ODEON, Marble Arch
London, WC2 2EN
Date opened: 2nd February 1967
Date closed: 8th May 2016
Architect: T. P. Bennett and Sons
Interior design: Trevor and Mavis Stone
Seating Capacity: 1,360
The new Marble Arch Odeon was built on the site of the Regal, which later became the ABC and finally Odeon. This stood on the site from 1928 to 1964. The new building designed by T. P. Bennett and Sons opened on 2nd February 1967 with the film ‘A Funny Thing Happened on the way to the Forum’. Interior decoration was by Trevor and Mavis Stone. This replacement was equipped to run 70mm, using the Cinemecanica Victoria 8 projectors with a Cinemation unit. One of the 70mm presentations was Gone With the Wind, blown up from 35mm 4×3 ratio. It was screened at the Odeon in July 1969, and was a bad transfer, leaving some of the image missing. Closed circuit TV was installed, so the theatre could be monitored from the manager’s office. The Dimension 150 system had an outing there. Info on this can be found on the web.
Interior of the new ODEON Marble Arch
On the 16th October 1967 The Royal World Premiere of ‘Far From the Madding Crowd’ took place in the presence of HRH Princes Margaret.
Princess Margaret at the new ODEON Marble Arch
Access to the cinema was by twin escalators. This took you to a spacious foyer with Amber and gold carpeting. The new Odeon was part of a complex that housed shops and an office tower. In 1996 it closed to go the same way as many others, and became a five screen cinema, two of them in the balcony area. In October 2016 the cinema went the same way as the building that had stood there previously and was demolished.
David A Ellis©chestercinemas.co.uk
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________