From ‘Film House’ to ‘Filmhouse’

The Edinburgh Film Guild was a key partner in establishing ‘Filmhouse’, which provided Edinburgh with a unique, arthouse and cultural cinema. However, the Guild also created two culturally important ‘Film House’ homes long before Filmhouse existed.
‘Film House‘ 6-8 Hill Street, Edinburgh

Images (left to right): Graphic representation of ‘Film House’ (from 1946). Photo of the ‘Film House’ location at 6-8 Hill Street, Edinburgh. [click on image to enlarge]

The Guild’s first two ‘Film House’ homes were also home to Edinburgh’s first unofficial regional film theatres and to the Edinburgh International Film Festival for the first 31 years of its existence.

Norman Wilson, Chairman of the Edinburgh Film Guild and Edinburgh International Film Festival, wrote in 1951: “Since its inception, the Film Guild has always maintained premises of some sort. For one reason or another, we were continually migrating and never finding satisfaction in any of the places we rented. The only solution was to obtain a house of our own.

We needed adequate office accommodation and room for our growing collections of books and stills. We needed a meeting place and committee rooms, and, if possible, a small cinema so that we could develop our headquarters into a real film centre. In due course, in 1946, the almost ideal solution presented itself.

‘Film House’, as the Hill Street property was named, was purchased just in time to enable us to embark on the most ambitious and strenuous task we have so far undertaken.”1

“The Guild had a small cinema equipped with 35mm projection and seating for about fifty. There was also an office…and a space to house the Guild’s collection of film books and stills. Film House was also the headquarters of of the Federation of Scottish Film Societies and the focus of all the film activities stimulated by the Guild.”2

The new ‘Film House’ was crucial in enabling the Guild to launch the first ‘International Festival of Documentary Films’ (later renamed the ‘Edinburgh International Film Festival’). The first festival office was at Film House, and most screenings took place in the Guild Theatre at Film House. Film House remained the Edinburgh International Film Festival’s base for the next 31 years.

Photos (above): The Guild Theatre at the Hill Street ‘Film House’ [click on image to enlarge]

‘Film House‘, 3 Randolph Crescent, Edinburgh

In 1958, the Guild relocated to a new ‘Film House’. “By 1958 larger premises were necessary. ln that year a new home was found at 3 Randolph Crescent, the purchase of the building and the installation of a 100-seat cinema being funded entirely by the Guild. When not in use during the Edinburgh International Film Festival, the cinema provided Edinburgh with its first ‘regional film theatre’ based on the National Film Theatre in London.”3

Photo: Exterior, Randolph Crescent, Edinburgh. Photo: Exterior (closeup), 3 Randolph Crescent, Edinburgh. Illustration: Fourier and lounge in ‘Film House’, 3 Randolph Crescent (note: the cinema screen and seats are visible on the right of the stairs). [Click on image to enlarge]

The new Film House had “a larger, more comfortable cinema with a “raked” floor and tip-up seats and with both 35 mm and 16 mm projection capable of encompassing every shape and size of screen.” The Library contained “hundreds of volumes on every aspect of cinema, and a collection of 25,000 “stills”, which is one of the largest in the country.” Members were also provided with “the additional facility of Club premises in the elegant and spacious lounges in Film House.”4 Film House also continued as the base of the Edinburgh International Film Festival until the property was sold in the late 1970s.

‘Filmhouse’ 88 Lothian Road, Edinburgh

The Guild was one of the key partners in establishing ‘Filmhouse’. As part of this, the Guild sold its Randolph Crescent property and invested in purchasing and developing 88 Lothian Road.

