Hillhead Salon Cinema, Vincicombe Street
17 Vinicombe Street, Hillhead
The original plans for
Hillhead's 'Proposed Electric Theatre', dated December 1912, are by
architects Brand and Lithgow. The resulting Hillhead Picture Salon
opened in October 1913, and seated 630 in the stalls of a comfortable
auditorium, and 133 in a small balcony, accessed by a stair to the
right of the entrance. Projection facilities were at the rear of the
stalls, under the balcony, and the screen within the proscenium was
simply cement. The hand-drafted plans also include a 'stall for sweets'
at the rear left of the stalls, and a lovely detail of a very posh lady
with big hat standing in the main entrance... clearly a sign of the
type of clientele the cinema hoped to attract, given that it was
described as 'Elegantly Furnished Throughout'!
The cinema was constructed using the 'Hennebique Ferroconcrete System',
and the plans note in particular its use in the roof, operators room,
lavatories and gallery (including the steppings).
Extracts from the 1912 plans, which were clearly modified during building. Courtesy of Chris Doak.
The building is
therefore a rare early use of ferroconcrete framing (in order to be
fireproof), and the combination of…
Hillhead Salon Cinema, Vincicombe Street
17 Vinicombe Street, Hillhead
The original plans for
Hillhead's 'Proposed Electric Theatre', dated December 1912, are by
architects Brand and Lithgow. The resulting Hillhead Picture Salon
opened in October 1913, and seated 630 in the stalls of a comfortable
auditorium, and 133 in a small balcony, accessed by a stair to the
right of the entrance. Projection facilities were at the rear of the
stalls, under the balcony, and the screen within the proscenium was
simply cement. The hand-drafted plans also include a 'stall for sweets'
at the rear left of the stalls, and a lovely detail of a very posh lady
with big hat standing in the main entrance... clearly a sign of the
type of clientele the cinema hoped to attract, given that it was
described as 'Elegantly Furnished Throughout'!
The cinema was constructed using the 'Hennebique Ferroconcrete System',
and the plans note in particular its use in the roof, operators room,
lavatories and gallery (including the steppings).
Extracts from the 1912 plans, which were clearly modified during building. Courtesy of Chris Doak.
The building is
therefore a rare early use of ferroconcrete framing (in order to be
fireproof), and the combination of this early exposed concrete
structure with marvellous fruite belle epoque plasterwork makes the
ceiling treatment and roof structure in particular very special indeed.
This construction method did not catch on for cinemas, despite its advantages,
because architects considered it slower than steel-based approaches
(the only other known cinema building that did use the same method was the
similarly-named Salon in Sauchiehall Street).
In
the aristocratic neighbourhood of Hillhead, we are to have a luxurious
picture house. It will be opened this month, and will be known as the
Hillhead Picture Salon. The site is in Byres Road at the Botanic
Gardens. Seating accommodation will be provided for 500 persons. The
building, which is nothing if not roomy, will be handsomely furnished.
A pretty colour-scheme of rose de barry and blue has been adopted. The
architect is Mr George M Brand. The best pictures the world can supply
will be projected in the most up-to-date fashion. Mr Herr Iff's
celebrated orchestra will provide the music, an attraction in itself.
- The Entertainer and Scottish Kinema Record , October 4th, 1913, p14
One of the first suburban cinemas in Glasgow, the Hillhead Salon was
also notable for housing a full orchestra, and for serving tea and
biscuits to its patrons during the afternoon! Until 1914 and the
outbreak of war, the orchestra was conducted by Herr
Iff, and the prices of admission were 6d for the front stalls, 9d for
the rear, and a shilling for the balcony.
When the Booth family ran the Salon, the entrance was wood panelled,
and the ticket machine was electric - you pressed a button for one or
however many tickets were required, and a motor whirred and ticket came
out. Upon opening the wooden doors with scrolled brass handles, a
velvet curtain on a brass tubular rail fixed on the barrier behind the
back row of stalls seats was revealed.
In the centre of the auditorium ceiling there was an oval house light,
and on the side walls in the middle of the plaster work panels were
lights with shades with a 3D hexagonal shape with black lines round
them - in the 1950s these were still gas lights, and the doorman went
round with his pole to dowse them just before the main lights went up
and the National Anthem was played. In front of the stage there was an
orchestra pit with the rail sloping up from the centre, and at the at
outer sides of the rail there were big round ball lights.
