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OTHER CINEMAS
OF AYR, PRESTWICK
& TROON
Welcome to the Other Cinemas of Ayr, Prestwick & Troon!
The return of the Broadway has been a project over a decade in the making and our ultimate aim to revitalise our beautiful building and bring the Broadway back into the community is one we are all incredibly passionate about. The Broadway today still echoes the glamour and glitz of the golden age of cinema, when going to see a picture was the height of entertainment and a wonderful escape from reality into worlds unknown.
The Broadway, however, was not the only one to bring cinema to our area, from the 30s to the 60s you were spoiled for choice with an incredible twelve cinemas across both Prestwick and neighbouring Ayr and Troon to choose from. This is where we shine the spotlight on the other picture houses that so many of you will remember fondly to this day.
Click images to view them more closely!
PRESTWICK PICTURE HOUSE
KYLE STREET, PRESTWICK
The Broadway wasn’t the only cinema in Prestwick, situated just around the corner in Kyle Street stood Prestwick Picture House, better known by its perhaps unflattering nickname “The Bug Hut”!
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Prestwick Picture House opened in January 1914 and therefore was Prestwick’s first cinema, with the Broadway opening later in 1935. Despite coming along first the Picture House soon after the Broadway’s opening became the budget cinema of the town, with the Broadway being much more lavishly furnished and featuring a café, newer equipment and a greater capacity with 1,060 seats compared to the Picture House’s capacity of 500.
The auditorium featured a unique seating arrangement where the first few rows were metal backless benches, that were sat almost directly under the screen! Despite likely causing you to leave with a sore neck, these seats were reportedly a cheaper alternative to the more conventional fabric seating behind, and were therefore popular with children. In fact, the Picture House’s reputation as a cheaper alternative to the Broadway was only strengthened by the ability to get in for a jam jar! Even if this likely put you on a front bench. The “Bug Hut” nickname stemmed from an apparent pest problem, with flies and fleas apparently a common nuisance in the auditorium, something that would be far less acceptable today!
The Picture House closed as a cinema on the 3rd August 1957, and was later converted to a motor factory and garage. This was the case until 1976 when the building was sadly destroyed by fire, and subsequently demolished. The only physical evidence that remains today of the Picture House’s existence is a faded advert on the gable end of a building opposite St. Nicholas Parish Church on Main Street, as seen in the one of the attached photographs. From another of the photographs shown you can clearly see just how close the two cinemas were! Note the gala flags on the façade of the Broadway! The Bug Hut, like the Broadway, still holds a special place in the fond memories of the community's older generations to this day.
THE ASTORIA CINEMA
BURNS STATUE SQUARE, AYR
The last cinema standing for almost 40 years. ODEON Ayr first opened on 30th July 1938 and remains a very important building in the history of cinema in Scotland to this day. It was the first purpose-built ODEON in Scotland and now also the only one left despite ODEON's recent departure!
The ODEON was a favourite for cinema-goers in South Ayrshire for 85 years. Early memories include the Saturday morning club for local children (featuring a very catchy theme tune) and queueing in the lane round the corner waiting on the start of the matinee! Our younger generations too will hold fond memories, many of which will include the former neighbouring Blockbuster store that was the source of many smuggled sweets at cheaper prices!
The cinema was designed by architect Thomas Braddock in a classic art deco style, the original single auditorium seated 1,732 until being converted into a triple-screen cinema from 19th July 1987, and then adding a fourth screen in 1992. By carving up the original auditorium, the seating capacities are now 386, 168, 133 and 455 for screens 1-4 respectively.
The building’s exterior design is dominated by a tall art deco tower that stands with a commanding presence over Burns Statue Square. Whereas other new ODEON cinemas being built soon afterwards featured plainer designs, the elegant façade of the Ayr cinema was created specially for the town, being the first cinema ODEON built in the country. Note that the earliest photograph shows a taller tower design too, before it was given a haircut some time in the 1950s! Despite the interior layout changing significantly over the years, many original design features are still present inside, remaining for 85 years all the way to the last ever film shown under the ODEON name on 4th June 2023.
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We visited the last screening on behalf of the Broadway, with Kyle and Guy being the last paying customers to leave the building, to pay our respects to one of the Broadway's longest standing neighbours. Our story didn't end there however, as thanks to ODEON's Chief of Engineering for Scotland, Colin Butler, we were incredibly fortunate to receive the wonderfully kind donation of decommissioned 35mm projection and sound equipment from the building just days after its closure. ODEON Ayr meant a great deal to so many members of our project, and to be able to save small pieces of its history to preserve in the Broadway for future generations was a remarkable opportunity and one we undertook with the utmost care and respect.
