Originally the Hillhead Picture Salon

17 Vinicombe Street, Hillhead

Opened: October 4th 1913
Closed: October 12th 1992

Designed by: Brand and Lithgow
Designed by James McKissack

Number of screens: 1

Number of seats
(1913): 672, (1931): 544, (1970): 406

Opened in October 1913, The Hillhead Picture Salon was the oldest purpose-built cinema in Britain until its brutal and unnecessary closure in 1992.

Designed by Brand and Lithgow, The Salon featured Art Deco panels, moulded plaster garlands and a high standard of decor inside and out, all topped with an impressive dome above the entrance, all of which would in 1977 help it to achieve listed building status.

By the late '50s lack of investment saw The Salon start to look very shabby but it survived thanks to the loyalty of its patrons.

In 1969 The Salon was sold by the Brook family to Fyfe and Fyfe who refurbished it, fitting new seats and carpets, redesigned the foyer and repaired the fabric of the building. Although this refurbishment was initially successful, because The Salon was F&Fs only cinema it lacked the booking clout of the large chains and was usually reduced to playing second run Rank releases.

The future of The Salon was once again uncertain until 1987 when it was bought by Caledonian Cinemas who already owned The Grosvenor in Ashton Lane, giving the company a monopoly of Hillhead cinemas and the potential for great programming and cross promotion.

Sadly a combination of unimaginative booking by CACs head office and an increasing lack of interest in cinema by a company who saw the future in bingo and fast food meant that The Salon would never realise its full potential and plans by the last manager of The Salon, Lennox McNeil (who also ran The Grosvenor after the death of manager John Wright) to book his own films and run The Salon as a GFT style cinema came to nothing although one -day specials of Gone With the Wind, Ryan's Daughter and a Looney Tunes Saturday afternoon show proved very popular.

In October 1992 The Salon was suddenly closed by a company who now smelled the money being offered by the neighbouring Western Baths Club, keen to extend their premises.

Press coverage, local protest, celebrity endorsement and a 15,000 signature SOS petition were all to no avail, a planning enquiry rejected the Western Baths Club proposals and The Salon was converted into a branch of the short - lived CAC Leisure fast food chain Littlejohns until 2000 when it was sold to Stefan King's G1 Group who now operate it as Gong restaurant.