Odeon Kensington

the facade has now been demolished

July 24th, 2015 article Odeon Kensington demolition 24 Jul 2015, Fri Evening Standard (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

It’s been 3 years since the Odeon Kensington closed and now over 18 months since it was demolished and the site is still an empty lot, with no sign of any construction beginning. The facade stands deteriorating, shored up with scaffold.

Final closure was due on Monday 31st August, staff told me on a visit on 27th. This was the day a petitions to save the building was handed in at the Dept of Culture, Media and Sport, containing over 25,000 signatures from the 38 Group.

Oh dear, the local council have approved the redevelopment plans, with the cinema likely to close on 11 September 2015 for demolition, and replacement by flats and a basement cinema operated by Picturehouse in 2018..

Evening Standard article

The curtains are blue (though partly lit magenta) and yes, blue is the circuit colour for screen curtains. The Odeon, Leicester Square has blue satin screen curtains and silver satin house curtains but in the majority of Odeons, curtains are no longer used, the screens simply having a blue LED surround which definitely is not a “good look”!

I love this cinema, such great memories of skiving school and spending warm comfy afternoons here. I saw so many great movies here in the late 80s (before I got to ten), and I even enjoyed going here through the 90s. I live in East London, so it is hard to get there, and in spite of it being turned into a Multiplex, I love this building, it has such great atmosphere, and if they demolish this it will be a very sad day indeed.

HowardBHaas’s photo of the curtain brings back memories of my visit to London last year when I caught a movie at the Tottenham Court Road Odeon. One can only guess that these purple house tabs are now the Odeon “style”. Auditorium at Tottenham Court was pitch black save for a spotlight centred on the curtain (as above). NOT a good look.

Am fully expecting that this theater will be demolished and replaced with residential sooner than later…the good news is that the internal / underground screens that Odeon has created aren’t the worst and that in x years a modern 5 screener will be better than the 1 great 2 ok 2 frankly small screens we’ve got now will be an improvement…Some fun times over the years here from Breaking Away with my mom in 1980 when it was a 4 screener to Silence of the Lambs and Sleeping with the Enemy and 4 Weddings in the big screen in the 90s to The Departed last year (Nigel Havers and I in a tizzy for the length of the queue), Fun with Dick and Jane, a preview of Moulin Rouge, and in smaller screens In Her Shoes, Adaptation, Black Hawk Down and despite my respect for Anthony Minghella Cold Mountain which I found endless…always a pretty well run moviegoing experience

The local council have approved demolition imminently but retention of the facade. This in spite of there being whole sections of the theatre in their original state. These are mostly out of view to public or behind modern walls.This is a great loss for the community, a complete turnaround by Odeon who were recently premiereing films here as an alternative to Leicester Square.It was always considered by Odeon as one of the prestige venues.

More pictures taken in 1988 (mainly interiors) here:–

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This website says the theater has been sold for redevelopment:
http://users.aber.ac.uk/jwp/cinemas/cinlondon.html