Belmont Filmhouse was an arts cinema on Belmont Street,

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which showed a mixture of films that generally would not be shown in a chain cinema and mainstream films. The cinema building is the property of

Aberdeen City Council gd, Comhairle Cathair Obar Dheathain , native_name_lang = , other_name = , image_skyline = Town House, Municipal Offices and Court Houses in Aberdeen.jpg , image_caption ...

History

The building was constructed in 1896 as a trades hall to a design by architects, Alexander Ellis and Robert Gordon Wilson. It was principally used for meetings of Aberdeen's newly established Labour Movement. The first film was shown on the premises in 1898, and featured footage of

Queen Victoria Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death in 1901. Her reign of 63 years and 216 days was longer than that of any previo ...

at Balmoral Castle, establishing a tradition of hosting visiting cinema shows. In 1910, the Trades Hall was converted into a permanent cinema called the Coliseum. It was refurbished and reopened as the New Kinema in 1921. After another refurbishment in 1935, it was renamed the Belmont Cinema. It closed in 1953, and the building was converted into a warehouse. It reopened under lease to

Picturehouse Cinemas Picturehouse Cinemas is a network of cinemas in the United Kingdom, operated by Picturehouse Cinemas Ltd and owned by Cineworld. The company runs its own film distribution arm, Picturehouse Entertainment, which has released acclaimed films su ...

as the Belmont Picturehouse in September 2000, after a major refurbishment by Aberdeen City Council with assistance from the National Lottery and

Scottish Screen The Moving Image Archive is a collection of Scottish film and video recordings at the National Library of Scotland, held at Kelvin Hall in Glasgow, Scotland. There are over 46,000 items within the collection, and over 2,600 of these are publicly av ...

. After some turmoil and uncertainty, the lease for exploitation on the Belmont to Picturehouse was extended in April 2011 for a further ten years. However, with the purchase of Picturehouse Cinemas by

Cineworld Cineworld Group plc is a British cinema operator headquartered in London, England. It is the world's second-largest cinema chain (after AMC Theatres), with 9,518 screens across 790 sites in 10 countries: Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Irela ...

, the company were forced to sell the Belmont due to a ruling by the

Competition Commission The Competition Commission was a non-departmental public body responsible for investigating mergers, markets and other enquiries related to regulated industries under competition law in the United Kingdom. It was a competition regulator under t ...

that it had created unfair competition in the city. In April 2014,

Centre for the Moving Image The Centre for the Moving Image (CMI) is a registered charity comprising Edinburgh International Film Festival, Edinburgh Filmhouse and, since April 2014, the Belmont Filmhouse, Aberdeen. Its stated aim is to "''provide a national focus for cu ...

(CMI) took over the lease and renamed the premises Belmont Filmhouse as a sister cinema to the Edinburgh Filmhouse. In October 2022 the Belmont Filmhouse closed when CMI ceased trading and entered administration. Belmont Filmhouse (also called Belmont Picturehouse) is a grade C listed building.

References

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Belmont Picturehouse, Aberdeen Culture in Aberdeen Cinemas in Scotland Category C listed buildings in Aberdeen