Gaumont Edinburgh

Canning Street and Torpichen Street,
Edinburgh, EH3

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Additional Info

Previously operated by: Gaumont-British-Picture Corp., Ltd., Rank Organisation

Architects: Thomas Bowhill Gibson

Styles: Neo-Classical

Previous Names: Rutland Cinema

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Gaumont Edinburgh

The Rutland Cinema was opened on 28th April 1930. It was built and operated by Gaumont British Theatres. Designed by architect Thomas Bowhill Gibson in a Neo-Classical style. The proscenium was surrounded by a large painted panel depicting woodland scenes in an Atmospheric style. It was equipped with a Western Electric(WE) sound system. It was equipped with a 3Manual/11Ranks Ingram organ.

It was re-named Gaumont on 6th March 1950. Becoming part of the Rank Organisation, the organ was removed in 1958. The Gaumont was closed on 30th May 1962 due to a fire.

It was demolished and an office block Exchange Tower was built on the site.

Contributed by Ken Roe

Recent comments (view all 1 comments)

Alan Baker
Alan Baker on June 20, 2023 at 5:07 am

According to the report in the Edinburgh Evening News, the fire that closed the Gaumont broke out around 6pm on Wednesday May 30th 1962 during the second showing of that week’s feature film, A Pair of Briefs. There were around 150 patrons watching the film who were safely evacuated (some apparently taking the time to enquire about a refund on their way out). The fire began above the screen (the Gaumont was a back to front cinema, the screen was at the entrance end), and spread to the whole roof which collapsed into the auditorium. There was not much likelihood that Rank would rebuild the Gaumont. They also had the New Victoria (soon to be renamed Odeon) and due to allocation of product rules didn’t even play all of the Rank releases (many of which went to the Playhouse).

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