BILL HEANEY’S NOTEBOOK
I’m not old enough to remember when the currency for getting into “the pictures” was a few jam jars, but I can recall Miss Bisland, who owned The Regal in Church Street, being one of our neighbours in Round Riding Road, which AJ Cronin used as the setting for his novel Hatter’s Castle.
We still had a farm in our street, which had its name changed by the Town Council from Cemetery Road to Round Riding Road at the behest of residents such as Provost Allan MacLeod, who had ornate lamp posts erected outside his bungalow. It was posh, but interesting.
The farm was owned by Robert Miller, a kenspeckle figure in a tweed fore and aft hat, bow tie and significant moustache, at the County Show, where annually he swept up most of the prizes and silver cups in the poultry section. His wife was a lovely woman from whom we bought fresh eggs. We were wakened in the morning by the cocks crowing.
Miss Bisland owned the Regal cinema, which was up a pend off Church Street, across the street from the Burgh Hall, the Denny Institute and the Sheriff Court.
It was one of four cinemas in Dumbarton. The others were the Picture House, the Rialto and the La Scala, part of which is still standing in the Newtown or Dumbarton East, where the railway station is soon to be re-named Dumbarton Castle.
The Rialto in College Street was at its junction with Risk Street and was just across the road from Hugh McCafferty’s Railway Tavern and Paul Tamburini’s fish and chip shop.
I have searched my ageing brain for information on the fire that closed The Rialto for the first time.In August last year, four men confessed to growing the plants and living in the hall.
Now the property is back on the market with estate agents, Kirkstone, looking for offers in the region of £495,000.
The schedule states that inside the building, there is a large open hall on the ground floor which leads into a number of rooms, including a catering kitchen.
On the first floor, there are two cinema theatres and a number of offices/store rooms.
“This vast building is available for a wide range of uses, including a nursery, restaurant, religious facility or children’s play area
“The subjects are available to lease on a full repairing and insuring basis, for a term to be agreed, at a rent of £45,000 per annum.”
But does the sweet smell of cannabis still linger in the air there?
If you have any cash to spare after having paid your council tax, your brown bin charge and swept the street outside your house by yourself, you could give a thought to buying The Rialto.
Even if it’s only to feed your craving for nostalgia around the way we were …