Abc Cinema, Lothian House, 120 Lothian Road, Edinburgh

Lothian House is a monumental, five-story building dating from 1935, designed by Stewart Kaye, with later additions. It occupies a U-shaped site on Lothian Road in Edinburgh and originally comprised shops, offices, and a cinema; these offices are now subdivided into flats. The building exhibits details characteristic of the Modern Movement.

It is constructed with a steel frame and composition brick, faced with polished sandstone ashlar from Blaxter Quarry in Northumberland on the primary elevations. A polished granite base course and band courses are present on the east and north elevations. The first floor is channelled with a bracketted band course above. Prominent giant architraves, spanning the second, third, and fourth floors, unify the windows of each bay. A cornice tops the building, surmounted by a parapet.

The principal east elevation, facing Lothian Road, features 31 bays, arranged with three bays in each corner pavilion and central section, and ten bays in the two intermediate sections. Canted bays project to the outer right and left. Corner pavilions and the ground storey are advanced, creating a balcony to the first-floor windows of the intermediate bays. Pilasters are placed between the shopfronts. Located to the right of the centre at ground level is the main entrance to the flats, featuring a grey polished granite doorpiece with Art Deco mouldings, a two-leaf boarded door with kite-shaped glazing, brass fittings, a three-light fanlight with decorative ironwork and a bronze cipher. A fluted frieze sits above the granite band courses. A balcony serves the first-floor windows located between the outer pavilions. The central pavilion is slightly advanced above the ground floor and features a carved stone panel at the bracketted band course depicting canal workers and carrying the motto 'Here stood Port Hopetoun, 1822-1922'. Stylized stone finials, supported on brackets, are positioned above the glazing. Corner pavilions have plain ashlar plaques at the centre of the bracketted band course. Cornice and a recessed blocking course define the canted bays.

The north elevation, facing Fountainbridge, maintains a similar format with a corner pavilion to the outer right and 12 bays extending to the left, although only three bays are original. A chamfered bay on Semple Street contains a polished grey granite doorway at ground level.

The south elevation, facing Morrison Street, includes a corner pavilion to the outer left; a three-story range extends to Semple Street. Black glazed tiles are used on the ground floor, with three recessed entrances situated to the outer right and left, and centrally. A single window is present on the channelled first floor, and two single windows are positioned to the left of the second floor.

The west rear elevation facing Semple Street displays four bays corresponding to the front elevation on the outer right. An adjoining block is comprised of nine bays, with four bays to the right being two-stories and five bays to the left being three-stories. Recessed doorways appear on the ground floor, and the first floor is channelled. A more modern block is attached to the left, and the rear of the cinema features plain masonry on the outer left.

Two cast-iron panels, featuring relief motifs designed by C d’O Pilkington Jackson, divide the glazing of the upper three stories. Steel-framed windows, supplied by Frederick Braby & Co of Glasgow, are incorporated on the upper floors. The shops and offices are capped by a flat roof, originally covered with "Namastic" rock asphalt, while the cinema is roofed with grey slate in a piended style.