Library Item

State Cinema, Great Junction Street

Wheelan, Kevin Smith & Wheelan, Henry

1971

The State cinema in Leith opened in 1938, part of a rather forward-thinking multi-use leisure development that also incorporated several shops, two billiard halls, and a skittle alley. The billiards and skittles were in the two floors above the entrance foyer, with the main cinema filling the rear part of the building.
The cinema closed to films in 1972, and became a Mecca bingo hall, and later again into the Babylon nightclub. It is now The Kingdom Church (2015).

From 1900 to 1909, there were around 6 venues in Edinburgh where films were shown. A picture show would be about 90 minutes in length and the programme would include 3 or 4 short dramas.

Cinema chains started to emerge around 1910 and 10 new cinemas opened in Edinburgh in 1913 and another 4 in the following year before the outbreak of war. It is estimated that by 1917 there were 24 cinemas in Edinburgh. When Edinburgh Playhouse Theatre opened in 1929 it was the city's first supercinema able to seat up to 3000 people.

Talkies arrived in the late 1920s, but before then cinema operators would enhance the viewing experience by using music and orchestras or adding their own home-made sounds for effects such as horses' hooves, pistol shots and explosions. Children's Saturday film clubs with songs, quizzes and safety-first films were extremely popular and the first one in Edinburgh started in 1934.

On the outbreak of war, the government ordered that all entertainment venues should close. However, they soon came under pressure to reverse their decision and cinemas re-opened about 10 days later. Cinema-going actually reached a peak during and immediately following WWII when cinema programmes incorporated newsreels and were effectively used to keep up morale. In the fifties, cinema faced competition from the small screen in the home: television. In 1955, cinema admissions in the UK were 1,182 million compared to 1,635 million in 1946. Cinema makers introduced new technologies and novelty factors to attract audiences back to the big screen. Wide-screen and enhanced colour were developed and 3-D cinema was a short-lived phenomenon where audience members had to wear special glasses. Even Smell-o-vision where scents were pumped into the auditorium was trialled.

Find out more about the history of Edinburgh's cinemas and theatres from the Scottish Cinemas website.