IT is already one of the oldest cinemas in the world still operating, having celebrated its centenary this year.
Now the Picture House in Campbeltown looks set to win funding to ensure its remarkable story continues.
The community-led business that owns the cinema has been awarded £51,400 from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF), and passed the first hurdle to securing a further £804,900 of lottery money to conserve the building.
If the final funding is secured, the Centenary Project will conserve the interior and bring the annex back into use by joining the two buildings together.
There will be a new kiosk and cafe bar, and an interpretative exhibition will be created using the celebrated MacGrory Photographic collection, which portrays the social history of Campbeltown and Kintyre during the 1890s and early 1900s.
The final project has been provisionally costed at more than £2.3 million.
Historic Scotland, Creative Scotland, Argyll & Bute Council, Highlands and Islands Enterprise and other trusts and foundations have already pledged support.
Colin McLean, head of the Heritage Lottery Fund in Scotland, said: "The Picture House has provided Campbeltown with a centre for entertainment for the last 100 years.
"The Heritage Lottery Fund is delighted to give its initial support to a project which will not only conserve this well-loved building but will expand its cultural role in the community through activities, interpretation and events."
The town has already been boosted this summer with a new thrice-weekly ferry service to Ardrossan. Locals say recent visitors to The Picture House have made the trip on the ferry from Ayrshire especially to see a film in the historic cinema.
It was the oldest purpose- built cinema still fully functioning in Scotland until the Hippodrome in Bo'ness reopened in 2009.
Even on the international stage, the Picture House has record matched by few. The oldest cinema, The Lumiere in Pisa, opened just seven years earlier, in 1905.
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