Odeon Putney
25 Putney High Street,
London,
SW15 1SN
25 Putney High Street,
London,
SW15 1SN
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Additional Info
Previously operated by: Blue Halls Ltd., Davis Pavilion Circuit, Gaumont-British Picture Corp., Ltd., Rank Organisation, United Picture Theatres Ltd., Wyanbee Cinemas
Architects: John Stanley Beard
Styles: Neo-Classical
Previous Names: Electric Pavilion, Blue Hall, Putney Palace Theatre, Gaumont
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First opened in 1907 as the Electric Pavilion, it was part of the small Davis Pavilion Circuit operated by cinema pioneer Israel Davis. In 1911, a Jones 2Manual organ was installed. In 1918 it was taken over by the independent Blue Halls Ltd. chain and was re-named Blue Hall Cinema in 1920.
It was taken over by Herbert A. Yapp in 1926 and was rebuilt to the plans of architect John Stanley Beard. It re-opened as the Putney Palace Theatre on 11th October 1926 with Reginald Denny in “What Happened to Jones” and attended by film star Betty Balfour. It was equipped with Compton 2Manual/5Ranks ‘Kinestra’ theatre organ, opened by organist George F. Somes (who was also the orchestra leader at the cinema). In 1928, it became part of the United Picture Theatres circuit (UPT), but in July 1930 UPT were taken over by Gaumont British Theatres. It was closed a couple of times during the war, re-opening on 28th January 1945.
From 22nd August 1955 it was re-named Gaumont and continued under the Rank Organisation management when it was re-named Odeon on 25th November 1962.
It closed on 11th December 1971 with Bruce Davison in “Willard” and Michael Latimer in “Man of Violence”. A deal was done with EMI who owned the adjacent ABC (former Regal) Cinema which closed on the same day. Both buildings were demolished and a new three-screen ABC cinema (currently Odeon) was built on the site, opening in September 1975.
Contributed by
KenRoe
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Recent comments (view all 4 comments)
Photographed as the Palace Cinema playing the Gaumont release in October 1949:
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A photograph of the rear of the Palace Cinema in October 1949:
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Photographed as the Gaumont playing the Gaumont release in May 1956:
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The facade modernised as the Odeon, photographed in April 1971 (the roofline of the adjacent ABC (ex Regal) can be seen to the left of shot):
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The Palace Cinema was equipped with a Compton 2Manual/5Rank theatre organ which was opened by George F. Somes in 1926.
A picture after closure
http://geocities.com/johnllon/odeput.htm
I started here age 16, as a trainee projectionist in August 1967, it was an amazing place to work. The hours were long, but I loved every minute of it, well most of it, the chief projectionist could be really mean after he had a couple of quarts of Old English cider. I was there when it closed and it was one of the saddest days of my life when we had to gut the inside and put everything on a lorry to be taken away. I did have many souvenirs, sadly long since dissapeared.