Demolition of the former Odeon Cinema Manchester

[Phil Evans]

When I look it that building it now makes me want to cry. Never felt like this before about a building that is about to be demolished.

I saw my first film in a cinema there. *sighs*

I wish they'd at least turn it in to a music venue. Brilliant location.

[aidanorourke]

Some may say that retaining the Odeon is just a case of dewy eyed nostalgia, but as we have read earlier in this post, the building could have become a centre piece of Manchester's musical life in a new role as a concert venue.

The Oxford St Peter St axis is Manchester's 'entertainment alley' or 'rock'n'roll boulevard'. Since the 19th century it has been lined with theatres, concert halls and other entertainment venues. Some have gone over the years, but many remain.

This axis could be designated as an 'entertainment-priority' zone, and the Odeon Paramount would be at the centre of it.

Manchester City Council are squandering a fantastic opportunity, and helping to destroy the uniqueness character of Manchester in favour of the bland uniformity of endless office blocks.

The are out of touch with the people they are supposed to represent.

This is only the latest of a string of disastrous decisions made by Manchester City Council.

The time has come for fundamental change, the present local government arrangements must replaced by something new and better.

And I have to say I feel English Heritage have let us down. A few years ago they launched an awarenes raising campaign for cinema buildings. And yet they chose not to support those who tried to save this building. Is it that the Odeon is too far north of Watford to matter?

[regentroad5]

A city without its old buildings is as sad as an old man without his memory.

[ptate]

Oscar Deutsch Entertains Our Nation. At least that is what I believe the "ODEON" stood for.

I demolished the Radcliffe Odeon about twelve months ago and was extremely concerned that nobody stepped forward to preserve the structure (especially as the area is being re-developed!). At the time of the demolition, an old couple walked by and told me they had met, courted and attended that cinema very week for many years (they even remembered their seat numbers!). So sad!

It is a shame that these buildings are continually being removed, one-by-one. Some are listed, but IMHO, that should be extended to include them all.

[regentroad5]

I sometimes feel the world is composed of two kinds of people;those with an understanding and an appreciation of the past and its traditions,including a love for and a wish to preserve certain old buildings which have intrinsic value and characterize unique times in our history.On the other side a world view that embraces the clean and modern,and that which is sometimes sterile and soulless and conspicuous cash orientated and horrible(well,to me anyway).A bit simplistic and black and white maybe,but perhaps with a grain of truth.

[Fliss26]

Hello I am a Researcher looking into the Odeon in Manchester and I was wondering whether anyone would be interested in posting their memories of the cinema?

Think of things such as what films you remember, how old you were, any other stories that might be of interest.

I am looking into what role the Odeon plays with in the local community. Any comments or thoughts are greatly welcomed.

I hope people will participate and I look forward to your feedback

Thank you

Felicity

[vampsinthe78]

As a regular in that part of Manchester I can't say I'm surprised by the council's attitude and it's readyness to buckle under the property developers pressure. It's a logistic nightmare to preserve features of an existing structure, hence the huge increase in spineless "commitee architecture". Basically I see a bunch of yes-men sit round a table with a cassette box or a some other cube and decide 'glass or concrete'. Art-deco does not feature in their style vocabulary, nor does monolithic civic grandeur which at one time set Manchester apart from its less charismatic neighbours. A sad day indeed...

[aidanorourke]

As the new buildings are being unveiled from beneath the scaffolding, we are seeing a dreadful monotony and mediocrity that is taking over the character of Manchester.

Most modern buildings, whether in Manchester or anywhere else, appear to be inspired by computer-aided design. It's all high tech, minimalist, modern.

Most older buildings appear to have been designed by artists and craftsmen.

It needs to be pointed out that modern architecture is simply not able to produce buildings that people find inspiring or feel an attachment to - except for a few notable buildings.

We are creating a cityscape of 'banal-itecture' that we will have to put up with for decades into the future.

[jonko]

This TITLE SHOULD READ "FESTIVAL AT THE ODEON" (typo error).

I remember the first Kinofilm, Manchester International Film Festival taking place at the Odeon Cinema in October 1995. It was a refreshing change to the mundane programme at the cinema (let's face the cinema was hardly ever challenging with it's programme was it?). Sad that it's gone but we've seen so many old cinemas going all the time. For those who don;t follow the fate of cinema buildings, one should subscribe to the Cinema Theatre association to see what is demolished week after week.

