Odeon Chester
Northgate Street,
Chester,
CH1 2HQ
Northgate Street,
Chester,
CH1 2HQ
3 people
favorited this theater
The Odeon Chester was built in 1936 to the designs of Harry Weedon & Robert Bullivant. Like the York Odeon, the building of this theater was beset by delays due to the proposed placement within historic city walls and the discovery of Roman archeological remains (some of which are still on display today in glass cases in the upper foyer). It opened on 3rd October 1936 with Ned Sparks in “Two’s Company”
Chester and York Odeons are both different from other Odeons being built at the time, in that they did not have the distinctive Odeon moderne look externally due to the ruling of the Royal Fine Arts Commission not allowing the usual cream tiled facia.
The exterior is executed in a plain brick with horizontal and vertical channeling. The signage (subject to a rather nasty debate between Chester City Council and Odeon regarding recently submitted plans to change it from the original rare signage to the new rebranded signage) was again different to the usual Odeon signs being rather larger and in "Trajan" lettering.
The interior was very much in the moderne look with clean simple lines directing the eye to the screen. The slopping ceiling had concealed lighting in recessed bands towards the screen with a ribbed curved plunge onto the proscenium frame. At either side of the proscenium there were tear-shaped lit recesses.
The cinema was triplexed in 1976 with two cinemas being created in the rear stalls, each seating 122 and the circle was extended forward to seat 802. In March 1991, the circle screen was tripled giving seating capacities of two 151 seat screens and one 406 seat screen. The rear stalls screens remained the same.
The Odeon was closed on 14th June 2007.
The Odeon is a Grade II Listed building.
Contributed by
Steve Lynch
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Recent comments (view all 21 comments)
Regarding the above comment, it should read The downstairs cinemas, which had been two and three, not one and two as stated above.
Has this article been mentioned before? Extensive feature article by the local Chester preservation group;–
http://www.bwpics.co.uk/gallery/cinema6.html
I have written with Steve Howe the history of Chester cinemas under the name of David A Ellis, which can be found on the web.
Some of my above comments are in my article that was written for Steve Howe’s website based in Chester at http://www.bwpics.co.uk/gallery/cinema6.html However the above also contains information that is not on the above website.
Here is a side view of the Odeon.
The first Sunday screening was ‘East Side of Heaven’ on 3rd November 1940.
This is a 2009 photo.
A June 2009 photo is here.
Still derelict, with no decision on its future, in April 2011:–
View link
Another lost apostrophe.