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Thankfully, the building now finally looks to have a bright future, with Merlin Cinemas! Merlin have recently announced the purchase of the former ODEON and plan to reopen the venue as The Astoria Cinema. We are incredibly thankful to Merlin for their willingness to step in and save the iconic building, and wish them all the very best of luck for the future! Just like the Broadway and the ODEON co-existed peacefully for decades, we hope the Broadway and the Astoria will do so for many more decades to come. You can read even more about the history of the ODEON here in Issue 6 of The Broadway Bugle as it featured in our second edition of Scottish Cinema Spotlight!
GAUMONT AYR
HIGH STREET, AYR
One of the most popular cinemas of its time in the area was the Gaumont, situated in the centre of Ayr High Street.
Upon opening on 13th October 1921, the cinema was known simply as the Picture House and was operated by Ayrshire Cinema Theatres Ltd. Then, in May 1928, it was taken over by Gaumont, who in December later that year, greatly expanded and renovated the cinema. The capacity was enlarged to 1,800 seats and a brand new state of the art organ was installed, making it the only cinema in the area to own such an instrument. The cinema was finally renamed to Gaumont from 1st May 1950, with new vertical neon signage visible in most of these photographs!
The centrepiece of the Gaumont was the tea room, situated on the main High Street entrance it was beautifully furnished and featured a welcoming team of waitresses, cosy furniture and a roaring fireplace. It was very popular for high tea and the cinema was therefore very popular for a full day out with the family or an expensive date! For the entirety of its existence the cinema stood beside an R.S. McColl newsagent and sweetie shop, that as you can see in the earliest photograph was designed with the same frontage. The auditorium was also accessed more directly from the rear of the building, at the end of Arthur Street where the entrance to the Lorne Arcade now stands, as patrons would queue in a long sloping corridor waiting to find their seats!
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Gaumont Ayr closed on 8th June 1968, and sadly afterwards was demolished for a new business development. The Victorian façade was replaced by a modern frontage that would become a Littlewoods store, this lot is now about to become vacant. Therefore, unfortunately, the only surviving evidence of the Gaumont today is some salvaged sandstone built into the new façade.
THE GREEN'S PLAYHOUSE
BOSWELL PARK, AYR
The second largest cinema in Scotland at its opening on 8th July 1931, Ayr's new cathedral of entertainment was a wonderful addition to the centre of town, with an incredible capacity of 3,116 and today the building still stands as the finest remaining example of a classic John Fairweather's Playhouse. However, this was not the first cinema to be built on the same ground! The site of the Green’s Playhouse has a varied and unique history with multiple building types existing in the early 20th century.
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The first building to be built on the site in 1911 was first known as Boswell Park Roller Skating Rink, a beautiful structure designed by James Campbell Reid with a rounded frontage featuring Greco-Roman pillars at its entrance.
This was converted by George Green into the Boswell Park Pavilion Cinema in 1914 - later renamed the Boswell Park Picturedrome and then the La Scala Cinema. Then, in 1923, George Green employed well-known architect John Fairweather to transform the original building into a new cinema, the Green's Picturedrome. Sadly, this iteration of the building would only last 6 years, when in 1929, the building succumbed to a large fire that started near the stage, which destroyed the cinema beyond repair.
Thankfully, both George Green and John Fairweather would not be defeated, and once the wreckage was cleared, the new Green's Playhouse we still know today was constructed, finally opening as afore mentioned on 8th July 1931. This new super cinema's staggering seated capacity of 3,116 cemented it as one of the largest and grandest cinemas in the country.
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The Green’s auditorium featured Corinthian columns with boxes on the side walls, and a grand proscenium flanked by large pillars. The cinema was also equipped with a café and four dressing rooms for occasional live shows. Most famously these days of course, one of those live shows starred a young Frank Sinatra, who performed two shows on 12th July 1953 - incredibly, only 500 tickets were sold over both shows! In a wonderful example of the visions of the future back then too, in 1931 George Green himself stated: "In this amusement business the public demands progressive change. From silent to talking pictures, from black-and-white to colour photography, from small downtown 300-seaters to 4,000 seaters. Car parks, cafes, dance halls, these things will all become part and parcel of the cinema of the future. My new cinema at Ayr, besides having a car park, will have a flat roof on which gyroplanes may land. It is my belief that the cinema is definitely establishing itself as the centre of social life in every town."
