Description

Dunn and Findlay, 1897. 4-storey and attic symmetrical tenement block with ogee-roofed corner towers and canted bays rising from 1st floor; shops to ground floor, flats above; cinema located in court to rear. Polished yellow sandstone ashlar. Cornice band between ground and 1st floor (egg and dart moulding to underside); cill courses at 1st and 2nd floors; eaves cornice. Windows in moulded surrounds, corniced at 1st floor, projecting cills at 3rd. Mansard roof; dormerheaded windows to attic (segmental pediments to single windows, piend roofs to stone-mullioned bipartites); scalloped parapets to canted bays.

CAMEO CINEMA: original interior of back-court cinema comprising lobby, foyer and auditorium with art deco and baroque detailing. Lobby with original 1914 terrazo flooring and original ticket booths to left and right of entrance, one retaining its ticket machine. Foyer with some later alterations although retaining original moulded plasterwork and cornicing embellished with gilded rococo scrolls and cherub heads. Auditorium with baroque interior, raked seating flanked by arcades of reeded ionic columns surmounted by caryatids; further ornate plasterwork and panelling.

TENEMENT: regular fenestration of mullioned bipartite and tripartite windows between canted bays. Timber panelled door with plate glass fanlight in depressed-arched moulded surround with Mannerist mask carved on key-block - in centre at ground to Home Street Elevation. Wallhead stacks to Lochrin Terrace and Lochrin Place elevations.

Entrances to corner shops in round-arched stop-chamfered surrounds with scrolled key consoles; swept to bowed 3-light windows at 1st and 2nd floors, polygonal at 3rd and attic; decorative carved detail between windows at attic level. Bank at No 26 retains 2-leaf timber panelled storm doors with arched fanlight over and glazed timber inner door in moulded timber surround. Decorative moulded pilasters remain between some shops; No 40 retains deep-set door with decorative tiles to floor and Art Nouveau scroll-work to shop front.

Predominantly plate glass in timber sash and case windows. Graded grey slates. Double-corniced stacks (some rebuilt) with circular cans at wallheads (to side elevations) and ridges. Cast-iron gutters and down pipes with some decorative hoppers.

Statement of Interest

The Cameo Cinema is of particular historic interest as it is the last remaining back of court cinema in Edinburgh (a particularly Scottish form of cinema design), as well as being one of the oldest surviving cinemas in Scotland still in its original use. The auditorium retains its original Edwardian appearance, characterised by a decorative scheme that is notable for its relative completeness and design interest - of partiuclar note are the arcades to either side. The foyer also remains substantially in its original belle époque form.

This cinema was one of many built following the 1909 Kinemtographic Act and opened as the King's Cinema in 1914, one of the first in Scotland (preceded only by the Cambeltown Picture House, 1913 which survives but is heavily altered). The auditorium was formed from a mission hall behind the existing tenement and is entered by the shop front at number 38.

The temement at 46-66 Home Street, 1 and 3 Lochrin Place and 2 and 4 Lochrin Buildings (listed separately) was built as a matching pair to this one by the same architects. Designed by Dunn and Findlay for developer James Anderson. Built on the site of Lochrin House and the Lochrin Distillery. A well-designed and executed piece of urban design, which confidently addresses its important site. The flats, intended for the upper end of the rental market, provided spacious accommodation and, as the Dean of Guild drawings show, were intended from the outset to have both flushing toilets and baths.

Category changed C(S) to B August 2006.

References and notes updated as part of the Cinemas Thematic Study 2007-08.

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

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