Former Odeon Cinema Middlesbrough (UK)

I worked at the Odeon Middlesbrough for 12 years,starting as a part time cinema usher and then for 10 years being a projectionist moving up to senior projectionist.I had some wonderful times working there. I left 3 months before the Odeon closed it’s doors to a change of career which just happened to be over the road from the Odeon.I was there the night it closed and shut off the mains the last evening as the Chief had done a runner to get home. It wouldbe a shame to see this cinema demolished and replaced by some monstrosity !

It appears that the final curtain is about to close on this building.
Contractors have recently arrived on site and fenced off the area to the left of the main entrance, in what appears to be the beginning of stripping out the interior since its closure as ‘Jumpin Jaks’
nightclub. The building is scheduled to be deomlished an replaced by a 375ft high tower block comprising of apartments & offices.

The owners ‘mandale properties’ have stated that work has been carried out to log the details of the odeon. It has been asked if there is an opportunity to get some photos from within the building before it is finally demolished.

Just taken some more pictures from the balcony, first floor offices, upper floor including former projection area, the tower. Will be going back in about a week to get some more detailed photos and some from backstage. The contractors reckon there is about three more weeks of stripping out before the building will come down. They have not yet started on the upper floors as the asbestos removal contractors have only just finished. There is still a lot of the cinema fittings in place especially on the balcony where the seats have now been replaced by the air conditioning ducts for Jumpin Jaks,these lead to the old projection room which can just be seen in one of the photos.

Did you see if the old Mercury Rectifier was still in the room to the right of the workshop door next to the old battery room,it used to be padlocked shut.I painted that workshop sign on the door over the old paint work.Sad to see the old top box trashed so much !!

Some more…
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I will check that when I go back next week, I believe that it was still there and will get photos of the rooms. Unfortunately it is almost impossible to get any decent photos in the auditorium because all the walls have been sprayed black. (you can see some overspray on the doors at the back of the balcony) A lot of the ceilings in the upper foyer have been taken down to allow asbestos removal and the staircase from the lower foyer to the first floor foyer was taken out when it was changed to jumpin jaks. The only way to the first floor foyer is via the fire exit staircase. Thanks for the photos, I will try to take some ‘now’ pictures to correspond

Also in the boiler house was a hatch,behind that was a tank which was full of Pink Diesel for the oild boilers,it was just stored down there because nobody got around to removing it whilst the Odeon was open,the Chief at the time was going to try and see if one of the Fishermen in Redcar wanted it for their boats ! Even though I left 3 months before the Odeon closed and the other projectionist had gone to the UGC leaving only the Chief, I used to call in regular due to me still working on Corporation Road,the last night we had a few drinks in the Bar and the Chief shut off the mech’s and went home,I shut of the final mains that night as the Odeon closed it’s doors to the public forever.
closing so a

04 was the main tower looking from near the hatch that led into the roof void,this was taken when a chunk of the tiling had dropped off one night,luckily all of it had fallen onto the flat roof.
05 is just looking up into the tower from outside the Battery Room door on the main roof.
07 was the main switch room,the door isn’t there anymore on the side
of the building,they built that ramp there for Jumping Jacks.
11 is the corridor down to screen 4,the emergency exit you can see
on the left leads out onto the back of the building,Fry Street.
16 is Screen 3 just inside the main doors to the right near what was the gents loo’s.

Ah a double post,sorry !!!
23 and 24 is the downstairs box with Mech’s for Screens 2,3 and 4,this was the main box with our lockers etc…
27 is the main roof that you access of the lower roof where number 1 box is,you can see the hatch into the roof void on the right hand side at the end of the roof wall.
28 was when the foyer was undergoing alterations sometime in the late 90’s,the room visible was what they used for cashing up the takings,those windows look out onto the car park.

I will see what I can do, a few more cans of beer should be enough to be let loose for another hour or so. Thanks for the info. I apologise that the photos are not the best of quality. I will get as many as I can, especially ones showing some of the original features on the upper foyer and if possible the ventilation grille above the balcony.

If you go down the back staircase from screen 1 that leads out onto Fry Street about halfway down used to be the old Plenum room,the door that you reach befor that is an old paint locker.