Odeon Cinema

The Stephen Joseph Theatre (formerly the Odeon Cinema) is a cinema and former cafe and shops, constructed in 1936 by J Cecil Clavering and Robert Bullivant of Harry Weedon and Partners for Oscar Deutsch and the Odeon group of companies. It incorporates Nos 4-12 even, Northway. The building is constructed of brick with ceramic tile facings to the ground floor, the cafe, and the projection end, and has a flat roof. It is designed in a Modernist, streamlined style influenced by German examples.

The quadrant corner entrance features four glazed doors with overlights, a fascia, and a flat canopy extended to the left. Above the entrance is a completely glazed cafe with steel uprights and horizontal supports, beneath a tall cream-tiled parapet. The Westborough elevation incorporates a black-tiled ground floor with display frames and an inset left doorway. To the left of the tower is a six-storey tower sandwiching a red-striped cream glazed fin that previously held the legend “CINEMA.” A fully-glazed stairshaft is located to the left of the fin. To the left of the tower is a five-storey, four-bay section with cream tiling above the ground floor, featuring large first-floor windows and smaller second-floor windows with close-set steel glazing bars. The upper floors are largely blank, apart from the now-removed legend "ODEON" in free-standing letters and green tile bands. A brick quadrant angle is located to the left. The Northway front is a three-storey, five-bay block with shops below (many retaining original glazing) and horizontally-barred windows above. The auditorium descends in three wide steps from the tower to the north end.

The interior retains numerous original features, including doors, architraves, skirtings, panelling, handrails, much of the original seating, some floor coverings including original carpets, light fittings, and original house telephones. The auditorium is wide and uncluttered, relying on subtle shifts in lines for its effect, but includes bands and panels of cast leafy ornament around the screen area.

The cinema is notable as a good example of the Odeon “house style” developed by Harry Weedon’s firm, and is of special importance as the only remaining major Odeon with its auditorium in the original, undivided state.