Green's Playhouse (Dundee)

• Theatre ID
  1034
• Built / Converted
  1936
• Dates of use
  • 1936 - 1967: cinema with live entertainments
• Current state
  Substantial fragment
• Current use
  demolished (advertising tower remains. 1967 bingo; 1970 nightclub & bingo; 1988 social club)
• Address
  106 Nethergate, Dundee, Tayside, DD1 4EH, Scotland

Details

A large ‘super-cinema’ - second only in the UK in size to Green’s Playhouse in Glasgow (1927) - by John Fairweather. The lavish interior was by John Alexander, with Art Deco foyer and restaurant, and the auditorium, with Corinthian columns and piers marching down the side walls, was described as an ‘outstanding and enormous Classical/Art Deco theatre’. It was said to have set ‘standards of luxury unrivalled anywhere else in Scotland’. The exterior was dominated by a 25m lattice steel neon advertising tower, later clad with sheet metal. Bingo and other uses from 1967 until a devastating fire in 1995. The remains were deemed to be dangerous and demolition followed, although the tower survived and is listed (Category B).

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• Other names
  Mecca Playhouse
• Events
  • 1936 - 1967 Use: cinema with live entertainments
  • 1936 Design/Construction:
    • John Fairweather & Joseph Emberton - Architect
    • John Alexander - Interior design
  • 1970 Alteration: tower clad with profiled steel
    • Unknown - Architect
  • 1988 Alteration: refurbished to form social club
    • Unknown - Architect
• Capacities
  • Original: 4118 (or 4126?)
• Listings
  • Grade A - was listed grade A 26.8.88
  • Grade B - advertising tower