A neo-classical cinema on the corner of Canning and Torphichen streets with seating for 2,187, it was known for an elaborate painted proscenium around the screen that depicted atmospheric woodland scenes.
It was opened in 1930 by Gaumont British Theatres as the “Rutland Picture House”, the architect being Edinburgh-based cinema specialist Thomas Bowhill Gibson.
In 1950 it was closed and re-opened by The Rank Organisation as simply “The Gaumont” and in 1958 the organ was removed.
A devastating fire in 1963 saw the cinema closed and it was demolished in 1966. The “Exchange” office tower was later built on the site, nothing of the cinema remains.
Andy says about himself : “I’m a self-taught digital illustrator who has learned the long and hard way by plugging away at it for the last 15 or so years, on and off; I confess that I have never studied art or design and am thoroughly useless with pencil and paper.
“I started out doing technical illustration at university to try and make up for my lack of written effort in essays by embellishing them with elaborate diagrams of earwigs or whatever! With no real training or knowledge of how to go about things, I spent a long time simply finding things I liked and trying to see if I could replicate them.
“This provides some technical skill, but it’s taken a much longer time for me to find a style of my own that I am happy with. I found my feet and style through a love of old cycling posters and bright and quirky mid-century illustration.
“I do most of my image composition work in my head and go straight to the screen if I have an idea I like. I’ve always had a liking for 20th century architecture and also for Edinburgh local history and this series of illustrations is where all 3 of these interests have collided on a page. I have been working on them for some time now, looking back at the dates on the files I’m somewhat horrified to see it’s been 18 months.
“From concept to getting most of the work done probably took about only 1 week and I have been sitting on it since then totally unconvinced with the finer details, digging it out once and a while for an adjustment. Now I hope I have something that is worth sharing with the insatiable market for Edinburgh nostalgia.”
