Nodrog and I visited this cinema today as part of Doors Open Day in South Lanarkshire. It's current use is as a warehouse for an amusements company, so it is simply used for storage for slot machines and pool tables! Interestingly, it is the same family who run the amusements business as built and operated the cinema - the Sheerans.
The interior is famous amongst us cinema geeks due to the fact that the interior was built from panels rescued from a scrapped ocean liner - the Homeric. These were shipped from the scrapyard up to Stonehouse and reassembled as the cinema was being built in 1937. This perhaps explains why such an unlikely wee town in Lanarkshire has such a lavish interior in an otherwise fairly plain looking cinema!
We had read that the interior was intact still, but nothing prepared us for the glories within. Sure, it was dusty, and the lighting was fairly poor, and a few wee bits and pieces were missing, but otherwise, this was classic timewarp stuff - apart from the missing stalls seats (which are stored under the stage), almost everything in this cinema was intact, if a bit grimy. The screen was still there, as were the curtains, the balcony seats still red and plush looking, the carpet in some places easily original, even the projectors still sitting in the box, along with reels of film that haven't seen a lamp shone through them in 50 years!
It was even better than the also fantastic Olympia in Bridgeton, with the added advantage of legal and easy access!
Gordon has swiftly put the pics on his website, and I heartily agree that if ever a building was crying out for rediscovery and restoration, this would get my vote.
http://www.chem.gla.ac.uk/~gbarr/cinema ... index.html
Gary