Odeon Cinema

The Odeon Cinema, located on Raby Road in Hartlepool, was built in 1936 by the W. & T. R. Milburn Partnership. This cinema features a steel and concrete structure that is clad in dull red brick and sandstone ashlar, with the roof not visible. The front of the building has a gentle curve, with the main mass stepping gradually upwards from the right to a symmetrical frontispiece above the entrance.

The ground floor is channelled and rusticated, with nine blank panels in the center and right sections. There are paired entrances with a ticket office between them, and the sides are quadrant-curved with small curved shop windows. A wide projecting canopy, which has a fluted fascia and patterned soffit, extends to the right, originally designed to shelter queues.

Above the entrance, a tall frieze is carved with over-life-size figures of athletic dancers set against an Art Deco background. Vertical panels rise above this to a stepped parapet. The blank upper right section features close-set parallel brick bands above a stone floor band, which continues below the frieze into a curved left angle bay. This bay has a small shop below a full-height curved stair window, which is detailed with close-set mullions and a transom at the second-floor level. The left return of the building has narrow bands of windows. At the time of the survey, the cinema was disused and was formerly known as the Majestic Cinema.