George Cinema

The cinema was opened as The County Cinema at a grand opening ceremony on Thursday, 30 March 1939, at 2.30 pm, performed by Bailie James Edward. The feature films of the opening programme were Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and Air Devils. The cinema building was designed by Thomas Bowhill Gibson, who is also responsible for the Dominion Cinema in Morningside, Edinburgh. The promoters were Messrs Scott Paulo & Company. The cost of the cinema was £20,000 and upon opening it seated 1600 people. The cinema featured a wide knee-room, saucer-shaped layout ensuring no seat is immediately behind another, Western Electric Mirrophonic sound and Holophone lighting system.

Thomas Bowhill Gibson's County Cinema is a noted example of Art Deco architecture and, in particular, the Streamline Moderne style that had become popular in the 1920s for its association with modern transport, sports and leisure. Gibson had been influenced by the geometrical, Modernist building forms that were emerging in France, the Netherlands and Germany. The County Cinema was designed with bold, geometric towers and a smooth, unornamented façade painted in two shades of blue. Inspired by the emerging night architecture style of the 1930s, Gibson also added a central glass brick tower, which was lit internally with coloured lights, exploiting the new possibilities of electric light.