Paisley Cinemas
Glen Cinema
The Glen opened as the Royal
Animated Pictures in 1910. In 1929, it was
the site of Scotlands worst cinema distaster, when 71 children died on
Hogmanay after a call of 'fire' resulted in a panicked stampede. A
recent exhibition tells the story, and details are available online
at www.glencinema.org.uk
The building was converted from a Templar Hall, and had a balcony
running around three sides of the auditorium. It seated around 1000
people on wooden benches. The projection room was at the rear of the
stalls.
Closing after the disaster, the building is now used by a variety of
businesses, and partly hidden by a more modern building built in front
in the 1930s. Much of the original plasterwork & decoration
survives above a suspended ceiling in a furniture store.... The
building is B-listed .
For archive photographs,
and a series of pictures of what survives of
the auditorium in 2004, click here .
Archive postcard, undated
