State Cinema

On our way back from seeing Barbie at the Vue cinema in Leith, we blipped the former State Cinema in Great Junction Street in Leith.

Opened in December 1938 as The State Cinema, it seated 1650 patrons in the main cinema and boasted four shops, two billiard halls, and a skittle alley on the two floors above the foyer. 

After many years as a cinema, The State Cinema shut in 1972. It was converted and reopened as a bingo club for a time and in the late 1990s it was reimaged as the Babylon nightclub until its closure in 2001. Latterly, it became a Kingdom church before its closure. Designated as a Grade B listed building by Historic Scotland in 1995, The State Cinema is now thirty-seven apartments with a deep connection to the building’s Art Deco heritage. 

I think they have done a good job and it’s nice to see a building of this art deco character surviving, albeit in a different form.

I hope you have enjoyed today.