Listed Building

The only legal part of the listing under the Planning (Listing Buildings and Conservation Areas) (Scotland) Act 1997 is the address/name of site. Addresses and building names may have changed since the date of listing – see 'About Listed Buildings' below for more information. The further details below the 'Address/Name of Site' are provided for information purposes only.

Address/Name of Site

17 VINICOMBE STREET, THE SALON INCLUDING BOUNDARY WALL AND RAILINGSLB32934

Status: Designated

Documents

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Summary

Category
A
Date Added
22/03/1977
Supplementary Information Updated
05/06/2008
Local Authority
Glasgow
Planning Authority
Glasgow
Burgh
Glasgow
NGR
NS 56791 67238
Coordinates
256791, 667238

Description

Brand and Lithgow, 1913; altered 1931 by James McKissack and 1940 by Burnet and Boston, converted to Salon restaurant 2007. One of Glasgow's earliest suburban cinemas of rare Hennebique Ferro concrete construction, the classical style former Hillhead Picture Salon is decorated with unusually fine neo-Rococo plasterwork to both exterior and interior. Tall single storey and raised basement, 7-bay (bays grouped 1-5-1), flat-roofed, rectangular-plan building on corner site with domed entrance bay comprising plasterwork swag detail and lion heads over later (2007) canopy, dividing pilasters and remarkable interior plasterwork to vaulted ceiling. Base course and plinth, string course, plain eaves entablature, cornice and blocking course raised to parapet at end sections flanking railings.

FURTHER DESCRIPTION: principal N elevation to Vinicombe Street with broad advanced outer bays, that to right with door, centre bays with architraved panels. 5-bay elevation to Cranworth Street with doors at raised basement and low ashlar boundary wall with decorative cast-iron railings continuous in design with Western Baths to S and reflected at cornice.

INTERIOR: converted to restaurant use. Very fine interior plasterwork retained particularly to vaulted, ribbed ceiling including variety of floreate mouldings, Green Man heads, guilloche, egg and dart and cartouche detailing. Balcony partitioned and extended along sides in metalwork and glass, former proscenium area to E also as balcony with flanking steps down to basement entrances retaining 2-leaf panelled timber doors with decorative glazed panels and elaborate plasterwork pediment with lyre.

Statement of Special Interest

Opened in October 1913, the Former Hillhead Picture House is a rare very early cinema survival with fine interior plasterwork. One of only two cinemas known to have been constructed using the fireproof Hennebique Ferro concrete System, even its screen was simply made of cement, and the combination of this early exposed concrete structure with the remarkable decorative plasterwork makes the ceiling treatment and roof structure in particular very special.

The Hillhead Picture House was built as part of the first wave of British picture houses constructed after the Cinematograph Act was passed in 1910. The Act stipulated that the projection equipment had to be physically separated from the auditorium in order to protect the audience from the risk of fire, due to the flammability of nitrate film. Less than 10 purpose-built cinemas constructed in Scotland prior to the outbreak of the First World War are thought to survive. As a developmental stage within the history of this building type, these early purpose-built cinemas are of particular significance.

Originally designed with 630 seats in the auditorium and 133 in the small balcony, the plans include a 'stall for sweets' at the rear left of the stalls. The following article appeared in The Entertainer and Scottish Kinema Record of 4 October, 1913, p14: "In the aristocratic neighbourhood of Hillhead, we are to have a luxurious picture house.....Seating accommodation will be provided for 500 persons. The building ........will be handsomely furnished. A pretty colour-scheme of rose de barry and blue has been adopted. The architect is Mr George M Brand. The best pictures the world can supply will be projected in the most up-to-date fashion. Mr Herr Iff's celebrated orchestra will provide the music, an attraction in itself". As well as all this, it also served tea and biscuits to its patrons during the afternoon.

James McKissack's alterations of 1931 were presumably to add sound facilities, and Burnet and Boston, in 1940, altered the seating capacity. By 1969 the building was in poor repair, and new owners Fyfe and Fyfe, closed it for renovations which included replacing the original, leaking dome. The cinema, now The Salon, re-opened with The Sound of Music in April 1970. The Salon closed on 12th October 1992. Despite a campaign to re-open it as a cinema, it remained empty until it was converted into a Littlejohn's Restaurant in November 1999. After further alteration in 2001, the building was again altered in 2007. It re-opened on Friday 20th July 2007 as The Salon, with a restored interior revealing most of the original ceiling, a set of false illuminated windows forming a focus at the screen end, and a simplified reproduction of the original canopy above the entrance.

List description updated and category changed from B to A as part of the Cinema Thematic Study 2007-08.

References

Bibliography

Information courtesy of Cinema Theatre Association Scotland (2007). Original Plans, Mitchell Library Ref. B4/12/1912/329. A Hillhead Album, Morton, 1973, p93. Urquhat Along Great Western Road (2000), p185. Bruce Peter 100 Years of Glasgow's Amazing Cinemas (1996), p111. Williamson, Riches & Higgs Buildings of Scotland: Glasgow (1990), p353. Louden Cinemas of Cinema City (1983), p70. www.glasgowcinemas.co.uk/saloncinemahillh.html. Doak Klondyke of the Cinema World (1979), Fig 34. Richard Gray Cinemas in Britain (1996), p27. Atwell Cathedrals of the Movies(1981), p30. Mann Story of the Western Baths Hillhead (2000), p43. www.scottishcinemas.org.uk/glasgow/hillheadsalon/

About Listed Buildings

Historic Environment Scotland is responsible for designating sites and places at the national level. These designations are Scheduled monuments, Listed buildings, Inventory of gardens and designed landscapes and Inventory of historic battlefields.

We make recommendations to the Scottish Government about historic marine protected areas, and the Scottish Ministers decide whether to designate.

Listing is the process that identifies, designates and provides statutory protection for buildings of special architectural or historic interest as set out in the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) (Scotland) Act 1997.

We list buildings which are found to be of special architectural or historic interest using the selection guidance published in Designation Policy and Selection Guidance (2019)

Listed building records provide an indication of the special architectural or historic interest of the listed building which has been identified by its statutory address. The description and additional information provided are supplementary and have no legal weight.

These records are not definitive historical accounts or a complete description of the building(s). If part of a building is not described it does not mean it is not listed. The format of the listed building record has changed over time. Earlier records may be brief and some information will not have been recorded.

The legal part of the listing is the address/name of site which is known as the statutory address. Other than the name or address of a listed building, further details are provided for information purposes only. Historic Environment Scotland does not accept any liability for any loss or damage suffered as a consequence of inaccuracies in the information provided. Addresses and building names may have changed since the date of listing. Even if a number or name is missing from a listing address it will still be listed. Listing covers both the exterior and the interior and any object or structure fixed to the building. Listing also applies to buildings or structures not physically attached but which are part of the curtilage (or land) of the listed building as long as they were erected before 1 July 1948.

While Historic Environment Scotland is responsible for designating listed buildings, the planning authority is responsible for determining what is covered by the listing, including what is listed through curtilage. However, for listed buildings designated or for listings amended from 1 October 2015, legal exclusions to the listing may apply.

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Printed: 29/03/2024 11:58