The Rex Cinema in Argyle Street, Stonehouse, was built and opened in 1937 by travelling showman John Sheeran.

He had the interior of his new cinema fitted out with the fixtures and fittings from the first class dining room of the White Star Line luxury liner the "Homeric" which was being scrapped at the breakers yard in Inverkeithing.
The story goes that, after buying and transporting by railway the luxury wooden panelling to his building, the joiners informed him the panelling had been constructed in such a way as to enable it to be fitted to the internal concave curved surface of a ship's hull. John Sheeran apparently surprised his joiners by instructing them to recreate the curved surface inside the building and then to fit the wood to that.
By another strange quirk of historical fortune the "Homeric" had, years prior to this, actually been ceded to the British by the Germans after the Great War as war reparations, and the interior was, in fact, designed by Paul Ludwig Troost, who later went on to become one of Hitler's foremost archiects.

In a recently broadcast BBC programme (about 26 minutes in) presenter Paul Atturbury describes The Rex as

"...two pasts - an art deco cinema, one of the most exciting of its type surviving in Britain, and at the same time....the first class dining room of the Homeric......both cinema and ship, different periods of history, but coalescing, coming together beautifully. It's a most bizarre and wonderful experience."

The building has survived in its present condition due to having remained in the Sheeran family. Evolving from cinema to bingo hall, to storage and workshop facility for the family business. It's not generally open to the public but has been opened on a few occasions recently, to large, enthusiastic and curious crowds.

The curtain that hangs on the stage is the original silk one. This stage is the only place where both Will Fife and Harry Lauder appeared at the same time. Jack Warner, of Warner Brothers, visited the cinema shortly after it opened.

Visiting a cinema in the 30's and 40's could be a more glamorous occasion than today, more of a night out. Patrons payed to enjoy sumptuous surroundings, and watch movies depicting a fantasy lifestyle. Fred Astair