Hippodrome Cinema, Bo'ness

The Hippodrome is a theater building in the Scottish town of Bo'ness in Falkirk unitary authority. In 1979, the building in the Scottish lists of monuments was first included in the category B. The be upgraded to the highest category A in 2004.

History

The local organizer Louis Dickson gave in 1911 the construction of a cinema building in order. The following year, the building was completed and opened on March 11, 1912. As an architect Matthew Steele is responsible for the design, planning of different formative buildings in Bo'ness. The round design in conjunction with the name hippodrome suggests a conception as a multi- purpose building, which should also provide space for circus and variety shows. However, the presence of a Vorführerraums in the earliest plans and the project name " Picture Palace " can focus on the screening of films seen, making the Hippodrome is the oldest preserved and built for this purpose building in Scotland. After a short time it has been used exclusively as a cinema. Dickson showed there also produced movies on regional issues, which have been preserved partly in the Scottish Film Archive.

The Caledonian Associated Cinemas, which operated the cinema in 1947, commissioned her house architect Alex Cattenach of Kingussie with the modernization of the building. In this context, the canvas has been enlarged, decorated ladies toilets and pit removed. In the 1970s, the Hippodrome was used as a bingo hall and stood in the 1980s empty. After a time it was already listed in the endangered, historic monuments in Scotland registers that regional administration of Falkirk finally put a £ 5 million comprehensive budget for the restoration of historic buildings in Bo'ness on, which was also funded the renovation of the Hippodrome. As of 2006, the cinema was equipped with contemporary technology and reopened in 2008. The restoration work was carried out very carefully and numerous details in the interior have been preserved in the original.

Description

The Hippodrome occupies a prominent position at the confluence of several roads in the north of Bo'ness. Stylistically, it has many features of the nascent architecture of the new building. There is departing from a round main building, from which several additions to North Street. Links enters the two-story foyer with out the ticket office, which was added in 1926 by John Taylor. However, the floor and the final dome dates from the year 1936. For this year, the wood paneling comes inside the foyer, which was taken from a wrecked ship in the area. The facades are plastered with Harl. To round the event space a gallery running around with 215 seats, resting on cast-iron pillars. The parquet has 510 visitors a seat.