Well, I thought long and hard about whether or not to write about Occupations, Ostlers, and Osier Peelers, but in the end decided on an all-time favourite, Loughborough’s Odeon!! But which one?!
If you’ve arrived in Loughborough around 2009 or later, you’ll know that our Odeon is on Cattle Market, sandwiched between a NatWest Bank and a nail bar. But, as I suggested, it only became on Odeon around 2009.
Loughborough’s original Odeon, on Baxter Gate, opened in November 1936, despite there already being two cinemas in the town. Oscar Deutsch for whom the cinema was built, had opened his first cinema at Brierley Hill near Dudley, in 1928, before starting the Odeon chain. There was much building of new cinemas across the country, and by 1937 there were probably about 250 Odeons.
Deutsch had a preferred partnership with the architectural practice of Harry Weedon (partly because they had been born near each other around the same time, and so probably knew each other) and it was Arthur J. Price from Weedon’s firm who actually designed our Odeon. In 1936, the Art Deco style had reached its streamline modèrne phase, and it is this that gives our Odeon its beautiful lines; that and the local Hathernware faience tiles with which it is clad, in a basket weave pattern, with highlights of black and green.
The Odeon opened showing the film ‘Mr Deeds Goes to Town’ starring Gary Cooper and Jean Arthur, and directed by Frank Capra. The first manager of the Odeon was Clarence George Starkey, who had come straight from being the manager at the Rialto Cinema in Briggate, Leeds. This opening was a month too late to play host to the Jarrow Marchers, who were given free seats at one of Loughborough’s other cinemas, when they arrived in Loughborough from Nottingham, on their way to London.
That other cinema was the New Empire on Cattle Market. It had originally opened in 1914, advertised as The Empire, and had had a bit of a refurb in 1929. However, perhaps sensing that the competition was hotting up, the owner, Charles Knight Deeming (who also owned Loughborough’s other cinema, The Victory, the Regent Theatre, and cinemas in nearby Coalville), the Empire had a major extension and refurb, which led to the wonderful Art Deco façade we see today. Its local Hathernware tiles complemented by a striking angular tower, and green and yellow repeated motif. Deeming must have been very proud to host the Jarrow Marchers in his New Empire Cinema!
Later, around
1954, the New Empire was sold to the Essoldo Chain, before being sold to the
Tigon Group who named it the Classic for a while, before becoming the Curzon!
Meanwhile, over on Baxter Gate, the Odeon became the Classic around 1964, before
closing as a cinema in 1974, and firstly became a Mecca Bingo, then a Beacon
Bingo, before closing its doors permanently. And so, our Odeon might have been
our only remaining cinema, until the General Hospital was demolished and the
Cineworld Cinema opened in 2016.
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This post is
one in a series of posts for the ‘April A-Z Blogging Challenge’
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Posted by lynneaboutloughborough
With apologies for
typos which are all mine!
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