Green's Playhouse, Ayr
The Playhouse, Ayr, is the finest remaining complete example of a classic John Fairweather Green’s Playhouse. Its auditorium is important as a rare intact survivor of a purpose-built cinema on this large scale. It is of more than local importance as the best surviving example of Fairweather’s large-scale designs for the Green family, with an interior decorative scheme similar to those of the demolished Glasgow and Dundee Playhouses.
The Ayr Playhouse opened on 8th July 1931, replacing an earlier Playhouse on the site which had burnt down. At that time, it was the second-largest cinema in the country.
The design is impressive, fitting 3,116 seats into a building with stalls and a single balcony. Both the Glasgow and Edinburgh Playhouses achieved their massive capacities using two tiers of balconies. The stalls seated 1,757, the balcony 1,303 and the boxes 56.
The plans show that this was achieved by minimising the foyer spaces, squeezing the café into a mezzanine level under the balcony rake and extending the balcony backwards over the foyer spaces to the very front of the building. There is very little wasted space within the building.
Green’s cinemas were built on an increasingly large…
Green's Playhouse, Ayr
The Playhouse, Ayr, is the finest remaining complete example of a classic John Fairweather Green’s Playhouse. Its auditorium is important as a rare intact survivor of a purpose-built cinema on this large scale. It is of more than local importance as the best surviving example of Fairweather’s large-scale designs for the Green family, with an interior decorative scheme similar to those of the demolished Glasgow and Dundee Playhouses.
The Ayr Playhouse opened on 8th July 1931, replacing an earlier Playhouse on the site which had burnt down. At that time, it was the second-largest cinema in the country.
The design is impressive, fitting 3,116 seats into a building with stalls and a single balcony. Both the Glasgow and Edinburgh Playhouses achieved their massive capacities using two tiers of balconies. The stalls seated 1,757, the balcony 1,303 and the boxes 56.
The plans show that this was achieved by minimising the foyer spaces, squeezing the café into a mezzanine level under the balcony rake and extending the balcony backwards over the foyer spaces to the very front of the building. There is very little wasted space within the building.
Green’s cinemas were built on an increasingly large scale. HJ Green explained the reasons for this in a 1931 interview: “Of course my cinema is a success,” said Mr Green. “The bigger the cinema the greater the success. And the reason—because people know they can get in—no-one is wasting time by coming to my cinema because they know there will be room for them. And there’s another reason: the big cinema will always attract because it can give better value for money. Overhead expenses are minimised, and so we can afford to give the best pictures, good musical interludes, at a price at which small cinemas cannot possibly compete.”
Mr Green also talked of the cinema of the future: “In this amusement business the public demands progressive change. From silent to talking pictures, from black-and-white to colour photography, from small downtown 300-seaters to 4,000 seaters. Car parks, cafes, dance halls, these things will all become part and parcel of the cinema of the future. My new cinema at Ayr, besides having a car park, will have a flat roof on which gyroplanes may land. It is my belief that the cinema is definitely establishing itself as the centre of social life in every town.” [1]
Ayr’s Playhouse auditorium featured a small central dome, a series of large Corinthian columns running down the side walls with boxes between them, and a square proscenium flanked by large pillars. The alterations for bingo do not detract from the impressive scale and design of the interior.
The only other cinema auditorium of this scale to survive in Scotland is Fairweather’s Playhouse in Edinburgh. It was built much earlier, very much with cinema-variety in mind, and featured a large stage and many dressing rooms. Ayr’s Playhouse was built solely for cinema use and, as such, represents the best surviving example of technical design and planning for cinema auditoria on this scale. It had been in use as a bingo hall since 1969.
It is currently (2026) empty and up for sale.
The Playhouse was listed at Category C(s) in 1999. In 2008, this was upgraded to Category B.
References
- Cecilie Leslie, “A Thousand Miles of Filmgoing: Glasgow”, Film Weekly, 13th June 1931.
- “Another Cinema Opened in Ayr”, The Scotsman, Thursday 9th July 1931, p. 9. Yesterday afternoon, the fine new building to be known as Green’s New Playhouse, erected in Boswell Park, Ayr, on the site of the former building destroyed by fire in September 1929, was opened to the public, Provost Wilson performing the opening ceremony in the presence of a large company. The New Playhouse, which is stated to be the second largest in Scotland, has a seating capacity of over 3,000 and is finely equipped in every way. The Western Electric talking apparatus is installed.
- “Ayr Building Boom”, The Scotsman, Saturday 12th April 1930, p. 17. George Green (Ltd.), Glasgow, submitted plans for the erection of a building in Boswell Park to replace the former Playhouse destroyed by fire in September last. The estimated cost is put at £25,000, and the building, which will give accommodation for between 3,000 and 4,000 people, will, when completed, be the second-largest picture house in Scotland.
- “Ayr Picture House Plans”, The Scotsman, Saturday 26th April 1930, p. 15. Plans were passed yesterday by Ayr Dean of Guild Court for the erection of a picture house at Boswell Park by Messrs Green (Ltd.). The new cinema is to replace the Playhouse, which was destroyed by fire last September. The auditorium will seat 3,104 persons, while the crush halls and tearooms will accommodate 840.