Photos (left to right): Lothian Road Church before conversion. Jim Hickey, Director of Filmhouse (1979-1993), outside the new Filmhouse on Lothian Road, Edinburgh. [click on image to enlarge]

“The most ambitious development has come in the last seven years, with the Guild selling its Randolph Crescent headquarters in order to raise capital and make a major contribution to the new Filmhouse on Lothian Road.”5

One of the Guild’s intentions, stretching back as far as the 1940s, had been to create a regional film theatre for Scotland. It was hoped that the new Lothian Road property would make that intension a reality. Throughout its history, the Guild had been a private film society, which members of the public could join. The new Filmhouse was to be a large public cinema and early publicity described Filmhouse as “Scotland’s new cinema centre.”6

88 Lothian Road, previously Lothian Road Church, was purchased in 1976. Screenings commenced in 1978 when the disused St. Thomas Church building was converted into a 97-seat auditorium (later named Cinema 2) accessed via Chuckie Pend, off Morrison Street. The Guild’s name ‘Film House’ was initially retained at the new location, but the two words were eventually merged to become ‘Filmhouse’. Full restoration work was completed in 1985, with the opening of the 280 seat Cinema 1, the café bar and Lothian Road entrance. Cinema 3 was added in 1997.7

For the vast majority of its time at 88 Lothian Road, the Guild was fully incorporated into the fabric of the Filmhouse building. While the Guild had its own office, club rooms and small cinema, the Guild’s main screenings took place, first in the single Filmhouse cinema (renamed Cinema 2), then later in Cinema 1, with the small Guild Cinema used for “alternate” screenings. Guild members received “concession rates” for Filmhouse screenings and tickets for Guild screenings in Cinema 1 were purchased from the Filmhouse box office. The Guild also had a representative on the governing body of Filmhouse.8

But, by 2008 all Guild activity within the building had been restricted to its club rooms and small cinema. In 2010, the Centre for the Moving Image (CMI) was created to run both the Edinburgh International Film Festival and Filmhouse. In 2018, Guild representation on the CMI board of management was ended.

The Centre for the Moving Image abruptly closed in October 2022, without consultation with the Guild or warning from the management. The CMI went into administration, resulting in the closure of Filmhouse, the Edinburgh International Film Festival, and the Belmont Cinema, Aberdeen (operated by the CMI from 4 April 2014) and the loss of the Guild’s office, club rooms and cinema. It also forced the Guild to consider how best to protect its historical archive.

The closure of the Filmhouse and Edinburgh International Film Festival had a significant impact on the cultural life of Edinburgh. But it had a very particular significance for the Edinburgh Film Guild. For the Guild, these closures represented a sad end to the efforts of literally generations of Guild members who had worked to develop film culture in Edinburgh through these entities.

However, Filmhouse did become the regional film theatre that Guild members had envisioned when they invested in transforming the Lothian Road site, running successfully for over 40 years as a unique Edinburgh venue, providing a home for the EIFF, and showcasing the full range of independent, arthouse and cultural cinema.

Since the Closure:

With the closure, administrators focused “on marketing the assets for sale, including the Edinburgh Filmhouse building, and looking to transfer the brand and trademark of EIFF.”9

Creative Scotland bought the EIFF brand and trademark and editions of the film festival have since taken place under the auspices of the Edinburgh International Festival. The Lothian Road building is now in private hands, auctioned to the highest bidder, Caledonian Heritable Property Management, in late March 2023. In 2024, Filmhouse (Edinburgh) Ltd (a group of former senior staff of the CMI, EIFF and Filmhouse) signed a 25-year lease of the property with owners Caledonian Heritable.10

References:

  1. Wilson, N. 1951. ‘History and Achievements’ in ‘Twenty-one Years of Cinema’, Edinburgh: Edinburgh Film Guild, pp. 5-6
  2. H. Forsyth Hardy, Slightly Mad and Full of Dangers: The Story of the Edinburgh Film Festival (Ramsay Head Press, 1992)
  3. Programme of the Edinburgh Film Guild, 1985-1986, pp. 2
  4. Programme of the Edinburgh Film Guild, 1959-1960, pp. 6-7
  5. Programme of the Edinburgh Film Guild, 1989-1990, pp. 2
  6. Filmhouse programme, February-March 1982, cover page
  7. “About Us – Filmhouse Cinema Edinburgh”. Archived from the original on 18 July 2012. Wikipedia
  8. Programme of the Edinburgh Film Guild, 1989-1990, pp. 2
  9. Edinburgh International Film Festival to cease trading as parent charity enters administration (Mona Tabbara, Screen Daily, 6 October 2022)
  10. Filmhouse patrons revealed as 25-year cinema lease signed (BBC News, 18 July 2024)