It sports a curved, late art-deco design, courtesy of architect Charles James McNair of CJ McNair & Elder. He became an expert in cinema and theatre architecture under the tutelage of John Nisbet. The suburban single screen cinema featured a three-storey curtain glass wall, a precursor to the giant window that now adorns the Cineworld cinema on Renfrew Street.

In 1974 it was purchased by County Bingo and underwent a conversion, retaining the cinema but making the theatre smaller in order to house a bingo hall as well. The cinema was then shut in 1981, while the bingo hall remained open until 2006 when County sold all of their properties to Gala Bingo. By this point, the Lyceum was in a state of disrepair, and Gala took the decision to close it. Since then it has fallen foul of natural decay and human interference. However, plans are being developed by Clyde Waterfront to refurbish the building and reinstate the cinema. They are re-imagining it as a multicultural movie house, with the possibility of it housing a film and arts training centre as well.