Gaumont Cinema Sauchiehall Street Glasgow

Provincial Cinematograph Theatres became part of Gaumont British in 1929 and in 1948 The Picture House was renamed Gaumont, by which time the circuit had become part of the Rank Organisation, its owners for the next 25 years.

By the 50s television had started to affect cinema audiences and Hollywood was trying new ways of attracting people back to cinemas, 3D films made their first appearance in Glasgow at The Gaumont in 1953 with Bwana Devil. Technical problems with projectors and customers needing special glasses have been put forward as reasons for 3D's short life but the fact that the stories were rubbish was the main reason. In 1954 The Gaumont again helped pioneer new presentation techniques when it screened Glasgow's first CinemaScope film, The Robe.

Twentieth-Century Fox who developed CinemaScope had shares in the Gaumont circuit forcing Rank to undertake a full CinemaScope installation at a cost of some £5,000, half of which went on the sound system with speakers behind the screen and around the auditorium with the remainder spent on the screen, masking and rewiring.

The Picture House was opened in Sauchiehall Street in December 1910 by Provincial Cinematograph Theatres. A converted furniture warehouse, it boasted an excellent city centre location and 1,140 seats but started out as a fairly modest cinema in terms of decor until an ambitious reconstruction two years later.

December 1912 and just two months after the La Scala directly across the road had opened its doors the lavishly rebuilt Picture House now with 1,600 seats was unveiled to the Glasgow public to great acclaim.

Behind the red sandstone frontage patrons encountered a magnificent palm court foyer, complete with marble pillars and mosaic floor and featuring a fountain, caged birds and a goldfish pool which according to Scottish Country Life magazine. "Might have been taken bodily from the palace of some Roman noble of the Augustan days..."

The grandeur of The Picture House didn't stop at the foyer, richly decorated marble stairs led to the auditorium and the tea rooms, like those of the neighbouring La Scala became a popular meeting place, in the mid 1920s the foyer was extended and a Wurlitzer organ was installed in the auditorium in 1925.

Originally The Picture House

Sauchiehall Street, City Centre

Opened: December 19th 1910
Closed: January 15th 1972

Number of screens: 1
Number of seats: (1910): 1140, (1912): 1600