The Ritz cinema was built for the Scottish Cinema and Variety Theatres circuit, who were a foundational part of what would later become the national ABC cinema chain under the ownership of Glasgow lawyer John Maxwell.
It was designed by William Beresford Inglis, who was both an architect and later cinema/hotel owner. He designed many of his own buildings including the Toledo Cinema in Muirend and the Beresford Hotel in Sauchiehall Street, both of which remain as art deco landmarks converted to flats.
One of his trademark styles was to adopt the "atmospheric" style of cinema design, where the auditorium was built to resemble an exterior piazza or courtyard, surrounded by miniature 3-D plaster buildings under a ceiling painted to resemble a sky, often at night with twinkling star light effects. The Ritz was designed as an atmospheric although only one low quality photograph of its interior seems to have survived, showing a scene with Spanish-style buildings and trees.
The main entrance was via a giant white arch flanked by lanterns and the auditorium gable was set back at an angle above a single-storey row of shops, where the cinema's name was repeated in lettering on the roofline.
Run as…
The Ritz cinema was built for the Scottish Cinema and Variety Theatres circuit, who were a foundational part of what would later become the national ABC cinema chain under the ownership of Glasgow lawyer John Maxwell.
It was designed by William Beresford Inglis, who was both an architect and later cinema/hotel owner. He designed many of his own buildings including the Toledo Cinema in Muirend and the Beresford Hotel in Sauchiehall Street, both of which remain as art deco landmarks converted to flats.
One of his trademark styles was to adopt the "atmospheric" style of cinema design, where the auditorium was built to resemble an exterior piazza or courtyard, surrounded by miniature 3-D plaster buildings under a ceiling painted to resemble a sky, often at night with twinkling star light effects. The Ritz was designed as an atmospheric although only one low quality photograph of its interior seems to have survived, showing a scene with Spanish-style buildings and trees.
The main entrance was via a giant white arch flanked by lanterns and the auditorium gable was set back at an angle above a single-storey row of shops, where the cinema's name was repeated in lettering on the roofline.
Run as an ABC for the entirety of its short life, it was closed in 1960 and demolished a couple of years later for a development of shops and offices. A nearby bar still carries the Ritz name.
