Odeon Shirley
281 Stratford Road,
Birmingham,
B90 3AR
281 Stratford Road,
Birmingham,
B90 3AR
1 person
favorited this theater
Additional Info
Previously operated by: Odeon Theatres Ltd., Rank Organisation
Architects: Roland Satchwell
Firms: Satchwell & Roberts
Styles: Art Deco
Nearby Theaters
Located in the south outer Birmingham district of Shirley, on Stratford Road at the corner of Solihull Road. The Odeon was one of the original cinemas in the Oscar Deutsch chain of Odeon Theatres Ltd. It opened on 15th April 1935 with Grace Moore in "One Night of Love".
The facade was in buff coloured tiles with a centrally placed entrance, flanked by shops on each side. Inside the auditorium, seating was provided on a stadium plan with a raised section at the rear. There were 768 seats in the stalls and 388 in the raised balcony area. The auditorium ran parallel to Stratford Road, behind the parade of shops. At the rear of the auditorium was a car park which had space for 300 cars.
The Odeon led an uneventful life, and was closed by the Rank Organisation on 29th October 1977 with a Walt Disney double bill: "Jungle Book" and "One of Our Dinosaurs Is Missing". It was converted into a bingo club, which operated for several years. After this closed, the building remained empty for a while, and was demolished in September & October 1985. A Morrisons Supermarket has been built on the site.
Contributed by
Ken Roe
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Recent comments (view all 3 comments)
A close-up of the entrance in 1935, shortly after opening:
http://www.mawgrim.co.uk/cavalcade/shirley1.jpg
A vintage photograph of the Odeon Shirley in 1950:
http://www.mawgrim.co.uk/cavalcade/shirley2.jpg
Playing the Rank release in 1971:
http://www.mawgrim.co.uk/cavalcade/shirley.jpg
Grand opening ad:
Odeon Shirley opening 13 Apr 1935, Sat Birmingham Gazette (Birmingham, West Midlands, England) Newspapers.com
This was my local cinema as a child and was great!
Apart from the normal film shows, there was a Saturday morning cinema club for kids. Cartoons, old serial and a short feature. Children were invited onto the stage to dance - lots of forceful instructions to keep away from the silver screen!
Towards the end the stalls were converted for bingo before films ceased completely.
Every Remembrance Sunday the cinema opened for a special Remembrance event - a semi formal religious service which followed on from a parade of various organisations (Boys Brigade, Guides etc) at the local war memorial. At one of the last of the services before this ended I took part and had to stand at the ‘lecturn’ to read something (I was about 15 at the time). The odd thing was that the ‘lecturn’ was actually a bingo calling machine complete with numbered balls and covered with a cloth to give a bit more dignity to the affair! (The cinema was chosen as the venue as it was the biggest auditorium in the area - in fact the biggest in the Borough of Solihull which was technically outside the City of Birmingham.