Edinburgh Playhouse - Edinburgh, Scotland, UK
Posted by: 
Metro2
N 55° 57.415 W 003° 11.122
30U E 488426 N 6201300
Now a Playhouse, this theatre opened as a cinema in 1929 and operated as such until the 1970s.
Waymark Code: WM181M0
Location: Southern Scotland, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 05/10/2023
Views: 0
Wikipedia (
visit link) informs us:
"Edinburgh Playhouse is a theatre in Edinburgh, Scotland. With 3,059 seats[a] it is the largest in Scotland and second largest theatre in the United Kingdom, after the Hammersmith Apollo. The theatre is owned by Ambassador Theatre Group.
Building history
The theatre opened on 12 August 1929 as a super-cinema, and was modelled on the Roxy Cinema in New York. It was designed by the specialist cinema architect John Fairweather, most famous for his Green's Playhouse cinema in Glasgow. The original colour scheme was described on opening as follows:
"Tones of ivory and stone predominate on the walls, and the roof is decorated with bands of pale green leaves intersected with gold at intervals. The seats in the different parts of the house have been upholstered to harmonise with the general scheme of the decoration. The organ fronts are in Venetian style, and the clock settings, which are square, are neat and attractive."
The cinema closed down in the early 1970s. Following a threat of demolition, a public campaign achieved a petition of 15,000 signatures which resulted in the building being listed as Category B in 1974. The cinema was then converted into a theatre in 1978-80 by the Lothian Region Architects Department. In 1983, the theatre was sold by Edinburgh District Council into private ownership. The theatre was owned respectively by Norman Springfield, Apollo Leisure Group, SFX and Clear Channel Entertainment before coming to its current owners, ATG in 2009.
The listed status of the building was upgraded by Historic Scotland to Category A in 2008.
Performances
Edinburgh Playhouse stage and right hand box in 2023
In recent years, The Playhouse has played host to a wide variety of artists and shows.
It also caters to the youth of the surrounding area who are involved in stage experience projects and youth musicals projects in which children as young as 10, and young adults as old as 21, can take part in shows on the stage.
It is used as a venue for both the Edinburgh International Festival and Edinburgh Festival Fringe each August."