Scarborough Odeon

LIGHTS CAMERA ODEON

The former Odeon Cinema in Scarborough, built in 1936 is a prime example of the company's 1930s Art Deco designs, with it's tile and brick facade, tall tower with simple detailing, it's large, neon Odeon sign and it's many curves, taking advantage of it's corner plot is has long been admired for being a 'classic' Odeon and as the years have gone by and while many of these original cinemas have been demolished it is a testament that old buildings can be reused and have a purpose in our modern world. The former Scarborough Odeon Cinema is now the Stephen Joseph Theatre and is still entertaining audiences over 85 years since it was first built.

The Odeon chain opened it's first cinema in Perry Barr, Birmingham in 1930, despite a world wide depression attendances during the 1930s were high and by the end of that decade the chain had over 250 cinemas dotted around the country. Each week millions flocked to see the latest film by their favourite actors up on the silver screen. It is hard to imagine in our modern, comfortable world where we no longer have to venture out of our homes in search of entertainment like some bored, ancient tribe that back in the 1930s there was no television, no internet, no computer games or consoles and certainly no blogging about old cinemas! Entertainment in the home consisted of reading and radio, some families gathered together to play board games with their children, while their little darlings had the added bonus of simply using their imagination, therefore  it is unsurprising that in 1935 when attendance figures were first recorded that here in the UK we made 903 million trips to the flicks, this number continued to increase during the 1930s and even while bombs were dropping around us throughout World War II, peaking in 1946 with a staggering 1.64 billion visits, even more impressive considering the population of the UK at the time was roughly 49 million equalling out to about 34 trips per person.

The Odeon cinema chain was founded by Oscar Deutsch, a business man born in 1893, Birmingham, the son of a successful Hungarian Jewish scarp metal merchant, in 1925 he started renting cinemas in Wolverhampton (yay) and Coventry, three years later he opened his first cinema in Brierly Hill and in 1930 opened the first Odeon in Perry Barr, the original Odeon was quite different to those that soon followed featuring arched windows and stepped towers, damaged during World War II it was later remodelled into a rather plain, more traditional Odeon style.

In 1934 Oscar Deutsch used the services of architectural firm Weedon Partnership for the interior of a cinema in Warley, the architect Cecil Clavering took on the designs, pleased with the work Mr Deutsch employed them again for a cinema in Kingstanding, this building almost looks like a template for their future work together with a tile and brick facade, a tall central tower consisting of three 'fins', narrow, vertical bands and curved corners. It would be this partnership of Deutsch and Weedon that designed and built the Scarborough Oden two years later.

The design of the Scarborough Odeon easily fits into the traditional style of the Odeon Cinema, taking advantage of it's corner plot, the entrance consisting of four sets of doors, separated by chrome columns sit below a curved canopy projecting further out in three tiers, above the canopy is a curved row of metal framed windows above which are buff coloured tiles, to the side of the windows is a tall brick block containing the main stairwell and featuring a single tiled tower or 'fin' which rises above the block and is decorated with a neon sign spelling cinema the word theatre is also spelt out lower down on the tower. Along Westborough is a  five floor block the lower section of which is decorated in black tile with two red bands and a series of metal framed windows, above these the facade is covered in buff coloured tiles and a row of taller, rectangular windows, above these is a further row of smaller windows, a large neon sign once again spelling the word theatre further and three, green tiled bands, the full height corner of the building is brick. The Odeon building as with many others contains a row of shops, these form the lower facade of the cinema along Northway each with metal framed windows above which is the continuing stipe of the entrance canopy, the remainder of the three floor building is plain brick featuring two floors of metal framed windows behind which and rising above is the continuation of the tall brick block that contains the fin but which steps down in height, this forms the auditorium wall.

The building remained in use as a cinema until 1988, the previous few decades had been turbulent times for the film industry as attendance figures declined due to competition mainly from television, many cinemas were demolished or reused as bingo halls. The Scarborough Odeon was thankfully taken over by the Steven Joseph Theatre who redeveloped and restored the building after laying empty for a year and reopened in 1989 and so now the building continues to entertain people over 80 years since it was first opened.

More info on the Stephen Joseph Theatre here