Odeon Marble Arch
10 Edgware Road,
London,
W2 2EN
10 Edgware Road,
London,
W2 2EN
22 people
favorited this theater
Showing 26 - 50 of 76 comments
Lavish ‘for the time?’ This was the uk’s biggest post war cinema and technically highly advanced in design and construction. True, it didn’t have any fake Roman urns and other chintzy set dressing…instead it bore a striking resemblance to the Bauhaus building!
The pond and fish were there in July, 1986, when the adjacent view was taken on the main screen with balcony.
Can anyone confirm if Disney’s ‘101 Dalmatians’ was shown here around VE Day in 1995? I have a childhood memory of going to an Odeon which was bombed during the war and a short film being played about the rebuilding, then 101 Dalmatians afterwards. The description of both this and the previous cinema on the site seems to match it, if so I was lucky enough to see this cinema before the dividing.
Star Wars in D-150 is a sight I’ll remember all my life. You had to turn your head to see different parts of the picture – talk about being involved….
Exterior photographs from February 2009.
Star Wars run at this cinema in D-150 for all its run. The trailer for Close Encounters run in D-150 for the first 2 days then was shown on the 70mm size screen after that. Pease see my pics etc on this lovely cinema on in70mm.com.
The whole site(including office tower) has been sold, and a redevelopment, comprising several towers, has entered the pipeline:
“Construction News” article
The developer’s website mentions cinema space as possible for the redevelopment:
Almacantar – Marble Arch Tower
The existing cinema building would in any case, of course, be demolished.
I saw “Ghandi” here.
The best projection I have ever seen.
A pity it is now a multiscreen.
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 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.
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/
Thanks Ken Roe!
Slim, I have amended the introduction to give the opening details. Thanks for your interest.
2 Feb 1967
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!
I saw the restored Lawrence Of Arabia here in the mid-1980s on that marvelous curved screen. What a shame they ruined the theatre.
I was wondering about pics from the 50s.
I worked here for a few months when they were showing, Terminator 2 and The Silence of the Lambs. The place used to take your breath away from the top of the rear stalls, where I would frequently nip into the fire escape and have a cheeky fag. It was impressive. When the lights went up however, the seats were all shabby and looked a bit moth eaten. The manager was a bit of a tyrant.
herewith some pictures from 1967 featuring D150 : somewhat conflicting screen size : 62 feet …to er 79 ft later being nicer and er more accurate !
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kevp/2930889819/
View link
View link
Pre-refurbishment and plexing, this was a great single screen experience. A great shame that London could not support it as a single screen once the 90s kicked in. Had a great time here for Terminator 2 and The Doors…both pictures which had the right scale for the place. It is now a plex with very tight stepped seating suffered thru Speed 2 and enjoyed Full Monty and Tailor of Panama in spite of the discomfort
Are there any photos of the original auditorium before it was demolished?
I agree with you both, I made many, many visits to the Odeon Marble arch in the 80s and early 90s, while it still had that huge screen and feeling of being in a true cinema, for such ‘Special Engagements’ as ‘Mary Poppins’ etc- THE place to see a movie. I always used to enjoy movies there more so than at the Odeon Leicester Sq or Empire.
Lavish ‘for the time’? In terms of technical content it was far superior to the mouldy old Regal it replaced. Just because it’s old doesn’t mean it’s better! On the contrary, the new Odeon Marble Arch was brute force sixties modernism at its best. Quite aside from the huge screen and other presentation facilities (which were impressive), you wouldn’t believe how much effort was put into acoustically isolating the whole place. In fact the purpose of that fibreglass rockface effect in the auditorium was acoustical as well as aesthetic. Yes, the Odeon Marble Arch really was a kind of high water mark in terms of big screen entertainment (to use a Rank Organisation slogan of the time). It even cropped up in contemporary architects journals as an object lesson to others and elements of the design were to copied in Rank’s other big projects at the time. Shame it’s glittering, utopian, deep-curve D-150 moment was so short lived!
D150 only ran at the Odeon Marble Arch, and the Coliseum had only Cinerama
I only visited that cinema once, but it was a very memorable visit. It was in 1989, and I went to London from Brighton (where I lived at the time) just to see the restored 70mm print of “Lawrence Of Arabia”. Lines were around the building for an early noon screening but I went in very quickly. I sat in the rear stalls, just under the balcony, and I fell in love with the theater right away: It had a feeling of a real cinema. And then the film began. WOW! Until today I regard that screening as one of the best I have ever attended. It was high Definition at it’s best, much better then any HD Digital screenings we might have today. And the movie itself was perfect, still is one of my favorite films ever. It was a stunning expirience and I am very sorry I would be able to visit that cinema again or see another 70mm screening over there. The Odeon Marble Arch before the division was one of the best cinemas I have ever been in. And I have been in a lot before that 1989 visit and after.