Description

1. NEW CANAL

1594 Odeon Cinema (to rear of
John Halle's Hall)

SU 1429 NW 3/99A

II GV

2.
CINEMA. 1930-31, by W E Trent, assisted by F F Tulley. Red brick external walls,
corrugated asbestos roof on steel trusses to auditorium, asphalt elsewhere.
Rectangular auditorium, with projection rooms rising to north and fly tower to
south. Entered via Hall of John Halle (qv) and 28 Catherine Street (qv). Interior
decoration in lavish tudor gothic style inspired by the need to enter via the C15 hall.
The foyer has oak panelling and doorcasts, and vine scroll ornament in fibrous plaster
to the downstanding ceiling beams. The auditorium ceiling is of fibrous plaster, the
ribs and beams grained to imitate wood; there are painted scenes flanked by gothic
arcading to bulkheads at two changes in level. The walls are plastered, lined out to
frames. Flanking the 'tudor' proscenium arch are large openings with 'iron' (actually
plaster) grilles, flanked by niches and surmounting doors set in elaborate gothic
beamed ceiling below decorated like that in foyer. The cafe, above the foyer, is
panelled in oak, with false timber framing above and a beamed fibrous plaster ceiling.
The inner dining room (contrived between the floor of the circle and ceiling of stalls
below, has a beamed ceiling with sloping soffits and tudor-arched alcoves at either end
fitted with oak settles and fibrous plaster fireplaces - and painted overmantle signed
F 'Barnes". Throughout public areas, doors and doorcases are of oak, with foliage
decoration in the spandrels of the heads. Many original fittings survive, including
'medieval' chandeliers. In 1972-3 the stalls seats were removed, a wall built on the
line of the circle balcony, and the space behind formed into two subsidiary auditoria,
but with minimal alteration to the original fabric. As the programme produced for the
opening on 7.9.1931 states, 'a more fitting environment for the romance portrayal on the
screen would be difficult to find.'

Listing NGR: SU1448629865

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Odeon Cinema official website
• Wikidata Q26536225

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

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  [(Bedfordshire, Huntingdon and Peterborough)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1968)