Kino Cinema

Glenrothes, in Fife, a short distance from Kirkcaldy, was one of Scotland’s post-Second World War new towns, built to house miners working at the newly developed Rothes Colliery, which opened in 1957.

The Kingsway Cinema appears to have been the town’s first cinema. In common with many cinemas in other new towns in the UK, which opened when traditional single screen cinemas were beginning to struggle, it is very likely that this had two screens from the beginning. (Unfortunately, it is not known when it opened; the earliest reference I have is in the 1984 British Film Institute Handbook.) There were 294 seats in Screen 1 and 223 in Screen 2. It was in a ‘communal’ building, adjacent to the main shopping centre, alongside a bingo hall (then Gala Bingo, by June 2017 Club 3000 and from June 2018 a Buzz Bingo Club).

The Kingsway Cinema closed in 1998. When I first visited, in March 2006, the former cinema was a nightclub, Anima.

Happily, the cinema was re-opened on 22nd October 2010, as the Kino Cinema, by Graeme Reekie (who later re-opened the former Regent Cinema in nearby Leven, also re-naming that Kino Cinema).

In the two auditoriums he replaced the central blocks of ‘conventional’ seating with very comfortable two-seat sofas. This reduced the seating capacities to 124 and 114. However, he created a 35-seat third screen out of a former waiting area;that has multiplex style ‘premier’ seats.

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