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Now it is unknown if any gyroplanes did ever land on the Playhouse roof, but there is a section of flat roof there so perhaps Mr. Green's vision did once become reality, if not a regular and sustained one! The current Playhouse did survive its own fire too in 1963, thankfully with minimal lasting damage. Then, 38 years after opening, the Green’s Playhouse closed as a cinema in 1969 and was converted to a bingo hall by Mecca Bingo. After surviving for 54 years, Mecca sadly closed in February 2023.
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The building now faces an uncertain future despite being the finest remaining example of John Fairweather’s numerous playhouses, with many original features incredibly preserved. Images here taken just before Mecca's closure show the auditorium's styling virtually unchanged since 1931 despite some fresh paint. Perhaps most amazingly, the rear balcony still features its original red velvet seating and vivid carpets!
THE ORIENT CINEMA
MAIN STREET, AYR
The last cinema in Ayr or Prestwick to close in the 20th century, the Orient stayed around for longer than may have been expected surrounded by such fierce competition from larger chains.
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Located at the junction of Main Street and King Street, opposite the former Newton-on-Ayr tolbooth, the Orient opened in 1932. It was designed in a Moorish style by architect Albert Gardner, and the unique design continued from the façade to the interior, with beautiful tiled mosaics and model Moorish buildings throughout. The 1,616 capacity auditorium ceiling was painted navy blue for the night sky, and the cinema was equipped with a café and three dressing rooms. Albert Gardner designed dozens more iconic Scottish cinemas including the namesake Orient in Glasgow and our friends Campbeltown Picture House!
In 1953, the Orient underwent significant modifications with the installation of modern Cinemascope equipment. With this, many of the Moorish design features like the model buildings were removed in favour of an updated art deco style. The buildings had to be removed to accommodate the wider cinemascope screen that completely altered the proscenium. The first floor of the building in the balcony foyer uniquely had extra doors that opened up over the canopy, providing sweeping views down King Street during warm weather!
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Despite hanging around longer than most the Orient did finally close as a cinema in 1983, with the last film to show being Superman 2, to then become a Top Flight Bingo & Social Club. In the photos attached you can see the Orient as the Top Flight after the demolition of the buildings surrounding it, and the construction of a new MFI superstore in their place.
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The bingo hall subsequently closed too and the building then became the Babylon nightclub. At this time the interior was heavily reconstructed, with a central staging area built around the proscenium and the art deco style removed in favour of an Egyptian themed interior. Remarkably, however, some original Moorish styling cues remain today hidden behind false ceilings and walls, including hand-painted palm trees and remnants of a tent design on the ceiling behind the former cinema screen.
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Since the closure of the Babylon in 2004 the building has lay derelict, although it has at least been repainted in its believed original colour scheme. Perhaps there still remains hope for the Orient's future! You can read even more about the Orient here in Issue 5 of The Broadway Bugle, as it was the first ever feature for our Scottish Cinema Spotlight column!
THE PICTURE PALACE
BURNS STATUE SQUARE, AYR
We couldn’t create a history of cinema series without including the original, the Picture Palace opened as Ayr’s first ever cinema in 1911. These were the very early days of cinema in Scotland, films at this time were primarily silent short features around 15 minutes long, when the film industry in America hadn't even yet made it to Hollywood! Little is known today of the original interior of the building at this time, although the original frontage does still remain the same today.
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The cinema began a transition to dancing in the 1920s, eventually being renamed the Palais de Danse. The palace finally closed as a cinema in 1925, paving the way for a new wave of purpose-built cinemas to be constructed across Ayr and Prestwick from the late 1920s to mid 1930s.
Thereafter the building became the Bobby Jones Ballroom, an immensely popular dance hall for the town and a favourite of the younger generations for many decades. Eventually the Bobby Jones became a bingo hall and amusement arcade until a large fire in 2005 destroyed the majority of the building, with satellite images showing the former auditorium has developed into a unlikely green haven in the centre of the town. Today only the frontage remains, virtually unchanged since the day the Picture Palace brought cinema to the region for the first time.
THE REGAL CINEMA
PRESTWICK ROAD, NEWTON-ON-AYR
Although officially situated in Ayr, some could call the Regal Prestwick’s third cinema. Situated just along from Prestwick Toll on Prestwick Road, the Regal stood just over the burgh boundary and opened its doors in 1932.
