The Playhouse Theatre, 18 - 22, Greenside Place, Edinburgh
Edinburgh Index
Above - The Playhouse Theatre, Edinburgh during the run of 'Beauty and the Beast' in February 2003 - Photo M.L.
The
Playhouse Theatre in Greenside Place, Edinburgh was built for the Playhouse Edinburgh Ltd as a Super Cinema with stage facilities,
and was designed by the Glasgow architect
John Fairweather, opening on Monday the 12th of August 1929.
In 1927 the sports promoter and outfitter Fred Lumley (shown right), who was also a director of the Pavilion Theatre, Glasgow, announced he would build a super-sized playhouse in Edinburgh which could be a cinema and a theatre, depending on how trends moved. After visiting the USA he decided to make it a talkie cinema from the start, but it would still have a fly tower, stage and dressing rooms. In 1928 the Playhouse Edinburgh Ltd was formed and he was joined by sportsman John Maguire, a fellow director of Lumley's Palace Cinema, 10-20 Princes Street. The Playhouse, designed by Glasgow architect John Fairweather, opened in 1929 at Greenside Place, at the top of Leith Walk. Two photographs of its cinema interior can be seen here.
The Theatre was built on a vast scale with an auditorium
of three levels, Stalls and two Balconies, of which the Balconies alone
could accommodate over a thousand people each. Altogether the Theatre
could seat 3,056.
Left - The auditorium of the Edinburgh Playhouse in 1999 - Courtesy Ted Bottle.
The Playhouse was built in 1929 and opened on Monday the 12th of August that year, and although it was designed to be able to stage live performances it actually opened with a film called 'The Doctor's Secret.' The Playhouse was heavily influenced by the American Super Cinemas of the time, especially the Roxy Theatre in New York.
Above - The auditorium of the Edinburgh Playhouse in 1999 - Courtesy Ted Bottle.
The
Playhouse ran as a Cinema for 4 decades but closed down on the 24th
of November 1973 and was put up for sale. Worryingly it was bought
by a property developer in 1975 for £260,000 and its future looked bleak when they put in
a planning request to build an office block on the site. Planning permission
for this was eventually turned down however, but demolition still seemed
imminent.
However, in the background two former employees of the Theatre, Gordon Lucas and Larry McGuire, were setting up an action group called the Playhouse Preservation Action Group and started a campaign to stop the demolition and preserve the Theatre for the future. They gained 15,000 signatures on their petition to save the building and were successful when the Secretary of State put a Class B Preservation Order on the Theatre.
Right - The auditorium of the Edinburgh Playhouse in 1999 - Courtesy Ted Bottle.
Following this, in 1975, the Edinburgh Playhouse Society was set up to try and get the Theatre returned to live use, ideally with Opera and Ballet. They started another petition and gained another 13,500 signatures, clearly the local population had a great love of this Theatre and wanted to see it back in use again. A number of Pop Concerts were staged at the Theatre during this period as an interim measure including the likes of Elton John, Kiki Dee, and The Carpenters, who all performed there as part of John Reid's 'Festival of Popular Music' which tied in with the Edinburgh Festival in the Autumn of 1976, run by Elton John's Manager John Read who had taken a short Lease on the Theatre in an effort to help preserve it for future use. Concerts were staged at the Theatre into April 1977 with the likes of Fairport Convention, Bryan Ferry, Daryl Hall & John Oates, Ronnie Corbett, Clodagh Rogers, The Small Faces, The Shadows, and The Clash all appearing there.
Above - The Stage and auditorium of the Edinburgh Playhouse in 1999 - Courtesy Ted Bottle.
Despite all this it still took several more years for the Theatre's future to be turned around but eventually Lothian Regional Council bought the building and refurbished and reopened the Theatre on June the 1st 1980 with a charity Gala show in aid of the Variety Club of Great Britain. An article on the reopening of the Theatre from the Stage Newspaper of June the 12th 1980 can be seen below.
Above - An Article on the Reopening of the Edinburgh Playhouse in 1980 - From the Stage Newspaper, 12th of June 1980.
Despite several different Managements since the Theatre's Reopening in 1980 the Playhouse has continued to survive and thrive and is today a regular home to the largest of London's West End and other touring productions throughout the year.
The Theatre was taken over by The Ambassador Theatre Group in November 2009, you may like to visit their own website for the Edinburgh Playhouse here.
Some of the information on this page was kindly sent in by Graeme Smith.