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Location Information:
The
Odeon Leicester Square is a cinema
which occupies the centre of the
eastern side of Leicester Square,
London, dominating the square with
its huge black polished granite
facade and 120 feet (37 m) high
tower displaying its name. Blue neon
outlines the exterior of the
building at night. It was built to
be the flagship of Oscar Deutsch's
Odeon Cinema Circuit and still holds
that position today. It hosts
numerous European and World film
premieres including the annual Royal
Film Performance.
The
Odeon was built in 1937 on the site
of the Alhambra Theatre, a large
music hall dating from the 1850s.
Until
1967, the interior was a magnificent
art-deco auditorium, with a ribbed
ceiling, concealing stripped
lighting. Two bas relief sculpture
of naked nymphs were positioned on
the side walls, as if leaping
towards the screen. All the seats
were covered in a faux-leopard skin
material. A rather misguided
modernisation in 1967 destroyed much
of this grandeur, although since the
1980s, restoration programmes have
restored much of this detail,
including the figures, seating
pattern and much of the ribbed
effect on the ceiling.
The
first wide-screen ever installed in
Great Britain was fitted in 1953,
with the British debut of
Cinemascope following soon after
with the quasi-biblical epic, The
Robe. The theatre's Chief Engineer,
Nigel Wolland, was awarded an MBE
for services to the film industry in
2007.
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