Trades council hall The building was constructed in 1896 as a trades hall to a design by architects, Alexander Ellis and
Robert Gordon Wilson. It was principally used for meetings of Aberdeen's newly established Labour Movement. The first film was shown on the premises in 1898, and featured footage of
Queen Victoria at
Balmoral Castle, establishing a tradition of hosting visiting cinema shows.
Conversion to a cinema In 1910, the Trades Hall was converted into a permanent cinema called the Coliseum, which opened on 22 August of that year. It was refurbished and reopened as the New Kinema in 1921. After another refurbishment in 1935, it was renamed the Belmont Cinema. It closed in 1953, and the building was converted into a warehouse.
Picturehouse Cinemas ownership The building reopened under lease to
Picturehouse Cinemas as the Belmont Picturehouse in September 2000, after a major refurbishment by Aberdeen City Council with assistance from the
National Lottery and
Scottish Screen. After some turmoil and uncertainty, the lease for exploitation on the Belmont to Picturehouse was extended in April 2011 for a further ten years. However, with the purchase of Picturehouse Cinemas by
Cineworld,
Centre for the Moving Image ownership In April 2014,
Centre for the Moving Image (CMI) took over the lease and renamed the premises Belmont Filmhouse as a sister cinema to the
Edinburgh Filmhouse.
Closure and refurbishment Following CMI's collapse, the 'Save The Belmont Cinema' campaign was founded by local cinephiles and business people. This led to the creation of Belmont Community Cinema Ltd, a local charity dedicated to reopening the Belmont which was selected as preferred operator for the cinema by Aberdeen City Council in September 2023. At a public meeting in October 2023, the new company pledged to put film, education, community and customer experience at the heart of a newly reinvigorated offering at the site. Following a successful application to the National Lottery Heritage Fund, the company announced intentions to reopen the site in late 2027. == References ==