View from North

Description View from North

Catalogue Number SC 645765

Category On-line Digital Images

Copy of D 17996

Scope and Content World War II Fleet Cinema and Theatre, Sutherland, Flotta, Orkney Islands During both World Wars the influx of tens of thousands of military and civilian personnel into Orkney meant the creation or adaptation of buildings for residential and communal use on a massive scale. Purpose-built accommodation huts and service buildings were generally of the mass-produced and pre-fabricated types which prevailed elsewhere in wartime Britain, and military sites throughout Orkney had a greater or lesser complement of such structures, the greatest concentrations being around the naval base at Lyness on Hoy and the airfields on Mainland. The major camps boasted cinemas, concert halls and gymnasia, and shore-based recreation facilities, particularly on Flotta and Hoy, were provided for those whose accommodation was on board ship. A stream of popular show business entertainers, such as Gracie Fields, Vera Lynn, George Formby and Tommy Handley, performed for the troops during World War II, playing to very large audiences. Located close to Sutherland and Gibraltar Piers on Flotta for the convenience of the ships' companies, the Fleet Theatre completed in 1943-4 was probably the biggest purpose-built cinema and concert hall in wartime Orkney. This is the interior of the former cinema on Flotta, viewed from a point close to where the screen and concert platform would have stood in the demolished lower third of the building. It survives now merely as a consolidated roofless shell but in the rear wall can still be seen the openings for the projection and lighting equipment, together with the entrances to the ground-floor and gallery seating areas. The raking profile of the gallery is also clearly outlined on the buttressed side walls. At the heart of the Orkney archipelago, Scapa Flow was the main fleet anchorage for the Royal Navy during both World Wars. Its vital importance led to the creation of one of the most concentrated defence networks in Britain. Source: RCAHMS contribution to SCRAN.

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/collection/645765

File Format (TIF) Tagged Image File Format bitmap