Description

SP5106SW OXFORD MAGDALEN STREET

(West side)
612- /8/10034
MGM Cinema
GV II
Cinema. 1922-24 by Frank Matcham and Company (the successor practice under F G M
Chancellor) and J C Leeds. Brick, rendered to front, slate and asphalt roofs only partly seen.
Narrow two-bay front with three storeys of former flats over entrance vestibule which extends
back to form wider foyer with first floor cafe (disused) over and auditorium with single, shallow
balcony. Facade with early twentieth-century fenestration pattern and decorative pilasters but
may retain mid-nineteenth century fabric behind. This range internally retains staircase above
first-floor level, cornices, cupboards and fireplaces, all of a late nineteenth or early
twentieth-century character. Foyer retains panelling and moulded plaster ceilings behind late
C20 cladding and false ceiling. Staircase with iron balustrade leads to cafe with moulded plaster
decoration. Auditorium a double-height space with barrel vault, moulded prosenium arch and
shallow rear balcony. A heavy modillion cornice runs round the hall, which is decorated by
round-arched niches either side of balcony and proscenium. Between these the wall is filled
with murals of 1924 by G Rushton depicting 'Modern Sport' and 'Early Learning'. All this
decoration now concealed behind curtains, for acoustic reasons, though two of four gilded urns
- an important surviving part of the original composition - exposed over rusticated dado
moulding. Balcony has original front, dadoes, and crush rails to rear and round central panelled
vomitory.
Included as a rare surviving little-altered cinema of the early 1920s, with the exceptional added
interest of surviving original scheme of mural decoration.
Sources
The Builder, 11 July 1924
Paul J Marriott, Early Oxford Picture Palaces, 1978

Listing NGR: SP5118206476

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Odeon Oxford Magdalen Street official website
• Wikidata Q26524318

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990
• 
  Old House Handbook: A Practical Guide to Care and Repair
• 
  Yorkshire: York and the East Riding (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  [(Bedfordshire, Huntingdon and Peterborough)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1968)
• 
  Sussex: West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Lancashire: Liverpool and the South-West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)