39), this includes details and a photograph of fibrous plaster figures by the outstanding designer John Alexander of Newcastle, whose only other extant work is for the Northwick Cinema in Worcester. Before the doors first opened in Bathgate in 1938 there was a delay of a few days to allow the magistrates time to determine whether or not the display of nudes on chariots was a fit and proper object for public exhibition!

The Houston & Dunlop Collection contains approximately 7,230 drawings of which 175 are for cinemas. In 1925 James Houston (1893-1966) set up office in his native Kilbirnie where his son, James B G Houston, joined him in partnership in 1956.

Details of interior designs for the Radio Cinema, Bridgend, Kilbirnie, c.1937, from the Houston & Dunlop Collection. SC879098	Elevations for the Radio Cinema, Bridgend, Kilbirnie, c.1937, from the Houston & Dunlop Collection. SC910601	Elevation and section for the Radio Cinema, Bridgend, Kilbirnie, c.1937, from the Houston & Dunlop Collection. SC910598

The nine cinema projects in the Houston & Dunlop Collection date from the 1930s to the 1950s and are located in Ayrshire and Glasgow. With two major exceptions, the drawings are largely for minor alterations to existing buildings. First is the highly acclaimed Radio Cinema, Kilbirnie (1939). Its 62 ft. high pylon, surmounted by a revolving beacon, was designed to make the cinemagoer feel that this giant ‘radio’ was receiving its sounds and images live. Second is the now-demolished Viking Cinema at Largs (1939). A Scottish victory over the Vikings at the Battle of Largs in 1263 inspired Houston to employ a firm of yacht builders to create a replica of the prow of a longship that stood 12 ft. high in a pool of water at the front entrance. A ‘portcullis’ holding an interchangeable letter display could be lowered over the entrance to provide additional security when the building was closed. The owner of both these cinemas was the Bridgend Picture House Company who partly paid the architect, James Houston senior, with a directorship.

Sections and elevation of the Viking Cinema, Irvine Road, Largs, 1938, from the Houston & Dunlop Collection. SC879095	Details of the interchangeable letter display on the ‘portcullis’ entrance to Viking Cinema, Irvine Road, Largs, 1938, from the Houston & Dunlop Collection. SC800246	The Viking Cinema, Irvine Road, Largs, c.1938. SC910631

The Houston & Dunlop Collection also contains drawings acquired by the practice. These include grandiose designs of 1929 by the Italian architect Alfereri Procuranti of Pistoia for an unexecuted classical building at the pier head in Largs that would have incorporated shops, tearoom, ballroom, and a cinema. This was never built but James Houston did build a similarly ambitious leisure complex on this site (The Moorings, 1935) minus the cinema.

The Dick Peddie & McKay Collection consists of 33,500 drawings of which 321 are for cinemas. John Dick Peddie (1824-1891) founded the Edinburgh practice in 1845 with numerous partners joining over the years. Most of the cinema drawings in this collection were drawn by John Ross McKay (1884-1962) as an independent architect before he joined the practice of Dick Peddie McKay & Jamieson in 1942.

Perspective elevation of the Regal Cinema, Station Road, Shotts by J R McKay, artist E Weir, c.1938 from the Dick Peddie & McKay Collection. SC879083	Design for a proposed cinema, North Bridge Street, Bathgate by J R McKay, 1937 from the Dick Peddie & McKay Collection. SC910793

The seven cinema projects in the Dick Peddie & McKay Collection date between 1920 and 1940 and are for sites around Fife and the Lothians. Given the similarity of period and territory, J R McKay would often find himself in direct competition with the aforementioned A D Haxton. It is intriguing to compare material from the two practices. For example, the collections include designs for the successfully executed Regal, North Bridge Street, Bathgate (1937), by A D Haxton, and for unexecuted designs by J R McKay from 1937 for a proposed cinema to be built on a site just across the road. Sadly, none of the buildings designed by McKay are currently in use as cinemas; two were never built, two have been demolished, one is a nightclub, one a pub, and the other has been converted into flats and an architect’s office.

Thanks go to John Knight O.B.E., RCAHMS volunteer, for assistance with this feature.

For further reading:
David Atwell - Cathedrals of the Movies [1981]
William F Hendrie and Allister Mackie - The Bathgate Book [Bathgate 2001]
Janet McBain - Pictures Past: Scottish Cinemas Remembered [Edinburgh 1985]
Charles McKean - The Scottish Thirties: An Architectural Introduction [Edinburgh 1987]
Bruce Peter - 100 Years of Glasgow’s Amazing Cinemas [Edinburgh 1996]
Bruce Peter - Clyde Coast Picture Palaces [Ochiltree 2000]
Bruce Peter - Lanarkshire’s Legendary Cinemas [Ochiltree 1999]
Brendon Thomas - The Last Picture Shows, Edinburgh: ninety years of cinema entertainment in Scotland's capital city [Edinburgh 1984]