Before television became commonplace and video shops (themselves having fallen victim to downloads, YouTube et al) appeared on every corner, a trip to the bioscope was a highlight for many Dundee residents.

The Savoy Cinema, colloquially known as the bioscope, once drew moviegoers to Gladstone Street, where the building still stands as a reminder of a different era.

Graham Morgan recalls watching films there as a teenager, including Jaws, while Azmath Khan, who now runs Spice World next door, remembers the cinema and its distinctive seating arrangements.

During the apartheid era, black moviegoers were required to sit on the mezzanine floor, while white patrons watched from below. The mezzanine has since been removed, but memories of the cinema’s segregated seating remain vivid.

Childhood pranks were recalled involving cold drinks poured on unsuspecting moviegoers below.

The Savoy Theatre building, circa 1920s. Photo: Dundee Heritage Trail.

From photography to the bioscope

The building’s story began long before these moviegoing memories.

According to the Dundee Heritage Trail site, a Mr Atwell opened a photography shop in Dundee before the Anglo-Boer War, photographing soldiers and Boer commandos during the conflict. His first shop was in Victoria Street, near the present Department of Labour building and the Royal Hotel.

In 1913, he rented the lower section of the Masonic Hall, now associated with Boswells, where he operated his photography business and started showing films.

When his rent doubled in the early 1920s, Atwell decided to build his own premises. Completed in 1923, the new building housed a theatre, cinema, dance hall and tea room run by his wife. It also became Dundee’s public hall, hosting weddings, public functions and entertainment at a time when the town had few suitable venues.

Atwell and his son, Leslie, kept cows behind their home in Wilson Street. Their milk was used for tea, coffee and ice cream, while his wife prepared cakes for the tea room.

Films were hired from distributors around South Africa, and Atwell even used specially printed parchment fans featuring the building’s exterior to attract customers.

He retired from the photography and bioscope business in 1929, with records indicating that the final show under his ownership took place on September 30 that year. It re-opened at some stage – assumedly under a different owner not elaborated on under Dundee’s Heritage site – with many older Dundonians recalling dressing up on a Saturday night for a movie date well into the 1970s.

A building with many lives

The old theatre building on Gladstone Street as it was some years ago.
Photo: Dundee Heritage Trail.

Although the cinema eventually closed the building continued to serve the community in different ways. It later housed a second-hand clothing store and the sheriff’s office before being occupied by Clothing Junction.

Today, the former Savoy remains a tangible link to Dundee’s past. While its doors and windows have been modernised and the mezzanine removed, it is prestently under going renovations to the interior while much of the original façade survives.