Bo'ness

The Hippodrome was opened on 11 March 1912 by Provost Grant. This unique building resulted from close collaboration between two local Bo'Ness men: the architect Matthew Steele and the owner and manager, Louis Dickson.

Dickson was a showman who wanted a venue in which to show films, including local topicals that he filmed himself. Several of these survive in the Scottish Screen Archive.

The name and circular form of the building that Steele produced for Dickson might suggest that it was originally designed as a circus or theatre venue for travelling shows. However, the earliest known plans, dated October 1911, show no evidence of this. They include a dedicated operator's box for a projector and are labelled ‘Proposed Picture Palace, Hope Street’.

The stage had three small dressing rooms, indicating at least some use for variety, but the name and design clearly show that the building's intended focus was cinema. For this reason, the Hippodrome has a very good claim to the title of Scotland's oldest surviving purpose-built cinema building.

Constructed on a corner site, the Hippodrome consisted of a circular auditorium with a wrap-around gallery facing a proscenium and small stage. What little ancillary space there was wrapped around…

The Hippodrome was opened on 11 March 1912 by Provost Grant. This unique building resulted from close collaboration between two local Bo'Ness men: the architect Matthew Steele and the owner and manager, Louis Dickson.

Dickson was a showman who wanted a venue in which to show films, including local topicals that he filmed himself. Several of these survive in the Scottish Screen Archive.

The name and circular form of the building that Steele produced for Dickson might suggest that it was originally designed as a circus or theatre venue for travelling shows. However, the earliest known plans, dated October 1911, show no evidence of this. They include a dedicated operator's box for a projector and are labelled ‘Proposed Picture Palace, Hope Street’.

The stage had three small dressing rooms, indicating at least some use for variety, but the name and design clearly show that the building's intended focus was cinema. For this reason, the Hippodrome has a very good claim to the title of Scotland's oldest surviving purpose-built cinema building.

Constructed on a corner site, the Hippodrome consisted of a circular auditorium with a wrap-around gallery facing a proscenium and small stage. What little ancillary space there was wrapped around the auditorium, filling the corners of the site. The October 1911 plans even show that, at this stage, the lavatories were ‘to be built later’. The flat roof was supported on three girders running parallel to the screen.

Two entrances with separate payboxes led from Hope Street. One served the front stalls, while the other led to the rear, where a stairway provided access to the balcony. The plans showed seating for 510 in the stalls and 215 in the balcony, although it appears that the line of the balcony front may have been altered at a late stage. The balcony was supported on cast-iron pillars. A folding metal stair served as a fire escape from the balcony, and a dedicated, but tiny, operator's box stood at the rear of the gallery.

The resulting cinema represented a very large, impressive and presumably risky investment for the time, but it was clearly a rapid success.

In March 1926, plans were lodged, again by Mathew Steel, to quite literally raise the roof. The original flat ceiling was replaced with a pitched structure, for which the steelwork blueprints were drawn up by the Fleming Bros company of Glasgow. At some point after this, but before 1930, a second stairway was constructed to provide an additional exit from the back of the balcony. The projection room was also expanded somewhat.

Further alterations took place in March 1930, when permission was sought to insert a fire exit door at the centre rear of the stalls. In June of that year, the balcony front was realigned to improve sightlines. These plans were by the architect John Taylor.

Around 1936(?), the manager gained a new, large office when an additional floor was constructed over the tiny entrance. This allowed the former ground-floor office to be incorporated into the foyer space. The addition was topped by a new dome on the corner. The new, enlarged entrance foyer was decorated with panelling rescued from a ship that had been broken up locally.

By 1947, the Hippodrome was being run by Caledonian Associated Cinemas. The company employed its house architect, Alex Cattenach of Kingussie, to bring the cinema's facilities up to date. The separate front-stalls entrance was blocked up, and a new ladies' toilet was formed within the space. Other toilets were refurbished, while the seating was respaced and realigned.

The principal alteration involved enlarging the projection facilities. A new, larger box was built, slightly overhanging the back of the balcony. It had a new, tightly winding staircase and a steel escape ladder from the booth. The orchestra pit was also removed and floored over at this time.

The Hippodrome continued as a cinema until the 1970s, when it was converted to bingo. Despite a few alterations, including the installation of a bar on the stage and the reopening of a secondary entrance, the interior remained largely unaltered.

Bingo closed around 1980, and the building remained empty thereafter. The projectors remained intact and slowly decaying in situ. They were Kalee 12 projectors with BTH soundheads, a BTH EFR amplifier and Peerless Magnarcs arc lamps.

Numerous plans to rehabilitate the site were proposed over the years. Funding, political will and enthusiasm finally came together in a plan to reopen the building as a community cinema and venue, with work beginning in autumn 2006. Funding was provided in part through a Townscape Heritage lottery initiative. Photographs taken during the refurbishment process were provided by Dorothy McCallum.

In February 2008, the keys to the building were officially handed over to Falkirk Council, and the cinema re-opened in 2009.

The site was A-listed by Historic Scotland in 1979 and has been on the Buildings at Risk register since 1994.
Exterior photograph courtesy of Graham Kelly.

Archive image courtesy of the Scottish Screen Archive at the National Library of Scotland.