The Odeon had occupied this site for nearly 80 years, beginning life as the Paramount Cinema, built by Verity & Beverley in the period between the wars. The Modernist Society say that the Paramount, " ...was completed in record time, accommodating 1400 in the stalls, 650 in the mezzanine and 950 in the grand circle and balcony. Sumptuous and colossal with this seating capacity of 3000, the local press described it as the ‘last word in sound cinematograph entertainment’, but it nevertheless had to turn away over a thousand people on its famous opening night"

It became the Odeon in 1938.

In 1974 it was converted into a multi-screen format. The "arthurlloyd.co.uk -The Music Hall and Theatre Site" said of the Odeon, "...it still has its original Wurlitzer theatre organ, a full-size orchestra pit, stage facilities, and the proscenium, ceiling and foyer areas are still intact, even though some of this is now hidden."


However, in the end the Odeon went the way of many cinemas before it and in 2004 it succumbed to the competition of the modern multiplexes, closing its doors for good in September of that year.  In the years that followed it languished unloved.  Efforts to save it and to get English Heritage to list it came to nothing.  English Heritage apparently felt that the efforts to "modernize" it over the years had eradicated much of what was worth saving.

The images below were taken in 2010 when the dismal Elisabeth House was still its neighbor and the Odeon still had its marquee.