This is a travesty, and I can’t believe it could be true. One of the best cinema’s in Edinburgh is looking like it might be turned into a pub. The owners of the Cameo cinema are in talks to sell and convert it into a pub.
That’s ridiculous. In Edinburgh there are a lot of multiplexes playing the standard movies, but we only have the Filmhouse and the Cameo playing independent, foreign, documentaries, shorts, etc. However, it doesn’t sound that bad in the plans once you delve into the story from the Scotsman. It’s not going to be lost entirely.
City Screen, which owns the Cameo, is in negotiation to sell the historic venue, but has also submitted a planning application to rip out more than half its seats so a bar can be installed in the Tollcross cinema.
Under the proposals, the main auditorium would be converted into a bar, the existing bar would be turned into a 31-seat third auditorium and two smaller screens would remain in place.
That’s pretty bad though. You should see their main screen, it’s huge and looks probably just as it did when it originally opened. It’s a superb cinema to see a movie in, I do genuinely love it.
Genni Poole is the daughter of the man who refurbished the cinema in 1949 and began bringing continental movies to the cinema the following year. He really began what the cinema is all about. She was appauled at the plans, and has said she will fight the plans to convert, as have many leading names in Scottish cinema.
However I can’t help but think this is typical of our short sighted Council and Goverment. Letting so many Multiplexes into the City Centre, funding the multiplexes to convert to digital and show more independent films, and not giving thought to the smaller cinemas. Won’t be long before we lose the other great cinema, the Dominion.
Any other Scottish or even Edinburgh folks who are concerned about this?
