Odeon Cinema And Regal Ballroom

The building comprises an Odeon cinema and former Regal Ballroom, located at 296 High Street, Beckenham. Originally designed as the Regal Cinema by cinema architect Robert Cromie and opened in 1930, it was adapted for three screens in the 1970s. The building is constructed of brown brick with a stuccoed corner feature to the principal elevations. A splayed corner features a tall central section with flagpoles and a central triple window with Art Deco glazing, flanked by lower curved bays with windows having stepped architraves. The canopy and doors were replaced in the late 20th century. The ground floor has two windows to the right and five to the left, with original casements to the ground floor and marginal glazing to the first floor.

The foyer retains original Art Deco doors with a plaster wave moulding above, and the staircases are original. The auditorium retains the complete proscenium arch, ornamental ventilation grilles with Art Deco designs, urn decorative features, floral panels, and original doors behind the later screens. Behind the proscenium arch is some old equipment, likely a rectifier unit. Within the later subdivided cinemas, the original ceiling decoration with coved panels and decorative grilles remains intact. Stepped panels to the former Circle and a wave-design plaster moulding to the rear wall of the former Stalls are also present. The underside of the former Circle retains three octagonal designs that originally held light fittings. The staircases feature metal grilles. An original Art Deco pattern to the Circle balcony likely survives, having been divided off as the boundary of the smaller cinemas in the 1970s.

The ground floor previously housed a tea room; Art Deco floral and circular designs survive, though the internal wall divisions have been altered. The original entrance and staircase to the first-floor restaurant are intact, featuring a tiled fire surround in three colours, a tessellated floor with a chevron pattern, an original light fitting, a 1950s kiosk, and a metal panel at the top of the staircase depicting a stylised tree and sunray design.

The original restaurant on the first floor, which later became a ballroom, retains an unaltered Art Deco interior with a coffered ceiling, pilasters, and a central entrance featuring a plastered floral panel flanked by two three-light oak-framed panels with leaded and stained glass, and floral plastered panels below. The original restaurant dumb waiter also survives.