Green's Playhouse

Following a series of newspaper advertisements highlighting the comfort and strength of the building, Green's Playhouse, was opened on 15 September 1927 by George Green Ltd. The building was the culmination of four years' work by the Green family, originally travelling fairground showmen from Preston who had moved their business to Vinegar Hill, Gallowgate, Glasgow in the late 19th century. The architect, John Fairweather, specialised in cinema design and had previously designed Green's Picturedromes in Tollcross and Rutherglen. He toured America in 1922 to study cinema design, and submitted plans in 1925 which were approved. Construction commenced on a venue that would have a cinema, ballroom, tea rooms and other auxiliary facilities.

Fairweather was to design three other Green's Playhouses, Ayr[1] (1931), Dundee[2] (1936), and Wishaw[3] (1940). All four buildings displayed elaborate Corinthian columned interiors with the family slogan It's Good – It's Green's woven into the custom-made carpets laid throughout the buildings. Other notable cinemas by Fairweather include the Savoy[4] in Cambuslang (1929), the Ritz Cinema,[5] Burton-on-Trent (1935), the Ritz Cinema,[6] Wigan (1938), and the Playhouse[7] in Edinburgh (1927), designed as a super cinema[8] and now used as a theatre. It is also suggested that Fairweather was involved in the interior designs of both the Odeon, Chingford[9] (1935) and the Essoldo[10] Brighton (1940). The exterior structure for Chingford was designed by Andrew Mather, whilst Brighton was by Samuel Beverley. The interiors of both these buildings do not appear to have any features in common with Fairweather's style, however, and there is no mention of his contribution in the extensively researched published histories of either circuit, so his involvement is not certain.

The cinema premiered the feature-length action thriller, Play Safe, starring Monty Banks. With a seating capacity in excess of 4,000, the cinema laid claim to be the largest in the United Kingdom and Europe. Designed primarily as a cinema to screen films, the screen could be retracted upwards to reveal a small stage some 12-foot (3.7 m) high from floor-level. The projection box was located in the centre underside of the lower balcony. The decor was luxurious for its time, and the installation of the Golden Divans seating on the lower balcony, was popular with courting couples, providing the cinema with a uniqueness that was exploited in newspaper advertisements of the day. An additional upper balcony was nicknamed The Gods. An orchestra and dancing girls added to the spectacle in the early days.

The ballroom was constructed to the exacting standards as befitted the expectations of ballroom dancing at that time with a sprung floor designed to absorb the impact of the dancers. In its hey-day, the ballroom played host to leading dance bands of the era including; Ken Mackintosh, Joe Loss, Duke Ellington, the Oscar Rabin Band and Ronnie Scott's Big Band. The musical career of George Chisholm, Scottish jazz trombonist, began in the Playhouse Orchestra. Perched above the cinema auditorium, access to the ballroom necessitated the installation of a lift, which was often unreliable forcing patrons to use the stairs, of which there were many.

As a result of the general decline in ballroom dancing and the emergence of the multi-national cinema companies, the Playhouse found it increasingly difficult to obtain first-run films and consequently struggled to fill its vast spaces with paying customers. The area was already in decline – the neighbouring Royalty Theatre was destroyed by fire in 1953, and subsequently replaced by the St. Andrew's House office tower in the early 1960s, further diminishing the area's status as Glasgow's entertainment district.

By the mid-1960s maintenance costs was outstripping revenue considerably and all means of diversification were considered. The late 1960s and early 1970s saw a reprieve of sorts, with many of the top Pop and Rock bands of the day hiring the cinema auditorium as a concert venue. The ballroom was leased to Unicorn Leisure which operated a club named Clouds, and provided a guaranteed source of revenue for the Green family. The building continued to deteriorate to the extent the cinema auditorium finally closed on 30 June 1973. Shortly after the closure, a lease was negotiated by Unicorn Leisure who reopened the cinema auditorium as a music venue, the Apollo, in September 1973. The Apollo, was to become the leading concert venue in Glasgow until it finally closed in June 1985. The building was demolished in September 1987 following a fire that rendered the building structurally unsafe. It is now the site of the Cineworld Glasgow multiplex.