Author: Andrew Downie (page 21 of 29)

The Picture House, Campbeltown

On a recent trip round the Mull of Kintyre, I visited Campbeltown for the first time. Wandering around in the late evening, I came across the Picture House, Campbeltown’s cinema. It was built in the Glasgow School Art Nouveau style in 1913, and has recently undergone restoration. It is believed to be the oldest purpose built cinema in Scotland still in business.

What caught my eye was the information board outside the library next door. The cinema’s architect was one Albert Victor Gardner, a name I recognised. He built many cinemas in Scotland, especially in and around Glasgow, and continued to do so later in partnership with William Riddell Glen . He returned to refurbish the cinema in 1930.

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72 Nithsdale Road – H C Niven Motor Engineers

The shop at 72 Nithsdale Road has traded as Lunar, the cocktail bar, since September 2022. It had previously operated from 2018 as Niven’s by Cafe Source , named in recognition of its motoring history, and prior to that Kowloons, The Salisbury Restaurant and Cookie.

During its first such incarnation as Cookie, it still retained the original signage, H C Niven & Co, est 1929, Motor Engineers. The motor engineers tag is still visible above the door.

Cookie, with the original Niven sinage

So who was Bert Niven?

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The birth of Strathbungo – George Washington Wilson, 1877

George Washington Wilson

This photograph of Strathbungo was taken by George Washington Wilson (1823-1893), a pioneering Scottish landscape photographer. After his studies in Edinburgh and London he returned to his natmaive Aberdeen and began work as a painter of portrait miniatures.

George Washington Wilson, self portrait.

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