Unlike the York Odeon and Chester's Odeon (both recently saved by an independent cinema group) - the Odeon in Manchester has had most of it;s original interiors ripped out - which is why the grade ii listing was refused by English Heritage.

The only hope of saving this cinema is to get the operator's who bought both York's and Chester's Odeon to buy it and revive it as a much loved cinema. Unfortunately though, as the building's planning permissions were granted for that horrible office block planned for the site - it's unlikely that any cinema chain could buy it now that plans have been approved for a multi million pound project.

Perhaps we should concentrate on saving the region's only surviving independent cinema - The Heaton Moor Savoy. Lovely little cineme wiht real character which is begging out for someone to do something with it. I've tried to get the lease on the building as the lady who owns it has it on the market for a subtantial sum (about £350k I think). Quite a lot for a single screen cinema - but it's only a matter of time before someone comess along and buys it for something else. Maybe some of us can get together pooling our resources and raising the money to buy it before that little gem goes to.

LONG LIVE CINEMA! IT SHALL SURVIVE!
Jon

[Phil Blinkhorn]

When my family moved to Heaton Mersey in the summer of 1956 the Savoy was a much used facility in an era when television was still in less than half the homes in the country and Independent TV on Channel 9 was in less than 20%.

As well as two shows per evening there were matinees on Saturday afternoons and, in the school holidays, weekday afternoons. Saturday mornings saw a children's matinee - all normal fare for a cinema in those days but the Savoy, being smaller, had a different atmosphere from the Pavillion and the Empire at Ashton under Lyne which had been the cinemas I'd been taken to prior to the move.

Some of the films I saw for the first time at the Savoy during the late 1950s and early 1960s included The Dam Busters, Bridge on the River Kwai, Dunkirk, Carve Her Name with Pride (Britain's film industry was "milking" WW2 at that time), too many Carry On films to list, GI Blues, a number of "Doctor" films and such classics as Inn of the Sixth Happiness, El Cid and Hell is a City.

When we were under 12 our diet was strictly U films but as we got older we found ways of seeing many an A rated production but, try as we might X rated films remained unexplored territory until we were 16 or so.

Next door to the Savoy was Parry's sweet shop and, if my memory is right, Mr Parry was involved with the Davenport cinema which, in the 1960s eventually took over the Savoy. Next to that was the Savoy Supper Bar, providers of "a six of chips and a ten penny piece of cod or hake" - wrapped in newspaper or in a white paper twist if you wanted to eat as you walked home - something we regularly did on cold winter nights.

The Savoy itself provide refreshments both at the interval and duing the main feature. The refreshment tray girls had a variety of ice creams - tubs with wooden spoons, choc ices and blocks with wafers - Lyons Maid ice lollies, Kia-Ora orange juice, a variety of sweets and chocolates.

The front of the Savoy was changed in the 1960s to its current shape as part of a modernisation scheme which included a new sound system and better projection facilities which featured large air extractors linked to the projectors, which must have been a boon for the projectionists who, up until then, regularly kept the projection room door to the fire escape ajar on cold and wet nights and wide open on hot summer evenings.

One of the nightly features visible to all who happened along Heaton Moor Road at the appropriate moment was a police constable of the Stockport County Borough force climbing the fire escape to check that the terms of the cinema licence were being observed and no matches or cigarettes were present in the projection room.

From my mid teens into my early 20s the Savoy became an intrinsic part of my dating scene and the rows at the back of the stalls (2/6d per seat) or the rear circle (3/-) became the chosen seats over the 1/6d seats of earlier years as a little privacy was sought.

Some of the films seen during the period included West Side Story, Help, all of the Clint Eastwood Spaghetti Westerns, The Graduate, 2001 a Space Odyssey, Battle of Britain and Grand Prix - which my wife still laughs about as, at the end of the film, a number of young men made their way to the Savoy car park (a pot holed piece of land adjoining Kings Drive) and, to a man, drove out in their Anglias, Vivas and Cortinas as if they were in the Monaco Grand Prix.

The last time I was in the Savoy was in 1972. After that I moved away and the thought of visiting the Savoy has never crossed my mind since. I wonder if I'll get another chance to visit?