Odeon Halifax
Broad Street,
Halifax,
HX1 1YA
Broad Street,
Halifax,
HX1 1YA
3 people
favorited this theater
The Halifax Odeon opened on 27 June 1938 and is bounded by Orange Street, Broad Street, and Great Albion Street. The Architect was George Coles and it cost £59,727 to build. It had 1,344 stalls seats and 714 in the balcony giving a total of 2,058. A most unusual façade remains intact with three concave bays covered with buff faience tiles, above the entrance each containing a convex window. A tall Art Deco style tower formerly had the Odeon lettering illuminated by neon. It was however not originally intended for the Odeon circuit, but was a take over during construction, which explains its differences from the typical ‘Odeon’ style.
The cinema had a wide proscenium and a stylish interior with decoration dominated by two large bas-relief female figures either side of the screen. Lighting was entirely indirect.
The Odeon Cinema closed on 18 October 1975 and was immediately converted into a bingo hall which is still operating, under a different name, today.
Contributed by
Ian Grundy
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Recent comments (view all 12 comments)
As a child in the late 1950’s and early 1960’s I recollect going to the Odeon for the Childrens Saturday morning club.It started at 9.30 pm with a 10 to 15 minute cartoon followed by the manager coming on stage to run one or two competitions and have a friendly chat with the kids. This was followed by a weekly serial of about 30 minutes a brief interval for the obligatory ice creams soft drinks etc then on t the main full length feature. All finished by noon. Not bad for sixpence. (21/2 new pence) Refreshments about 1/– (5 new pence)
Early 1960’s took us on to visiting on Saturday afternoons to see my beloved Hayley Mills, first in ‘The Parent Trap’ and then ‘In Search Of The Castaways’ Other films I recollect were Fred McMurray in ‘Flubber’ and ‘Son of Flubber’, Dick Van Dyke and the georgous Ann Margaret in ‘Bye Bye Birdie’. Elvis in ‘Kissing Cousins’ and ‘Kid galahad’, and then on to Sunday evenings in the late ‘60’s sixties where the fabulous 'The Graduate’ featured Anne Bancroft and Dustin Hoffman, A full house for ‘Carry On Up The Kyber’ plus many more. Loved the lighting in Cinemas and marvelled at the way the dimming procedure operated in the Odeon. Ceiling lights, indirect type slowly first, followed by the floods on the cutains from a bank of about a dozen or so lamps rigged acroos the circle front, The colour was nearly always a bright orange, although for a short spell the imagination (or the budget) altered the curtains to be lit with ten of the lamps with a violet and the rest in blue filters replacing the ordinary orange ones. Even as a child i recollect visiting a copuple of Saturdays when the ceiling was shrouded in scaffold whilst the only re-decoration of the sixties took place. The manager explaining why the screen was exposed to the floodlights as the curtains were ‘away being dry-cleaned’
Ah what memories. My elder sister had the pleasure of visiting the Odeon round about 1960 to see one of the many ‘Larry Parnes Pop Shows’ of the day. Cliff Richard, The Vernons Girls, Adam Faith, Marty Wilde etc., etc., Would have loved to have been older to have seen these!
I’ll reminisce about the ABC (Regal) on the respective page.
Roger Allen. Halifax
any idea who owns the theatre? Who do we contact?
Hi,
I would like to know if there are any more photos of this cinema/bingo hall from the past. I currently work for Mecca Bingo at the Halifax club and its not changed too much.
I am interested in shots of the foyer and the stairs and the hallway upstairs.
Thanks,
Dean
In a couple of years time, this club will be relocated staff have been informed to a new purpose built club. Over the last 15 years nothing has been done to the building.
I will try take some current pix of inside as it is now, and the projector room. Although theres not much left.
As you look up the stairs to the circle the view is of a symetrical staircase splitting both left and right but as you climb the stairs you discover that his is an illusion! The left hand stairs lead into a solid wall, an architectural device to present symetry to the eye. Fascinating!
Hi Gorden, the stairs do exist, that whole wall is a partition wall put in when the building was converted to a bingo hall. As if you go through the door you can go down the stairs and and banister it still there, which leads to a fire exit.
If you look round the sides of where the screen used to be you can still find old bulbs. The building is fitted with some kind of early ventilation system, attached to plenum although some of the holes are now boarded up due to bad drafts.
I work here, and I find the building amazing, the acoustics are great too.
Hi, does any one know what the first film shown was?
The Odeon Halifax opened on 27th June 1938 with Errol Flynn, Joan Blondell in “The Perfect Specimen”. Directed by Michael Curtiz for Warner Brothers.
Here is an exterior view from the 1970s. Probably from the late 70s.