County, Cumbernauld
County, Cumbernauld
of Alan Bunting.
Archive photographs courtesy of Hugh Thomson.
Purpose
built by/for County
Bingo in 1978; a condition of getting planning permission was that they
had to build a cinema as well as a bingo hall. These were side by side
with the entrance to the cinema via the left hand roller shuttered
entrance in the outside view. This entrance was just inside the dark
hole visible on the left hand side of the end-on exterior view of the
building.
Cinema closed after being run down in the early 1980s.
The cinema then became a theme bar before being converted into a dining
area / bar for the Bingo operation. This was achieved by putting
a false floor over the original cinema sloping floor, which
reduced the ceiling height to around 12 feet and installing staircases
which lead down to the adjacent bingo hall.
The projection box is now a kitchen (see switch boxes on wall in
original and current views) and that in the battery/switch room there
are still distribution boxes labelled "Cinema" "Tabs/Masking"
etc.
