Also known as Pavilion Cinema, Gaumont Theatre, Odeon Shepherd's Bush
Shepherd's Bush Pavilion
Shepherd's Bush, London, England
58 Shepherd's Bush Green
,
Shepherd's Bush, London,
England,
United Kingdom W12 8QE
(
map)
+44.0870.780.8154
 The interior (former balcony) of the Odeon awaits restoration (circa October 2002)Photo courtesy of Ian Grundy
It has a massive brick and stone frontage onto Shepherd's Bush Green that won the RIBA London Street Architecture Award for the best London facade in 1923 when Sir Edwin Luteyns was on the panel of judges. The award sited its 'imposing structure of brick and stone in which the former material especially is used with great imagination'. This was at a time when cinemas were considered a cheap and somewhat tawdry pastime, so such recognition was surprising.
The Pavilion Cinema was taken over by Gaumont British Theatres in 1923 and they added another 2Ranks of pipes to the Compton organ. The Pavilion Cinema was badly damaged by a German flying bomb in July 1944, and it did not re-open until 25th July 1955. The former business partner of Frank T. Verity, and distinguished cinema architect in his own right, Samuel Beverley undertook the restoration of the exterior and a complete rebuilding and modernisation of the interior. The rather ornate Italian Renaissance style original was swept away and a reduced capacity of 2,036 was accommodated in the streamlined, and somewhat bland, replacement auditorium when it opened with a new name Gaumont Theatre.
The next change came in November 1962, when the Gaumont became the Odeon, and on 31st May 1969, when it closed for reconstruction. The front of the balcony was extended forward horizontally to form a new 815 seat cinema with the screen brought forward to the outer edge of a recessed lighting trough from the old cinema. The former stalls area was adapted into a Top Rank Bingo Club. The foyers were modernised and an escalator added to whisk patrons up to the spacious foyer and bar at 1st floor level. It was then known as Odeon 1 (with the old Pykes Cinematograph Theatre/Essoldo q.v. next door becoming Odeon 2). Reopening took place on 7th March 1970 with Paul Newman in "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid".
Odeon 2 (next door) closed in October 1981 and the Odeon 1 closed on 17th September 1983 with "The Twilight Zone". The upstairs cinema section sat unused for the following 25 years. Downstairs, bingo continued until 2001, when that closed as a Mecca Bingo Club. Then the entire building sat empty and unused.
However in 2001 plans for the building were being drawn up to refurbish it with an entertainment suite in the bingo part and a proposed restoration of the cinema upstairs in hand, but these plans came to nothing. New plans were proposed to convert the building into apartments and a hotel, but again by 2008, nothing had happened.
In early 2008, the building re-opened as 'The Pavilion', a concert and special events venue
The Odeon was given a Grade II Listed building status in 1974.
Contributed by Ian Grundy
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