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Summary

Description

Designed and built in 1936 as a cinema with later alterations to the front elevation. The construction is a simple brick built, gabled shed with a largely contemporary interior decorative scheme using many interior fixtures and fittings reused from the decommissioned RMS Homeric ocean liner.

The building has a symmetrical brick entrance façade (formerly rendered) with a central recessed entrance (now boarded) which has three pairs of glazed timber doors with octagonal glazing and fanlights. There is regular fenestration of narrow horizontal and vertical windows openings to the ground and upper floor. The sides and rear are rendered and the roof is corrugated sheet material with three cast-iron vents to the ridge and concrete skews.

The interior was seen in 2005 and recent photographs (2025) show some later deterioration to the interior detailing of the foyer and staircases since 2005 but overall, most of the original features are still in place. There remains a rectangular foyer with timber panelling and a coved ceiling, circular multi-bulb brass and glass light fittings, and staircases to each side of foyer with reeded Art Deco Grecian-style balusters and newel posts (some lost), and marble tiles to stair treads. Two pairs of polished octagonal-glazed doors lead from the foyer to the auditorium which has the stage at the east end with a low frieze matching the stair bannisters and original fabric curtain. The auditorium has squared pattern timber panelling up to door height level and three non-loadbearing fluted Corinthian columns over the fire exits each side of the stage. The ceiling is composed of decorative compartmental thin sheet square panels with gold-leaf highlights. There is a large flush, circular, bronze coloured electric Grecian style light fitting to centre of the ceiling, and smaller equivalents over the balcony (glass domes lost). There are paired wall lights to side walls and cast iron radiators. The upper balcony has original seating for approximately 150 people on stepped tiers which are covered in patterned Art Deco carpet. (In 2005, the projection room was known to still house two projectors and associated machinery.)

Historical background

The building is first shown on the revised Edition Ordnance Survey map 'Drawing for Lanarkshire' (revised 1940, published 1946).

The cinema was built by Mr J E Sheeran for the local community and he oversaw the construction of the interior decorative scheme, most of which was made using the salvaged interior details from the RMS Homeric. The RMS Homeric started life as a German ship, originally named the SS Columbus, built in 1913 by F Schichau for Norddeutscher Lloyd. At the time, the Columbus was the largest twin screw reciprocating engine ship in the world. She was laid up during the First World War and afterwards was passed to White Star Line as part of war reparations. Work on her was completed in Germany after the war and she came to England in 1922, when she was renamed HMS Homeric. White Star Line used her first for transatlantic crossings and then for Mediterranean cruises. The Homeric was one of the first ships to be used solely for cruises and proved very popular because she was steady in rough seas. On 27th February 1936, she was sold for £74000 and broken up by Thomas W Ward at Inverkeithing.

The Daily Record newspaper recorded the cinema opened on 11 January 1937 with capacity for 700 people and proudly showed the towns first "talkie film” (motion picture with synchronized sound). The front elevation had a flat roofed, rendered facing with a taller central section and more (blind) windows than the current layout. The later removal of the rendered section created a simpler brick façade with less openings.

A photograph from around the time of the opening (Scotland's Cinemas) shows the three columns either side of the stage set on more of an angle than their current position which suggests the screen may have been widened at some time. The cinema boom was short lived and the Rex closed as a cinema in the 1950s. It was used for some time as a bingo hall before closing and it has been used as general storage since closure. Some of the seating from the main auditorium is stored under the stage. The cinema was opened to the public for Doors Open Day on 11 September 2004.

Statement of Special Interest

Architectural interest

Built in 1936 by J E Sheeran, this externally relatively plain and simple structure contains one of the finest and most complete 1930s cinema interiors in Scotland. His bespoke design reusing fixtures and fittings from the HMS Homeric to furnish the interior of the cinema is notable for the craft skills required to achieve it. These included the timber panelling which had been curved to fit in the ships 1st Class Dining Saloon requiring special batons to fix it to the walls of the cinema. A substantial and imposing, flat relief, multi bulb Art Deco style chandelier is fitted in the centre of auditorium. Smaller matching examples are set over the balcony and in the lobby. The unusual provenance and high quality of these elements and the ingenious way they were repurposed to decorate the cinema, adds significant design interest to the building's design.

The current façade retains little detail of its original applied white Art-Deco style shown in a historic photograph, however, it is the building's interior that is of most significance.

Although there has been some loss of fabric to the building and some deterioration to the interior fixtures and fittings, it remains one of the finest and least-altered 1930s cinema interior designs in Scotland. The use of interior fittings from the RMS Homeric significantly adds to the historic interest. The quality of the interior demonstrates the importance picture houses had in the lives of small communities, such as Stonehouse, in the interwar period.

The former Regal Cinema and Volunteer Hall, 51 Queen Street, Broughty Ferry (formerly listed building LB25866) also used fixtures and fittings from RMS Homeric in its interior decoration. However, this former cinema was recently demolished and demonstrates the ever increasing rarity of the Rex Cinema interior and raises the interest of this still surviving example.

Stonehouse is a large village with a square to its northern end from which Argyle Street extends north. The cinema's brick façade is visible from the square due to a bend in the road but the cinema has less presence in the wider setting.

Historic interest

The cinema has very significant historic interest because of its interior design scheme using some of the Art Deco interior fixtures and fittings of the HMS Homeric. Although there are some areas of loss of the fabric the designed scheme of the main auditorium space and balcony, in particular, retain the largely complete design and fully readable historic sense of a 1930s cinema interior.

Much of the auditorium's material decoration is applied and non-structural, such as the fluted columns and ceiling panels, which itself is of interest as a fine and historically interesting example of the ephemeral style of cinema interiors of the time. This is typical and to be expected for a building of this period designed for public entertainment purposes. The decoration was visually striking and high quality but essentially superficial.

Cinemas were a common building type in the 1930s when most towns or small villages is Scotland has at least one cinema and often several. However, they are now a rare building type as many were later converted for other purposes, or demolished, when cinema popularity declined as television and home entertainment became more prevalent. The survival of the interior of the former Rex Cinema demonstrates the importance of cinemas to the local communities in the inter-war period.

Summary of assessment

• Rare survival of a now increasingly rare building type in Scotland which has a comprehensive interior design space, particularly to the main auditorium.

• Historically linked by reuse of fixtures and fittings to the culturally significant ship HMS Homeric. The fixtures and fittings are of very high quality, largely original, and were incorporated into the cinema by skilled craftmanship and design.

• The deterioration of some of the interior detailing has not adversely affected the historic character and legibility of the building as a whole. This externally relatively plain and simple structure contains one of the finest and most complete 1930s cinema interiors in Scotland.

• It has special social historical interest as it illustrates the boom in cinemas in the 1930s in Scotland and how such buildings were key parts of the townscape, local economies and social lives.

Listed building record revised in 2026.

References

Bibliography

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