The County Cinema, 14 Bath Street, Portobello, Edinburgh is a Grade C listed building in the City of Edinburgh local planning authority area, Scotland. First listed on 12 December 1974. Cinema. 3 related planning applications.
The County Cinema, 14 Bath Street, Portobello, Edinburgh
- WRENN ID
- dusk-turret-moon
- Grade
- C
- Local Planning Authority
- City of Edinburgh
- Constituency
- Edinburgh East and Musselburgh MP: Chris Murray (Lab)
- Country
- Scotland
- Date first listed
- 12 December 1974
- Type
- Cinema
- Address
- The County Cinema, 14 Bath Street, Portobello, Edinburgh, EH15 1EY
- OS grid reference
- NT 305 739
- Coordinates
- 55.95376, -3.11334
- Source
- Historic Environment Scotland listing
Description
The County Cinema, located at 14 Bath Street in Portobello, Edinburgh, is a large, three-storey, rectangular purpose-built cinema dating from 1939. It was designed by architect Thomas Bowhill Gibson in an Art Deco/Moderne style. The building consists of a flat-roofed entrance section and a pitched and piended-roof auditorium.
The principal (southeast) elevation is symmetrical, with the central part projecting forward. It features rounded towers flanking seven slightly stepped vertical bands. Single-storey sections are set to either side, with full-height blank sections set back behind them. Wide granolithic steps lead to the main entrance, now sheltered by a later flat-roofed box canopy with small, curved sections on each side. The side and rear elevations are constructed of rendered brick, and the vertical structural steel frames are exposed. The rear elevation features three projecting, low-level boxed sections (horn chambers).
A low-level band of coloured render, originally over mosaic tiles, runs along the main elevation and small side returns; the towers are rendered on the hard. The remainder of the main elevation is clad in timber frame and sheet boards, dating to around 1974. The roof is pitched (piended to the rear) and covered in corrugated asbestos sheets.
The entrance vestibule features a coombed ceiling with a fluted frieze and a former ticket booth. Paired staircases with iron bannisters lead to the balcony. The main auditorium has been subdivided with a lowered suspended ceiling, now enclosing a ground floor bingo hall. Original decorative architectural details of the proscenium arch remain in the bingo hall, and much of the decoration survives above the suspended ceiling. This includes moulded and raised Art Deco/Moderne motifs around the screen, along with horizontal linear chevron details and circular niches. The balcony is intact, though the seats have been removed; openings from the projection room into the auditorium remain.
Investigative access holes were made in the surfaces of the interior decorative scheme after 2016.
Local climate
The County Cinema, 14 Bath Street, Portobello, Edinburgh receives an average of 960 mm of rain a year. This makes it wetter than 74% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is greater than that of 52% of listed buildings.
It experiences an average of 39 freeze-thaw cycles a year, more than 74% of listed buildings. Of these, 23 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.3°C per decade since 1991.
Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.
More on this building
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- No EPC on record for this property
- No sale records on file
- Related listed building consents — 3 applications
- Detailed attributes — period, style, materials, features
- Flood risk assessment
- Radon risk assessment
- Weather exposure and heating demand — rain and frost month by month and year by year, wind direction, solar and humidity
Matched applications, energy data and sale records are assembled automatically and may contain errors. Flag incorrect data.
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