We use cookies to improve your experience, some are essential for the operation of this site.
Aberdeen Cinemas: Electric / Capitol
You searched for: More Like: 'Wedding photo June 1975'
of 12

Aberdeen Cinemas: Electric / Capitol

Historic Photographs
David Oswald
This item is active and ready to use
Aberdeen Cinemas: Electric / Capitol
Historic Photographs
3402
Aberdeen Cinemas: Electric / Capitol
A photograph showing the Capitol façade in January 2021.

By the 1960s and 70s the Capitol was increasingly being used as a venue for live events. Michael Thomson credits its survival over the Majestic, closed down in September 1973, as due to the Capitol's superior stage facilities. The Donald family, the venue owners, had the stage enlarged in 1975.

Appearances by popular groups like the Bay City Rollers in 1974 suggested the future for the venue at the time. The Capitol also saw performances by the Rolling Stones, Roy Orbison, Queen, Boyzone and Chuck Berry among many others. The Capitol ceased showing films in 1995.

The Capitol contained a restaurant, and subsequently bar, in the cinema's former café area around this period. 1993 saw the opening of the Art Deco and cinema themed bar Oscars in this space.

The Capitol functioned as a wonderful venue giving North-East audiences the chance to see top performers for many years. It became increasingly uneconomic to run and the curtain finally came down on the venue on Monday 15th December 1997.

The building was later converted into a nightclub and restaurant called Jumping Jaks and the Chicago Rock Café that opened in around 2003. These closed down in 2008 and the Capitol laid empty for some time.

In 2013 Knight Property Group began plans to redevelop the site as a modern office complex. The £30m project retained and restored the cinema's original façade and employed an Art Deco style in its foyer entrance to reference the history of the building. The venue's auditorium that had been much altered and had fallen into disrepair was demolished. The launch of the new office complex was held on 10th June 2016.
Union Street
Cinemas
David Oswald
CIN01_04
Aberdeen Local Studies
Other Items Like This
Woodside electric tram
Deeside Hydropathic
Belmont Cinema
Electric tramcar on Union Street