In an age of identikit out-of-town multiplexes, the preservation of the beloved and unique Campbeltown Picture House could not be more meaningful.
It is not every town of 5000 souls that has its own cinema, far less such an architecturally significant one.
Whereas today there tend to be fewer but larger cinemas near big population centres, the first 40 years of the 20th century saw dozens open across small town Scotland, some purpose-built, others converted from existing premises.
Many fell on hard times in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, and were subsequently demolished, converted into flats or found new life as bingo halls, but a number are still being run for their original purpose, such as the Aberfeldy Birks cinema, which reopened in April more than 30 years after the last ticket was sold, and the Bo'ness Hippodrome, Scotland's oldest purpose-built picture house, which closed in 1975 and reopened in 2009.
If the Picture House can win Heritage Lottery Funding it will not only preserve a cinema of international importance, but coming after the town's New Quay upgrade and the launch of a new ferry link, will also add to the community's sense of optimism and opportunity.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article