Kingsway / Vogue
1235 Cathcart Road, Cathcart
The Kingsway opened in May 1929,
and was designed by architect James McKissack.
It seated 1,432 and was
orginally run by the company Kingsway Cinema
Ltd., before being sold to Singleton cinemas in 1950, when it was
renamed the Vogue. It closed to films in March 1965, and was used for
bingo until June 1986, since when it has sat empty and unused.
It was B-listed
by Historic Scotland in 1993. Despite this, the
building has been allowed to deteriorate and no attempt has been made
to maintain the fabric of the building. It was later added to the
register of Scottish Buildings
At Risk .
In November 2003, a planning application was submitted to demolish the
cinema and build new flats on the land and green space behind it. This
claimed that the building was dangerous, and that retaining the facade
in any future development was impractical. Sadly, this argument was
accepted by Historic Scotland, and the application was granted
by Glasgow City Council in 2006.
In
December 2004, it
appears
the developers were seeking permission to demolish the building on
public safety grounds, but were only allowed to 'make safe' the
Kingsway / Vogue
1235 Cathcart Road, Cathcart
The Kingsway opened in May 1929,
and was designed by architect James McKissack.
It seated 1,432 and was
orginally run by the company Kingsway Cinema
Ltd., before being sold to Singleton cinemas in 1950, when it was
renamed the Vogue. It closed to films in March 1965, and was used for
bingo until June 1986, since when it has sat empty and unused.
It was B-listed
by Historic Scotland in 1993. Despite this, the
building has been allowed to deteriorate and no attempt has been made
to maintain the fabric of the building. It was later added to the
register of Scottish Buildings
At Risk .
In November 2003, a planning application was submitted to demolish the
cinema and build new flats on the land and green space behind it. This
claimed that the building was dangerous, and that retaining the facade
in any future development was impractical. Sadly, this argument was
accepted by Historic Scotland, and the application was granted
by Glasgow City Council in 2006.
In
December 2004, it
appears
the developers were seeking permission to demolish the building on
public safety grounds, but were only allowed to 'make safe' the
building by cutting down some of the pediments and pull off some loose
render on the facade.
A new application (06/02195/DC)
was published on June 21st 2006 to try remove one of the planning
consent conditions required for demolition of the building - namely
that no demolition should take place before legal contracts were in
place for the replacement building. This had a 3 week consultation
period, but demolition started anyway the week beginning the 7th August
- well before the consultation period had closed!
The office of local MP Tom Harris then spoke directly to the head of
planning, and succeeded in having the demolition stopped, at least
temporarily, as they agreed that 'demolition was started prematurely'.
This allowed for a proper asbestos survey and check for bats to be
carried out, before demolition resumed and the building was flattened
by the 20th of August.
For more pictures of the exterior before demolition, click here .
For a selection of photos of the
exterior and interior circa January 2004 click here .
For a full interior photo survey from July 2005, click here .
1980s photos courtesy Chris Doak
