Curzon Cinema

garypainter on August 13, 2007 at 3:20 am

As a nightclub, the building seems to change names every few years – it was called The Velvet Rooms in the mid-90s, before very briefly being renamed Bed, then Blanket sometime in the early 2000s. Now known as Guru, the interior is subdivided into various rooms, with no trace of the former use as a cinema evident in the public areas at least.

The building’s front and rear facade pre-date the cinema, having seemingly been built as a piano showroom in the 1890s, hence the Beethoven bust. There may be elements of even older 19th-century building between the parallel facades on Sauchiehall and Renfrew Streets. Cinema specialist John Fairweather was responsible only for the cinema conversion in 1912, which was largely internal alterations. The earlier exterior work was by David Paton Low, with later upper floors by Bruce & Hay.