George Cinema

In Bellshill, a former mining town in North Lanarkshire that is ten miles southeast of Glasgow city centre, the proprietor of Associated G. P. [General Provincial] Cinemas, George Palmer, acquired a vacant lot on Main Street in 1938.

He was already familiar with the town, having moved there in 1925 and become the manager (and later owner) of the Alhambra Cinema (see separate Cinema Treasures entry).

In 1938 he had been on a Cinematograph Exhibitors' Association trip to London, where he had been so impressed with the then-new Odeon, Leicester Square, that he was determined to build what he described as “Lanarkshire’s answer to the London Odeon”.

However, no sooner had he acquired the land - and begun erecting the steel framework - than the war intervened - and it was not until 24th November 1951 when his ‘dream-child’ finally opened, with “The Toast of New Orleans”, starring Mario Lanza and Kathryn Grayson. (And even then construction so soon after the war had only been made possible after much lobbying of the government by the powerful National Union of Mineworkers' Lanarkshire Branch, with the permits being issued in 1948.)

As at the Odeon, Leicester Square, the most striking feature was the corner tower which featured glass bricks that were illuminated from within.

The George Cinema initially closed in 1974 and was acquired by County Properties. They wanted to convert it into a bingo hall but, with the Alhambra Cinema already on bingo, their request for a licence was refused.

They soldiered on with films, but eventually gave up on their quest for a bingo licence, and closed the George Cinema in autumn 1982.

Sadly, this imposing building was then promptly demolished.

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