Exterior
Foyer
View to front
View to rear
Photos from 1982, courtesy of the Scottish Screen Archive at National Library of Scotland
To get to the projection room you had to go in through the Gents toilet
door and turn right. All this was altered when it was done up in the
1970s, when Westrex projection and sound equipment were put in - two
projectors then changed to a single projector with tower, and Xenon and
transistor sound. Until the 1960s, the Salon was paying the next-door
Western Baths £200 a year to provide steam for its heating, and had
cause to complain several times of insufficient supply!
The Salon sold books of five tickets at a discount over the full price - this was a good deal, especially for students.
Salon in 1984
Courtesy John & David Anderson
Alterations took place in 1931 by James McKissack (presumably to add sound facilities), and then again
in 1940 by Burnet and Boston, by which time it seated 544. By 1969 it
was quite run down, and was bought by new owners Fyfe and Fyfe, who
closed it for renovations (including replacing the original, leaking
dome) and renamed it simply the Salon. The first film on re-opening in
April 1970 was The Sound of Music.
In 1977, the Salon was listed Category B
by Historic Scotland, one of the first cinemas in Scotland to be given
this honour. In 1988, it was sold to Caledonian Associated Cinemas, who
also owned the nearby Grosvenor .
The photos below were taken in 1990 (courtesy Bruce Peter), and show
the stunning interior after being redecorated by CAC, who also
installed a new screen - the original proscenium was by this time
hidden by the later cinemascope screen.
The Salon closed suddenly on 12th October 1992, when staff turned up
for work to find themselves locked out. Despite a huge public outcry
and campaign to re-open it as a cinema, it remained derelict until it
was converted into a Littlejohn's Restaurant in November 1999.
This was a generally tasteful restoration of much of the original
interior - especially the barrel-vaulted ceiling and plasterwork
details on the side walls - with silent film clips shown on a screen within
the original proscenium.
The balcony was walled in at this point to
provide toilet and office space upstairs, with kitchens and toilets
downstairs. A reproduction of an earlier period canopy was also
introduced to replace the more modern 1970s lightbox of the final cinema years.
Littlejohn's closed for refurbishment in April 2001, shortly after being purchased (along with the nearby Grosvenor Cinema ) by the Glasgow-based G1 Group - click here
for more pictures of the Salon after closure as Littlejohn's Restaurant.
The building re-opened as the Gong Bar/Restaurant on 6th October 2001.
This refurbishment had installed a new lowered, neon ceiling, hidden
most of the original features inside, and added 2 separate mezzanine
levels inside the shell, as well as opening up a new window into the
balcony where the canopy used to be. The bar at the rear occupied the
space of the original balcony, with a flat floor and accessed via a new
central stair. A similar raised bar area was at the screen end, with the
raked stalls floor levelled.
However, according to the council at the
time of these alterations, " the original raked auditorium floor, and
the decorative plasterwork to the walls and ceiling are all retained in
situ and are capable of being re-instated ". The only original areas exposed were the fire-exits on either side of the screen, which had
their wooden doors intact.
In August 2006, G1 Group filed a new planning application to further alter the building, by replacing the
Glasgow-style art nouveau panels on the exterior with similar designs
in back-lit glass, to open out the entrance vestibule by removing the
modern glass doors, to insert three sky-lights in the ceiling to get
more light into the building, and to extend the balcony level right
across to the screen, creating an additional 60 square metres of
floorspace for the restaurant.
Restored ceiling gallery
This
application was later revised to remove the proposed skylights, scale
back the floor extensions, and to reveal and restore most of the
original decorative ceiling and upper side walls. The revamped venue re-opened as The Salon
on Friday 20th July, 2007. With most of the original ceiling revealed
and restored, a set of false illuminated windows forming a focus at the
screen end, and a simplified reproduction of the original canopy above
the entrance, the new Salon is set to be a success for years to come.
In 2008, Historic Scotland upgraded the listed status of the building to Category A - the highest possible level, in view of its unique architectural importance.
References
Official
Gong/Salon
website
Original Plans, Mitchell Library Ref. B4/12/1912/329
A Hillhead Album, Morton, 1973, p93
Along Great Western Road, Urquhat, 2000, p185
100 Years of Glasgow's Glorious Cinemas, Peter, 1996, p111
Buildings of Scotland: Glasgow, Williamson, Riches, Higgs, 1990, p353
Cinemas of Cinema City, Louden, 1983, p70
The Glasgow Story website, Salon page
Klondyke of the Cinema World, Doak, 1979, Fig 34
Cinemas in Britain, Richard Gray, 1996, p27
Cathedrals of the Movies, Atwell, 1981, p30
Story of the Western Baths Hillhead, Mann, 2000, p43
Thanks to Frank Watson and Jim Mitchell for their memories of the building.
