The Belmont Cinema is an arthouse cinema on Belmont Street,

Aberdeen Aberdeen ( ; ; ) is a port city in North East Scotland, and is the List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, third most populous Cities of Scotland, Scottish city. Historically, Aberdeen was within the historic county of Aberdeensh ...

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and is the last remaining independent cinema in the city. The cinema building is the property of

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and is temporarily closed following the collapse of its former operator, the Centre for the Moving Image (CMI), in 2022. Belmont Community Cinema Ltd were named by Aberdeen City Council as preferred operator for the site in September 2023, with an expected reopening date of late 2024. The building was open as part of Aberdeen's 2024 Doors Open Day on 7 and 8 September.

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 Death and state funeral of Queen Victoria, her death in January 1901. Her reign of 63 year ...

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, 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 s ...

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 a ...

. 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 Regal Cineworld Group (trading as Cineworld) is a British cinema operator headquartered in London, England. It is the world's second-largest cinema chain (after AMC Theatres), with 9,139 screens across 747 sites in 10 countries: Bulgaria, Czec ...

, 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 (CMI) took over the lease and renamed the premises Belmont Filmhouse as a sister cinema to the Edinburgh Filmhouse. It closed in October 2022 when CMI ceased trading and entered administration. Following CMI's collapse, the 'Save The Belmont Cinema' campaign was founded by local cinephiles and business people. This led to the creation of Belmont Community Cinema Ltd, a local charity dedicated to reopening the Belmont which was selected as preferred operator for the cinema by Aberdeen City Council in September 2023. At a public meeting in October 2023, the new company pledged to put film, education, community and customer experience at the heart of a newly reinvigorated offering at the site. The cinema is a grade C

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Belmont Picturehouse, Aberdeen Culture in Aberdeen Cinemas in Scotland Category C listed buildings in Aberdeen 1910 establishments in Scotland 2022 disestablishments in Scotland