The Cameo is one of the oldest surviving cinemas in Scotland, and probably the oldest with its interior decoration intact. Now operating with three screens, it retains almost all of its original character and decoration, making it a unique and very welcoming place to see a film.
It opened as the King's Cinema in January 1914 and was named after the nearby King's Theatre. The original auditorium seated 673 on a single level, sloping gently down towards a mirrored screen, the first of its kind in Scotland. A live orchestra accompanied the silent films.
The building was fitted for sound in 1930. After a couple of changes of ownership, it passed into the hands of the Poole family, who refurbished the building and reopened it as the Cameo in March 1949. The Cameo immediately made a name for itself as a continental cinema, offering quite different fare from many of Edinburgh's other cinemas.
The acquisition of an adjacent shop unit allowed a Milk Bar to be added. In 1963, the Cameo obtained the first cinema drinks licence in the city. Even today, the bar remains a key part of the Cameo experience.
The Cameo closed in September 1982 when Jim…
The Cameo is one of the oldest surviving cinemas in Scotland, and probably the oldest with its interior decoration intact. Now operating with three screens, it retains almost all of its original character and decoration, making it a unique and very welcoming place to see a film.
It opened as the King's Cinema in January 1914 and was named after the nearby King's Theatre. The original auditorium seated 673 on a single level, sloping gently down towards a mirrored screen, the first of its kind in Scotland. A live orchestra accompanied the silent films.
The building was fitted for sound in 1930. After a couple of changes of ownership, it passed into the hands of the Poole family, who refurbished the building and reopened it as the Cameo in March 1949. The Cameo immediately made a name for itself as a continental cinema, offering quite different fare from many of Edinburgh's other cinemas.
The acquisition of an adjacent shop unit allowed a Milk Bar to be added. In 1963, the Cameo obtained the first cinema drinks licence in the city. Even today, the bar remains a key part of the Cameo experience.
The Cameo closed in September 1982 when Jim Poole retired and lay empty for several years. Luckily, several proposed schemes to redevelop the building did not proceed, and it reopened as a cinema in 1986. Since then, it has gone from strength to strength.
The interior of the main auditorium is largely unchanged from its appearance in 1914, although both the seating and sightlines have been dramatically improved. Screen 1 now seats 253, compared with the original 673. The screen has been brought forward slightly onto the stage to accommodate CinemaScope.
Another two shop units were purchased, allowing two additional screens to be constructed in 1992. Screen 2 seats 75 and Screen 3 seats 66. This made the Cameo the first independent multiscreen cinema outside London. The new screens are at right angles to the original auditorium, with one on each side. At the same time, the rear of the main auditorium was brought forward to provide space for a new corridor connecting the three screens.
The outer foyer, with its original terrazzo flooring and the remains of two exterior payboxes still in situ, leads beneath the tenements above to a larger, ornate inner foyer and then to the auditorium behind. This peculiar Scottish 'back-court' method of cinema design placed the auditorium in the space behind a shared tenement block, often blocking much of the daylight from the surrounding residents.
The small, flat-roofed Cameo does not cause this problem, although the use of the cinema roof as a drying green can cause problems for the cinema. It is believed that the Cameo is the last of the 'back-court' cinemas still in operation, although some others survive in other uses, including the Rosevale in Partick.
Now owned by City Screen/Picturehouse Cinemas, the Cameo continues to hold its own in the competitive Edinburgh market, even though both the new Odeon and the Filmhouse are only a couple of minutes' walk away. It remains the firm favourite of many of Edinburgh's picturegoers.
In November 2005, it was announced that City Screen was looking to sell the building. As part of this process, the company lodged a planning application to convert the original main screen into a bar and restaurant. The proposal involved flattening the floor and building a new mezzanine level behind a smaller screen.
The application was later withdrawn after a huge public outcry, spearheaded by Genni Poole and the Save the Cameo campaign, which successfully argued that the best use for the Cameo auditorium was to retain it as a cinema.
In early to mid-2006, City Screen took the Cameo off the market and made a new commitment to the building and its continued use as a cinema, as reported on the BBC News website.
In August 2006, Historic Scotland upgraded the entire block of tenements containing the Cameo from Category C(s) to Category B because of the rarity and interest of the cinema within it. This was also covered by BBC News.
A complete photographic survey of the Cameo was taken in May 2005. Many thanks are due to manager Ian Hoey and the staff of the Cameo for taking the time to show us around the building.
A selection of interior photographs was provided courtesy of Pete Naples.
An archive photograph of owners John R Poole and JKS Poole in the Cameo in 1949 was provided courtesy of Genni Poole.
A gallery of exterior and interior images records the Cameo's 60th Anniversary Weekend in March 2009.
