Odeon Southend-on-Sea

This cinema is alas no more. It has now been demolished. The site has been bought by Southend College who plan to build a large college building where the once superb Odeon was. I was one of the last people to visit the Odeon a few weeks ago and took the last pictures of the auditorium.

Peter

The architect of the Astoria was Edward A. Stone in association with T.R. Somerford.

A few loose ends:

Hosted pop music concerts in the 1960s, with all the big names of the day visiting at some point (Beatles, Stones, Who etc).

The Compton organ was removed during the refurb of 1969/70, and sold to a private collector.

During the early/mid 1970s the Southend Odeon ran a popular Saturday morning kids picture club in the bigger #2 auditorium, "The Super Saturday Show" with the usual fare of cartoons and wholesome Childrens Film Foundation shorts, and an interval in the middle. I used to go regularly! At the end of the show, the National Anthem was still played.

The Odeon actually closed in 1998. There was an attempt to keep this splendid building open after the new multiplex opened in Southend, but it was presumably not economically viable to run the two cinemas simultaneously. The last films shown were "Space Jam" in auditorium 1, and "Star Wars" (on reissue) in #2.

Building is currently (Dec 2004) still being demolished. Construction of the new Essex University site starts in January 2005.

I can confirm that demolition of this Odeon was completed by January 2005, and the site is now levelled ready for new building work for the college. My colleague Peter Hammond and i were among the last to enter the building, and took much photographic material for posterity. Several useful items of cinema related equipment were also removed prior to demolition. The seating and the best of the projectors had been removed shortly after closure and laterly some of the sound and lighting equipment and curtaining was utilised in a local theatre. In all honesty, apart from the sculptured ceiling and a small amount of plasterwork on one wall of the original Circle holding area, all traces of the building's Art Deco heritage had been swept away in the 1969/70 re-build. Traces of the original hydraulic orchestra pit were still visible, and the organ pipe chambers were still traceable. Despite reports, the original entrance and facade has also been demolished along with the auditoria.

Any chance of some of the pictures you took for my sons homework?

A 1971 photograph showing the 'new' entrance on the side of the building, which was formally an exit. The original main entrance, foyer, stalls seating area and stage were by this time being used as a supermarket.
http://mysite.wanadoo-members.co.uk/cavalcade/southendo.jpg

Hi

I'm new here just found the site, very very intresting

I beleve the seats from the Southend Odeon still surrive and amazingly are still in the town!

even more amazing they are still in use and yet even more amazing they are now in the old ABC now home to the New Empire Theatre.

From what I can rember the original ABC seats were removed when it closed so when the new owners took over they got talking with the Odeon owners and got them free or at a greatly reduced cost.

Also the projection equpment from the Odeo was saved and went to a working Preserved cinima "up North".

Hope this is of some intrest and help, at least the Twin domes of the odeon were kept.

Nick

IF YOU ARE 15 YEARS OLD THEN DO NOT GO TO THIS CINEMA BECAUSE THEY THINK THAT YOU ARE 12 OR YOUNGER. I KNOW THIS BECAUSE BECAUSE IT HAPPENED TO ME AND MY MATES. WE THEN ASKED TO BUY TICKETS TO GO AND SEE A "U" RATED FILM AND THEY WOULDN'D EVEN LET US GO AND SEE THAT. THE FILM THAT WE WENT TO SEE WAS A "12" RATING AND WE ALL OGT TURNED AWAY.

You should have carried a photo-I.D. with you. I did when I was a nipper and now I do as a senior... the discount certainly helps!

exterior shot taken around 2003
http://www.flickr.com/photos/woody1969/2121472604/

The Compton organ in this theater was a 4/11.

The Odeon cinema was enormous. whilst in its multiplex mode, the Supermarket was right at the front and I think, was called Fine Fare; certainly the house colour was yellow and blue. It occupied the foyer area of the original cinema,( not the back: see above) which was bigger than most cinemas. Overhead there was a circular opening (part of the upstairs foyer) which you could look over to the main foyer. Sometimes there were exhibitions upstairs. Notably the Police put on a large crime detection and road safety exhibition where they showed a fascinating range of weaponry; knuckle dusters axe handles etc. etc. They even had a machine for testing the braking responses of drivers.

The main cinema had six entrance doors into the auditorium and at the sides there were holding areas where you could stand and at least not miss the big picture. I saw the first cinemascope film there, 'The Robe', with my parents and only got a seat about an hour into the film. It was 1/6d (seven and a half p to get in,for adults and, half for children.

The judging of the Southend Carnival Queen was sometimes held there and this was the only time that I ever heard the organ being played. I like modern architecture a lot but the current College building on the site now is an abomination.

Top Alec.