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Aberdeen Cinemas: City
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Aberdeen Cinemas: City

Historic Photographs
David Oswald
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Aberdeen Cinemas: City
Historic Photographs
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Aberdeen Cinemas: City
An Aberdeen Journals Archive photograph of the City Cinema on George Street in 1963. The cinema is showing a war film called Battle of the Beach starring Audie Murphy.

The City Cinema at 197-199 George Street was opened by Aberdeen Picture Palaces on 4th November 1935. The building, the main part of which was tucked away behind George Street, was designed by Thomas Scott Sutherland.

Michael Thomson in Silver Screen in the Silver City explains that until after the second world war, the City's stock and trade was showing second-runs and lesser features from the programmes of up-town cinemas. The City was also popular with Aberdeen's crowds of holidaymakers in the 1930s. See Thomson's book for more on the design and history of this cinema.

The final film shown at the City was Sign of the Pagan on 20th July 1963. The venue was then converted at a cost of £300,000 into a two-floor bowling alley. Originally called ABC Bowl (later known as the Aberdeen Bowl, Super Bowl and Mega Bowl), it opened on 1st May 1964 with celebrity guests Oliver Reed, Jess Conrad and Julia Foster.

The bowling alley, and with it what remained of the City cinema, was demolished in 2007 to make way for an apartment block and the Hilton Garden Inn hotel.

[Information primarily sourced from Silver Screen in the Silver City (1988) by Michael Thomson]

Image © Aberdeen Journals Ltd.
George Street
Cinemas
2. Copyright known - held by third party
City 1963-06-00 (C)AJL
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