Odeon Marble Arch
10 Edgware Road,
London,
W2 2EN
10 Edgware Road,
London,
W2 2EN
14 people
favorited this theater
The Odeon Marble Arch opened on 2nd February 1967 with Zero Mostel in “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum”. This was a lavish (for the time) replacement of the previous magnificent Atmospheric style Regal/Odeon on the same site. It had a massive curved screen (75 feet wide x 30 feet high) and seeing a 70mm print here was stunning. The original seating capacity was for 1,360 in stalls and circle levels.
The new Marble Arch Odeon was part of a much larger development on the site which includes shops and offices.
The auditorium was at first floor level with retail outlets occuping the ground floor. The walls were open panels with curtaining behind lit in different colours.
Sadly, the Odeon closed rather suddenly in September 1996 and the auditorium was carved up into five small screens. Screen 1 is the front stalls area with 254 seats, 2 (119 seats) and 3 (173 seats) are the former rear stalls under the balcony, whilst 4 and 5 are in the balcony with 229 and 239 seats respectively which gives a current total seating capacity, + wheelchair space of 1,014.
It was a victim of being just outside the West End area and consequently this very fine cinema has, for all intents and purposes, been effectively ruined.
Contributed by
Ian Grundy
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Recent comments (view all 49 comments)
Contrary to an earlier posting, I believe the entire second run of Star wars was presented in D150 – it was Close Encounters that had to be shown in ‘standard’ 70mm, though there was NOTHING very standard about the sight of the mother ship when it came over the top of the mountain for the first time….. the whole audience gasped!
Hi just to clarify.
Star Wars ran for 2 days in D150 then reverted to STD 70mm I was there 2 days later. View link
If you follow the link above you will also see that no films had there D150 openings at Marble Arch but both The Bible and Patton opened at Casino Cinerama. While I worked at the Arch I was told that there were never any D150 films screened there due to delays in building.
The deep curve screen was replaced by a much more shallower screen for the run of Lawrence in 1989 at the request of David Lean.
2 Feb 1967
Slim, I have amended the introduction to give the opening details. Thanks for your interest.
Thanks Ken Roe!
Some scanned images from 1988 of the auditorium here:–
http://www.flickr.com/photos/stagedoor/4940530709/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/stagedoor/4940530501/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/stagedoor/4941117620/
i live in New York City and visited London in August of 1972. i
attended an showing of “Nicholas and Alexandria” at this theater.
it was the first movie theater i had seen with a coffee bar and
cafe rather than just a concession stand selling soda and popcorn.
Of all the theatres I have ever worked being a projectionist here was a privilege and a joy. Perfection was the only standard they knew. Martyn Butler
I saw “Ghandi” here.
The best projection I have ever seen.
A pity it is now a multiscreen.
Described in this 1967 trade article: Boxoffice