Lyceum Cinema

Situated in Dumfries, in the Dumfries and Galloway area of Scotland, this is the story of two theatres.

The original Lyceum Theatre, designed by Glasgow-based architect G. A. Boswell, opened in 1912. By the following year it was being advertised as the Lyceum Theatre and Picture House, so clearly moving pictures were becoming an ever more important part of its presentations; indeed, into the 1920’s, this was a full-time cinema, with 1,200 seats.

When the talkies arrived the Lyceum Theatre and Picture House, now under the control of the A. B. King circuit, was fitted with an British Acoustic system, but this was soon changed to a Western Electric system.

In the early to mid-1930’s the Lyceum Theatre and Picture House was demolished and replaced by the new Lyceum ‘Super Cinema’. This opened on 12th October 1936 with “The Bohemian Girl”, starring Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy. The new cinema had been designed by Alister G. MacDonald, and could seat 1,961 patrons. Live shows were presented alongside the films.

The proscenium was 44ft wide, the stage 30ft deep and there were eight dressing rooms. There was also a café.

CinemaScope was installed in the 1950’s (without, it would seem, any loss of seating capacity) but the Lyceum Cinema did not last much longer, and closed in the mid-1960’s.

The building was demolished in January 1970, and shops were built on the site (using, apparently, some of the cinema’s outer walls).

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