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Upon opening the proprietor was a William Ross of Ayr and by 1953 ownership had transferred to the Atlantic Picture House Ltd. F.D. Cowieson and Co. acted as the architect and contractor for the construction of the cinema.
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The Regal had an original capacity of 846 seats and the front few rows were apparently a budget alternative of wooden benches, similar to the Bug Hut’s metal benches in Prestwick. The auditorium also had a comically low balcony that only required a couple of steps to reach!
The Regal was sadly the shortest lived of all the cinemas in our area, standing for less than 30 years before closing in 1956. Upon closing, the building was converted into Rosefield Motors and has remained a car garage and showroom ever since, most recently under the ownership of Arnold Clark Vauxhall. However, the building has been drastically modified, demolished and reconstructed over time, to the point where little to no evidence of the original exterior or interior exists.
THE RITZ CINEMA
NEW ROAD, NEWTON-ON-AYR
The last Ayr cinema to feature in the series, the Ritz first opened in 1935 on New Road and stood just a five minute walk away from the larger Orient Cinema further along on Main Street! Sadly, the original building succumbed to a fire in 1937, with the reconstruction completed the same year as the building we still know today.
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The architects for the original structure were Archibald Stewart and Frank Maxwell, with Frank Maxwell returning to design the reconstruction of the building after the fire in 1937. In terms of ownership we know that the cinema was originally owned and opened by the independent Newton-on-Ayr Picture House Ltd. and that by 1953 the ownership had transferred to Crown Cinema.
Oddly, there does not seem to be any photos in circulation online that show the exterior of the Ritz open as a cinema. However, we do have a sketch that shows the original design of the Ritz as a cinema. And a wonderful photograph of the auditorium during the cinema's golden age of the early 1950s. With an original capacity of 1,078 seats the auditorium featured an understated yet classic art deco design, with a high balcony and beautiful recessed lighting across a wavy ceiling!
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The Ritz is remembered fondly today for specialising in showing Westerns, the auditorium would have echoed to the gunshots and thundering hooves of Wild West shootouts on a daily basis! One very unusual event that the Ritz hosted was the performance of Syncopating Sandy (Sandy Strickland), a marathon piano player who would perform non-stop for days at a time in his attempts to break the world record, which he did in 1956 in Aberdeen!
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The Broadway and the Ritz also share a unique connection. The rectifier that still stands today behind the Broadway's projection room was originally used in the Ritz, with a letter from the archive collection in Glasgow arranging the transfer of the rectifier from Ayr to Prestwick confirming this, no easy feat considering it is the size of a large chest freezer and weighs even more!
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Close proximity to such a strong rival in the larger Orient along the road could have been a primary cause in the Ritz being one of the first cinemas in the area to sadly close its doors, on the 30th of April 1960. Once closed as a cinema the building next became a brewery, before being bought over by the Davis Snooker & Pool Club, which opened in 1983. The Davis Club remains the occupant of the building to this day, who have recently carried out some of the first façade renovations in many years.
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Interestingly, there may still be original design features present in the building although hidden away. The modern suspended ceilings installed in what was the auditorium means that the empty space above remains unseen and untouched!
THE GEORGE CINEMA
PORTLAND STREET, TROON
During the golden age of cinema, Troon had three unique cinemas to choose from and the longest-lived of the three was the George Cinema in Portland Street. First opened as the Embassy in 1937, the cinema was designed by James McKissack, a well-known cinema architect in Scotland at the time having designed dozens of picture houses across the country.
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The entrance to the new Embassy Cinema was beautifully designed with a very unique cloud-shaped façade in cream tiles. Like the Broadway in Prestwick it featured four built-in shop units, two on each side, and the auditorium was constructed back from the façade, accessed via a long corridor that led up to the foyer.
The auditorium itself had a frontage design to match the façade at street-level, and inside the cinema the largest capacity of the three in Troon at 1,200 people. Originally operated by the K.R. Blair circuit, in 1946 after just 9 years open the cinema was taken over by the George Palmer circuit and thereafter renamed the George Cinema. The George would survive far longer than its neighbours and soldier through the 60s resisting any transition to bingo, remaining open as a cinema until 1974.
