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Summary

Description

C M Crickmer, 1916-18. Single-storey, 3-bay classical, near symmetrical former cinema set back from street with projecting central portico with later dormer above, and with gabled auditorium to rear (currently store, 2010). Red brick with raised moulded architraves: painted rear section. Principal elevation to street with base course, contrasting moulded cornice with deep brick band above. Later (post 1985) boundary wall to street, surmounted by railings and with banded pillars.

FURTHER DESCRIPTION: Steps lead to central, slightly advanced, distyle in antis portico with flanking banded pilasters and with 3 later, non-traditional part-glazed 2-leaf entrance doors. Flanking single windows. Central flat-roofed wallhead dormer above with 3-window openings and alternate moulded panels.

6-over 9-pane and 6-over 6-pane timber sash and case windows to street elevation. Piended roof to entrance. Grey slates. Metal urn-shaped ridge vents to auditorium.

INTERIOR: (seen 2010). Auditorium partly raked and with later part flat dance floor. Simple proscenium arch. Some decorative metal vents.

Statement of Special Interest

This is an early surviving former cinema which has been little altered externally and retains some internal features. It forms a significant feature in the streetscape of the main thoroughfare in Gretna. The classical temple portico entrance is a fine decorative feature in a building that was built quickly to provide entertainment for a large numbers of workers at the nearby munitions factory during WWI. It was listed in the Kinematograph Year book of 1947 as having 600 seats. The screen area was widened in the 1950s to accommodate the arrival of Cinemascope and the auditorium underwent some alteration in the 1960s when a dance floor was laid in part of it. In the 1970s, the interior was adapted for Bingo, and a second, smaller stage was erected in the centre of the auditorium in the 1990s. The building ceased to be used for Bingo in 2008 and is currently in use as a store.

The oldest surviving purpose built cinema in Scotland is thought to be the Hippodrome at Bo-ness, constructed in 1912 (see separate listing). This is a rare example of a cinema constructed during the 1st World War and purposefully also as a direct result of the war.

Built in 1916-18, the cinema was erected to provide entertainment for the large numbers of workers hired to work in the nearby munitions factory. The British Government was concerned during the course of the First World War that there was a lack of ammunition for the British troops, and it commissioned a large munitions factory to be built. It stretched for 9 miles along the banks of the Solway and produced cordite explosives. Thousands of workers were brought in from around Britain and Ireland to work at the factory and temporary timber and more permanent brick housing was erected to accommodate first the builders of the factory and then its workers. The township was designed along Garden City lines, with green spaces surrounding the houses and in an ordered plan. The chief architect was Raymond Unwin, with C M Crickmer acting as resident architect. This former cinema is situated in the central avenue of the town, between rows of shops. A railway originally ran up this central street. As well as housing, the workers and their families required buildings to provide for leisure and other buildings in the township included several churches, a dance hall, a school and this cinema. After the war, the factory was dismantled and only a few remnants of it remain.

Courtenay Melville Crickmer (1879-1971) was an English architect, who practised in London and Letchworth. In Scotland, he was responsible for a number of the buildings in Gretna and nearby Eastriggs.

References

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