Cumbernauld Theatre

A gabled row of three adjoining single-storey cottages built in the 1700s, constructed of sandstone rubble with an irregular arrangement of window and door openings on the front (south) elevation. The roof is part timber and part metal-frame construction, covered with grey slate, and features two surviving chimney stacks. A small piend-roofed outshot projects from the rear (north) elevation. The easternmost cottage, known as The Brian Miller Studio, has a metal frame roof.

The cottages were historically associated with the nearby Cumbernauld House (1731), located 0.5 kilometres to the northeast, and were likely built around the same time as part of William Adam's extensive parkland estate. The cottages are shown on the First Edition Ordnance Survey map (surveyed 1859–61), depicted with a short track aligned with Cumbernauld House leading to a sheepfold on the parkland perimeter.

Interior

The interior reflects the building's conversion to a community theatre, studio and bar in 1962–63, with little of the original cottage room plan surviving. One room contains a substantial sandstone rubble fireplace with a consoled mantle of 18th or early 19th century character.

Historical Development

The Cumbernauld Theatre Group formed in 1960, with early members including Derek Lyddon (Cumbernauld Development Corporation Chief Planning Officer), Tom and Jenny Laurie, Bill Thomson, Sam Shearer, and Robert Bowie. The Group converted the cottages at Braehead into a community theatre for drama, music, poetry, lectures and art exhibitions in 1962, opening on 1 February 1963 as the Cottage Theatre.

Growing membership led to planning permission for a 200-seat theatre, cinema, gallery space, theatre bar and courtyard on the sloping ground to the rear, constructed in phases from 1965 onwards. The theatre gained renown for performances by folk artists including Euan McColl, Peggy Seeger, John Martyn and Bert Jansch. Billy Connolly performed his first comedic revue, 'Connolly's Glasgow Flourish', at the theatre in 1972.

Following a fire in 1975, the rear complex was remodelled with changes to the auditorium, new rehearsal rooms and communication systems at a cost exceeding 300,000 pounds. The building officially reopened as 'The Cumbernauld Theatre' in October 1979 under the newly formed Cumbernauld Theatre Trust and Theatre Company, becoming known for its innovative Unemployed Youth Theatre Association projects. Further refurbishments took place in 1996. The theatre operated along increasingly commercial lines into the 2000s, supporting professional productions alongside community projects. The theatre closed in 2019 following plans by North Lanarkshire Council and the Cumbernauld Theatre Trust for a replacement facility at Cumbernauld Academy High School, initiated in 2015.

Note: Additions to the rear constructed largely between 1966 and 1980 are excluded from the listing.