Odeon Cinema

Odeon Cinema, Holloway Road, Islington

Cinema built 1937-8 as the Gaumont by the Gaumont-British Picture Corporation in conjunction with their subsidiary company, the General Theatre Corporation. The architect was C. Howard Crane (1885-1952) of Chicago, a prominent American cinema designer responsible for the Fox cinemas in Detroit and St. Louis and part of the team for Radio City Music Hall in New York. He was one of only two leading American cinema architects to work in Britain. Following bomb damage in World War II, the cinema was internally reconstructed in 1958 by the architects T.P. Bennett & Son.

The building stands on a wedge-shaped site at the corner of Holloway Road and Tufnell Park Road. It comprises four elements: a tower, rectangular in plan, faced with buff, green, brown and black faience and roofed with copper; a lower faience-covered wing on Tufnell Park Road; a parade of shops in Holloway Road; and the main auditorium block of brick.

The corner tower features a curving entrance with a canopy extending down Tufnell Park Road, topped by a tripartite window above with engaged fluted columns bearing palm leaf capitals and a frieze of scrolling ornament between them. Similar windows appear on the Tufnell Park Road side, while the Holloway Road elevation has a single window with engaged columns in the reveals, all retaining original decorative metal glazing. Brown faience panels edge the upper sections. The chamfered, slightly inset corners contain windows with original metal glazing and vertical panels of arabesques above. A frieze of three narrow recessed bands sits below the parapet, coped with black faience. The attic features a low set-back with fluted frieze, a higher set-back with three blind windows to each side, an entablature to the top parapet, and a shallow hipped roof with flagpole.

The lower faience-covered wing in Tufnell Park Road displays a vertical inset panel of arabesques flanked by fluted pilasters. The Holloway Road frontage comprises faience-faced shops interspersed with exits, a frieze of green faience below the parapet, and an open arcade with cornice fronting what was originally a terrace cafe. Shop fronts have been renewed. The brick auditorium wing at the rear uses faience decoration sparingly. The principal architectural interest is concentrated in the foyer block and the Holloway Road elevation.

The interior features a double-height galleried foyer with a semi-circular end facing the entrance. A stair at the apsidal end has an octagonal newel-post and squat column-on-vase balusters, with a closed string decorated with Rinceau ornament and brass handrails. At gallery level, Corinthian pilasters singly and in pairs flank the walls, with Corinthian columns to the apsidal end, separated by bands of latticework and fluting. Window valences and other openings are present. Two large panels of mirror-glass with modern metal grills and another panel with glazing imitating the windows are noteworthy. A full entablature with triglyphs and paterae supports a modillion cornice with mutules; the plaster ceiling decoration follows a semi-circular pattern with broad fluting and narrow ornament, cartouches and paterae.

The first-floor crush hall is decorated with Corinthian pilasters, a frieze of swags, fluted frieze and cornice, and a plaster ceiling with ogee patterned ribs. The former cafe area has been adapted as an extra screen, though the decorative scheme is thought to survive behind partitioning. The auditorium has been subdivided into smaller cinemas and is not of special interest.

Originally one of Britain's most spectacular super-cinemas, the Gaumont retains exceptional external impact, an example of trans-Atlantic bravura. While the auditorium has been lost through later subdivision, the external and foyer qualities remain of high significance. The building is listed for the exceptional quality of its principal elevations and foyer areas.