Former Odeon Cinema

FORMER ODEON CINEMA, QUEEN CAROLINE STREET

A former Gaumont cinema, now a live music venue, designed by Robert Cromie and completed in 1932. The building is constructed of load-bearing brick with a part steel frame, clad in brick with artificial stone dressings to a curved centrepiece and a rendered ground floor that forms a plinth.

The plan is fan-shaped, with a foyer on two levels leading to a double-height auditorium with a large circle. The exterior presents a two-storey centre with fifteen giant engaged columns, flanked by slightly projecting pavilions on either side. Below a canopy are nine original pairs of double doors separated by piers, with fire exits in pairs to the side and inner doors similarly surviving. Set-back flanks feature vertical bands inset with glazing. The side and rear elevations are largely obscured and are not of special interest.

The main interior spaces are remarkably well preserved. The curved inner foyer extends the length of the main front on two levels, with a central well under a coved ceiling balanced by coved cornices to the side and ventilation grilles in the ceiling. The lower foyer has simple coving with trabeation around the well and murals by Newbury Abbot Trent. Dog-leg staircases rise at either end, with brass-finished balustrading and radiator grilles, inset mirrors and hanging glass light-fittings. The upper foyer has cyma-moulded niches to the side walls, with thick columns separating what is now a bar area. Plaster decoration is by Clarke and Fenn, and etched glazed screens at either end shield the stairs.

The Art Deco auditorium features a deliberately simple moulded proscenium with a grille concealing organ pipes above—an unusual arrangement. The 1932 Compton organ console was reinstated following restoration in 2007 and is installed in a lift shaft to rise to its playing position at the front of the stage, as its original position was in an orchestra pit subsequently covered by the extension of the stage. Fluted side walls have exit doors surrounded by stepped moulded surrounds with fluted keystones and surmounted by aediculed, attenuated niches incorporating columns in antis. This niche, a distinctive Cromie feature akin to those on the exterior, breaks through the deep cornice. A broad balcony front displays shallow relief decoration. Elaborate shallow coves and original light fittings appear on the underside of the balcony. A deep cove to the main ceiling in two main stages above a deep, fluted cornice incorporates between them the former projection box, an unusual location distinctive to the most important early Gaumont cinemas. A shallower but equally decorated cove over the anteproscenium incorporates a laylight. Backstage areas, including dressing rooms and offices, are not of special interest.

The Gaumont Palace was originally commissioned for the Davis Company, explaining the choice of architect Robert Cromie, who had earlier designed the massive Davis Cinema in Croydon (now demolished). However, the Hammersmith scheme was taken over by Gaumont in 1930, before construction began. Its preservation as a single auditorium with most of its original seating is rare for a building of this size. The richness of mouldings and fixtures—light fittings, reliefs and glass—adds unusual opulence. The Art Deco mouldings of the shallow aedicules on the walls are typical of Cromie's work, while other elements reflect the Gaumont circuit's typical features, especially the Newbury Abbot Trent reliefs and the deep ceiling coves that incorporate the projection box. The building is also novel in its planning. The circle is noted for its great width, suspended on a 56-ton iron girder that was unique at the time. This enabled the seating of a large audience—up to 3,579—so close to the stage with little overhang, a key factor in the building's success as a concert venue. The building demonstrates economical use of steel by combining steel framing with load-bearing brick, giving it unusual strength. Robert Cromie worked for Bertie Crewe between 1910 and 1914 and received excellent training in theatre planning. He went on to work on the rebuilding of the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, in 1922. The demolition of the Davis and most of his later cinemas for the Union Circuit has left the Hammersmith building as his most important surviving cinema. The Apollo starred as the Grand, Sloughborough, in the 1956 film The Smallest Show on Earth, starring Virginia McKenna, Bill Travers and Margaret Rutherford, reflecting its commanding presence. In recent years it has become renowned as a music venue. David Atwell commented that it is "an Art Deco accomplishment second only to the New Victoria".