Friday Photo: Kingstanding Odeon
Today’s Friday photo is the old Odeon in Kingstanding, which is now a popular Bingo club. The building was original constructed by Weedon and Clavering between 1935-1936 in an symmetrical, modernist, art deco design. It was purpose built as a cinema and was originally planned to be an independent cinema called Beacon Cinema. However, Oscar Deutsch got involved during its construction and it ended up opening as one of his original Odeon Theatres Ltd. chain. The Kingstanding Odeon opened on 22nd July 1935 with the first film “Lives of a Bengal Lancer”. The exterior of the building is considered classic Art Deco ‘Odeon’ and is now a Grade II Listed building. The features include rounded corners, a central bay covered with cream faiance tiles and a slender vertical fin-tower. The tower originally had horizontal letters on top spelling out ‘CINEMA’. The Odeon closed on 1st December 1962 with the last film being “To Hell and Back”. It was later converted into a Bingo Club, which today is run by Mecca Bingo.
Oscar Deutsch was a master of marketing his cinemas and chose the Greek word ODEON which means I see or view as the name of the company that built and ran his movie theatres because it spells the acronym: “Oscar Deutsch Entertains Our Nation”…….the Odeon Cinema chain is still the largest in the UK.