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The Odeon Cinema is a 
The building is in the
Grade II listed
In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...
building immediately west of the city centre of York
York is a cathedral city with Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. It is the historic county town of Yorkshire. The city has many historic buildings and other structures, such as a ...
, in England.
The Odeon Cinemas chain was keen to build a cinema in York, but it could not gain permission to construct a large building within the York city walls. Initial plans were toned down, and the resulting building is almost entirely of brown brick, with none of the tiles which often feature in Harry Weedon
Harold William "Harry" Weedon (1887 – 17 June 1970) was a British architect. Although he designed a large number of buildings during a long career, he is best known for his role overseeing the Art Deco designs of the Odeon Cinemas for Oscar Deu ...
's work. Following these changes, permission was granted to build on Blossom Street
Blossom Street is a road in York, in England, immediately west of the city centre.
History
The street has been the main route leading south and west from York from the Roman Eboracum era onwards; the Roman roads to Calcaria (now Tadcaster) and ...
, just outside the walls.
The building opened as an Odeon Cinema on 1 February 1937. It was designed by Harry Weedon, with the assistance of Robert Bullivant, and with interiors attributed to Lily Deutsch. The construction cost £40,500. On opening, it had 1,484 seats: 934 in the stalls and 550 on the balcony. In 1972, it was converted to have three screens, with the balcony extended forward to form one 800-seat space and the rear of the former stalls split into two smaller screens, each with 111 seats. It was listed in 1981.
The building is in the Art Deco
Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unite ...
style, and has a low front range, with a three-storey range behind, a tower to the left, and two-storey wings on either side. Part of the front range is occupied by shops. The tower retains an illuminated "Odeon" sign, rendered in Roman capital letters, not the chain's usual style.
Odeon planned to close the cinema in 2003, with a 13,000-name petition leading to a short reprieve. It closed in 2006, but reopened in 2009 as part of the Reel Cinemas
Cathay Organisation Holdings Limited is one of Singapore's leisure and entertainment groups. It has the first THX cinema hall and digital cinema in Singapore. The group has operations in Singapore and Malaysia.
History
Associated Theatres L ...
chain. In 2017, it was purchased by Everyman Cinemas and renovated to accommodate four screens, each with sofa seating.
The official listing notes that "the architecture ... is well designed and executed, and is a good example of Odeon cinema design" and that original windows survive, along with some original design elements and ancillary rooms. John Brooke Fieldhouse describes it as having "... the overall texture of a building belonging to an ancient civilisation".
References