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Sadly, after closing, no buyer for the site could be found and the cinema remained derelict for 12 years until demolition started in 1986, with the auditorium finally disappearing for good in 1987. Fascinatingly, images capturing the demolition document the George's final moments in great detail, with the interior of the auditorium clearly unchanged for the 12 years the cinema lay silent. We would like to thank Alistair Mulhearn for capturing these images and helping to preserve and protect the cinema's history. Afterwards, the ground where the auditorium once stood became a housing development, and today the only pieces of the George still in existence are the cream tiles on either side of the entrance above the shops, which still survive from the opening of the Embassy in 1937.
THE PAVILION CINEMA
TEMPLEHILL, TROON
The second of Troon's picture houses to open in 1924, the Pavilion Cinema was also the smallest with a modest capacity of 800. The Pavilion was situated on Templehill in the centre of town and the proprietors were the independent Pavilion Company Ltd, who owned only one other cinema, the Picture House in Darvel.
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Locally, particularly after the opening of the Embassy in 1937, the Pavilion soon became known as the budget cinema of the town. With cheaper prices, a smaller auditorium, and likely basic furnishings, the Pavilion was not exempt from the 'Bug Hut' and 'Flea Pit' nicknames that plagued so many of the cheaply furnished cinemas built around this time!
From the few photographs that do exist, we can see that the Pavilion featured a distinctive domed façade, topped with a flagpole and very much standing out from its surroundings on Templehill. The cinema would close and be put up for sale by 1958, and would soon afterwards be transformed into a bowling alley, and soon after that a disco hall. Sadly, the building would be destroyed by fire some time in the 1960s and be demolished thereafter. Therefore, there is no physical evidence of the Pavilion that still remains today, however, there is a Pavilion Café situated just along from where the building once stood, named in tribute to a Troon cinema long forgotten.
THE PICTURE HOUSE
PORTLAND STREET, TROON
The last cinema to feature in the series also happens to be one of the first that opened! The Picture House opened in Troon in 1912, just one year after the first cinema in the region opened in Ayr, the Picture Palace! Back in the early 1910s cinema was truly an all-new phenomenon and purpose-built cinemas were very rare, only just starting to be built. Happily for Troon, a man named John Wilson would plan the town a cinema, seemingly the only cinema he would ever design!
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The Picture House was built on Portland Street with a modest entrance constructed in an existing bungalow, with the new auditorium stretching out behind. From the few early photographs of the Picture House we have we can see three different appearances for the entrance too, with a pillared canopy appearing by the 1920s and by the 1940s, a new modest white façade with an arched doorway.
By 1927 the cinema was operated by the Thomas Ormiston chain, however, by 1931 the ownership was registered simply under Troon Picture House Ltd. so for the majority of its existence the cinema was solely independently operated. The auditorium housed a capacity of 850, featured a moderately sized stage 22ft wide by 15ft deep, and two dressing rooms for live performances. The Picture House had unfortunately closed by 1963, likely affected long-term by the George's popularity, with the rival cinema opening literally across the road!
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Upon closing, a new frontage was constructed and a Woolworths store would subsequently open in the space. Thankfully, the auditorium would be preserved at this time, with Woolworths building a substructure and using the rear of the building as a storeroom. Eventually, however, once Woolworths closed the building would be transformed again and the auditorium would finally see demolition begin in 2011. Fascinatingly, the interior of the auditorium it was revealed was remarkably intact, from photographs taken documenting the demolition. We would like to thank Alistair Goldsmith for taking these extraordinary photos, which show original ceiling design, hand-painted wall murals, the proscenium arch, curtain remains and most uniquely some rather unsettling banners featuring theatrical masks! Sadly, all these details would indeed be lost to history, as was the case for so many of the cinemas in this exhibit.
Nevertheless, we can be incredibly grateful for what has remained of all the old cinemas across our communities. So much has still survived the onslaught of time and for the Broadway we are incredibly grateful for the opportunity to preserve that history. For all the people, all the memories and all the lives that our cinemas touched so dearly.
​​We hope you have enjoyed this online bonus exhibit! We would now like to take the opportunity to thank Gordon Barr and Gary Painter from Scottish Cinemas, their research and knowledge of these wonderful cinemas has been invaluable to our own heritage projects and for that we are eternally grateful. Thank you!
Preserving local cinema history is so important to us, we can learn so much from the golden age of cinema that can help us channel that past into the future of the Broadway! Our older generations' happy memories of the Broadway extend to its neighbours, our cinema stands alongside the likes of the Green's Playhouse, the Orient and the Ritz as reminders of a bygone era and of the glitz and glamour that the pictures brought to our communities.
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We hope to bring it all back to Prestwick very soon!
