St Albans: Former Odeon cinema
Introduction
The photograph on this page of St Albans: Former Odeon cinema by Nigel Cox as part of the Geograph project.
The Geograph project started in 2005 with the aim of publishing, organising and preserving representative images for every square kilometre of Great Britain, Ireland and the Isle of Man.
There are currently over 7.5m images from over 14,400 individuals and you can help contribute to the project by visiting https://www.geograph.org.uk
St Albans: Former Odeon cinema
Image: © Nigel Cox Taken: 6 Jul 2009
Fourteen years after its closure in 1995 the Odeon survives but its Art Deco façade is slowly crumbling and its fate, as far as I know, is uncertain, with various plans afoot to demolish it and build flats. What is certain is that there is a lot of vehement public affection for the place, and also that the site is an important one in the history of British cinema. This is not just any old Odeon site but the location where the British cinema pioneer Arthur Melbourne-Cooper (1873-1961) opened his Alpha Picture Palace in 1908, one of the first cinemas in the country. Showing pictures that included those from Melbourne-Cooper's production studios over the road, the original cinema sadly burnt down in 1927. Melbourne-Cooper was supposedly the person who originated the idea of having sloping floors in cinemas too. The current building here in London Road dates from 1935, and its closure left St Albans without a cinema at all.
Images are licensed for reuse under creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0
Image Location
Latitude
51.747885
Longitude
-0.332834
