The Odeon Haymarket was a cinema on
Haymarket, London
Haymarket is a street in the St James's area of the City of Westminster, London. It runs from Piccadilly Circus in the north to Pall Mall at the southern end. Located on the street are the Theatre Royal, Her Majesty's Theatre, New Zealand ...
. Three cinemas occupied the site between 1925 and 1996, predecessors being Capitol Cinema (1925–1936) and Gaumont Haymarket (1937–1959). It became the Odeon Haymarket in 1962, before closing in 1996.
Capitol Cinema (1925–1936)
Built by Sir
Walter Gibbons and opened in 1925, this was a large and ornate cinema in a Neo-Classical style, created as part of a development of an island site on this major London thoroughfare.
Designed by Andrew Mather (architect of many later
Odeon cinemas), the cinema used theatrical norms of stalls and circle seating, together with a number of boxes. An organ was installed and used during intermissions. Total seating was 1,700. In May 1928, Walter Gibbons company General Theatres Corporation was taken over by
Gaumont British Theatres.
[Cinema Treaures: ''Gaumont Haymarket'']
Linked 2013-12-06
The cinema is noted as the location of the first run of the first British 'talkie',
Alfred Hitchcock's ''
Blackmail'' in 1929. In its basement the ''Kit Kat Club'' was located, one of the most famous London nightclubs of the
roaring 1920s (not to be mixed up with an older
political club similarly named).
In 1935, Gaumont decided to completely reconstruct the Capitol, by lowering the auditorium to take in the former basement premises of the Kit Kat Restaurant. The last film to play at the Capitol Cinema was Tom Walls in ''
Foreign Affaires
''Foreign Affaires'' is a 1935 British comedy film directed by and starring Tom Walls. It also features Ralph Lynn, Robertson Hare, Norma Varden and Cecil Parker. The screenplay is by Ben Travers, and the cast included cast members from the Wal ...
'', on 18 January 1936.
[
]
Gaumont Haymarket (1937–1959)
The new cinema, known both as Gaumont Cinema and Gaumont Haymarket, was created by completely gutting the Capitol and turning the upper floors into offices. Seating was split between circle and stalls and totaled 1,328. A Compton organ was installed and the interior design was typical 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 ...
. The entrance was moved from the north corner to the centre of the building, which had originally been the entrance to the Kit Kat Restaurant. The Gaumont opened on 4 February 1937 with a Royal premiere of '' The Great Barrier''.[
In 1941 all assets of Gaumont British were acquired by the ]Rank Organisation
The Rank Organisation was a British entertainment conglomerate founded by industrialist J. Arthur Rank in April 1937. It quickly became the largest and most vertically integrated film company in the United Kingdom, owning production, distrib ...
.
Odeon Haymarket (1962–1996)
Following declining audience numbers, the Gaumont Haymarket was closed on 10 June 1959, with Robert Taylor in '' The Hangman'' being the last film. A second gutting then took place, creating a single-level, basement cinema with 600 seats and office space created above. Access to the cinema was from the southern corner of the building, leading to a small foyer and then stairs down to the screen. The cinema was spaciously raked and distinctively decorated in an alternating series of gold and tan wall stripped wall coverings and had a 'honeycomb' ceiling of circular holes. The new cinema, called Odeon Haymarket, opened in 1962.[
The Odeon Haymarket specialised in more up-market attractions, often for exclusive seasons. Films included ]Jacques Tati
Jacques Tati (; born Jacques Tatischeff, ; 9 October 1907 – 5 November 1982) was a French mime, film-maker, actor and screenwriter. In an ''Entertainment Weekly'' poll of the Greatest Movie Directors, he was voted the 46th greatest of all time ...
's '' Playtime'', Franco Zeffirelli
Gian Franco Corsi Zeffirelli (12 February 1923 – 15 June 2019), was an Italian stage and film director, producer, production designer and politician. He was one of the most significant opera and theatre directors of the post-World War II era, ...
's ''Hamlet
''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play, with 29,551 words. Set in Denmark, the play depicts ...
'' with Mel Gibson
Mel Columcille Gerard Gibson (born January 3, 1956) is an American actor, film director, and producer. He is best known for his action hero roles, particularly his breakout role as Max Rockatansky in the first three films of the post-apoca ...
, and Hugh Hudson
Hugh Hudson (born 25 August 1936) is an English film director. He was among a generation of British directors who would begin their career making documentaries and television commercials before going on to have success in films. He directed the ...
's and David Puttnam
David Terence Puttnam, Baron Puttnam, CBE, HonFRSA, HonFRPS, MRIA (born 25 February 1941) is a British film producer, educator, environmentalist and former member of the House of Lords. His productions include ''Chariots of Fire'', which wo ...
's ''Chariots of Fire
''Chariots of Fire'' is a 1981 British historical sports drama film directed by Hugh Hudson, written by Colin Welland and produced by David Puttnam. It is based on the true story of two British athletes in the 1924 Olympics: Eric Liddell ...
''.
Closure
The cinema was closed in 1996 nominally for a refurbishment but later gutted to become a nightclub. Planning permission was granted on appeal on 27 April 2007 for a nightclub in the basement, but the landlords have struggled to let the space as it is restricted to D2 use but is too low for a modern cinema. On 12 August 2010 the permission was extended to 27 April 2012.
Odeon Panton Street (a different cinema, a short walk from Haymarket) was renamed Odeon Luxe Haymarket in 2019.
References
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Cinemas in London
Haymarket
Former cinemas in London