The Odeon Theatre

The Odeon Theatre, originally built as the Leicester Odeon Cinema, stands on Queen Street in Leicester. Constructed between 1936 and 1938, it was designed by Robert Bullivant of Harry Weedon and Partners for Oscar Deutsch and the Odeon group. The building is primarily steel and reinforced concrete, faced with brown brick, faience tiling, and features flat roofs.

The main entrance, on the south-west curved corner, has three steps leading up to five sets of late 20th-century double doors, accompanied by a projecting illuminated sign. Curved white tile projections with a black tile band are positioned on either side. Above the centre, four white faience tile buttresses with curved tops separate five tall windows, each containing twenty-five panes. A curved brick tower to the left has horizontal and continuous vertical banding across the entire facade. Above a set-back curved parapet, the name "ODEON" is displayed in large red letters. The west front, facing Rutland Street, has a black faience tile ground floor with brick panels and a long brick panel at the corner. A strip of two triple windows is set above white tiling, with brick surrounds. Another "ODEON" sign, also in red letters, features at the curved left corner. The facade is topped with horizontal brick banding. The north front, facing Southampton Street, has banded brick on the ground floor, with five sets of doors and two small windows. The upper section consists of blank brick walls with plain pilaster strips and banded tops. The south front, facing Queen Street, mirrors this brick decoration.

Internally, part of the original circular foyer remains, with some original vertical strips. The original staircase is present, along with fitted seating in the foyer leading to the circle and the inner foyer, which has curved ends and coving. A former circular bar was re-fitted around 1974. The original auditorium has been divided at balcony level. The former stalls retain much of their original plaster decoration on the walls of the present outer corridors. The former circle retains much of its original seating, layout, and ceiling decoration.

The cinema opened on July 28, 1938, with a screening of 'A Slight Case of Murder', and originally accommodated 2,182 spectators, with 1,307 in the stalls and 875 in the circle. It was converted into three smaller cinemas in 1974.