Odeon Leicester Square

The Odeon as seen from Leicester Square

The Odeon cinema building was completed by Sir Robert McAlpine in 1937[7] to the design of Harry Weedon and Andrew Mather on the site of the Turkish baths and the adjoining Alhambra Theatre a large music hall dating from the 1850s. The site cost £550,000, the cinema took seven months to build at a cost of £232,755[1] with 2116 seats.[8] The opening night was Tuesday 2 November 1937; the film shown that night was The Prisoner of Zenda.[1]

The interior was an art-deco auditorium, with a ribbed ceiling and sidewalls, featuring concealed strip lighting in coves, and two bas relief sculptures of naked nymphs were positioned on the front splay walls, as if leaping towards the screen. All the seats were covered in a faux-leopard skin material. A modernisation in 1967 removed many of the original features, with all of the ribbed plasterwork from the balcony to the proscenium replaced by smooth finishes. A refurbishment in 1998 included new versions of some lost details, including the figures, and seating upholstery pattern.

The first widescreen (screen ratio 1.66:1) installed in Great Britain was premiered on 14 May 1953; the film shown was Tonight We Sing.[9] The British debut of CinemaScope (screen ratio 2.55:1) following soon after on 19 November 1953 with the quasi-biblical epic, The Robe.[10] The first cinema to show CinemaScope in London was the Odeon Tottenham Court Road (on 9 June 1953), which was also the venue for the first screening of Cinerama.[11]

The theatre's chief engineer, Nigel Wolland, was awarded an MBE for services to the film industry in 2007.[12] The theatre's general manager, Chris Hilton, was awarded an MBE for services to the film industry in 2010.[13]

After Nigel Wolland's retirement in 2006, Mark Nice was appointed the cinema's chief engineer. Mark Nice was later promoted to the position of Odeon company engineer with Toni Purvis and Michael Mannix assuming the role of Operations Manager Digital.

The first Dolby Cinema system to be installed in the UK is at Odeon Leicester Square.[14] This introduced a combination of Dolby Vision dual-laser projection system and a Dolby Atmos 'moving audio' system.

The Odeon is the largest single-screen cinema in the United Kingdom and one of the few with its circle and stalls remaining intact. The cinema is equipped to show films in 35mm, 70mm and digital on a 48 ft. widescreen and includes stage facilities for live performances.

The cinema has an operating Compton organ, its console lit from within by coloured lighting, and a safety curtain detailed in 1930s art-deco motifs.

Two sets of tabs (curtains) are also installed and used for most performances. The cinema houses all major digital sound systems: Sony Dynamic Digital Sound, Dolby Digital and DTS. It had the UK's first wide-screen installed in 1953, and more recently, was the first to have a digital projector installed in 1999.

There are 800 seats – including 22 full-recliner seats in the Royal Box – and a "Royal Retiring Room" for visiting monarchs. Oscar's Bar (named after Odeon's founder Oscar Deutsch) features views across Leicester Square from a glass enclosed balcony.

In March 2011, all the cinema's screens converted to digital projection equipment with 3D capability. Up until 2009 the cinema and film distributors did not have faith in the reliability of digital presentations, so the cinema would run a 35mm print alongside. If the digital show failed the projectionist would switch to film. If that projector then failed, the performance would be abandoned. One 35mm/70mm projector has been retained, and has been used for recent 70mm releases including Interstellar, The Hateful Eight, and Dunkirk. A silver screen is used for 3D presentations, placed in front of the white screen used for 2D presentations. The silver screen is a fraction smaller and screen tabs are not used during 3D performances. Most of the trained projectionists at the Odeon retired, or were made redundant in 2011. Presentations are now mostly automated.

Inserted into what was once an alleyway running alongside the main house is Odeon Studios, a "mini-plex" containing five much smaller auditoria, each seating between fifty and sixty patrons. It was originally named Odeon Mezzanine, but was rebranded following a refurbishment in 2012. Following the latest refurbishment in 2018, screens 2 to 5 offer an intimate experience with luxury seating and state of the art technology throughout.

In 2018 Odeon undertook a full refurbishment at a projected cost of £10–15m, which saw the building retained as a single-screen cinema with stalls and circle levels, with the stated intention to maintain its character.[15] The cinema closed on 10 January 2018 with an anticipated reopening in time for the BFI London Film Festival in October—which it failed to meet. The cinema reopened on 21 December 2018 rebranded as part of the Odeon Luxe chain, with a reduced capacity in luxury seats, an enhanced concession offering, and the first commercial Dolby Cinema screen to open in the UK.[16][17]

• Odeon Cinemas, the British cinema chain
• Odeon Marble Arch, a former cinema also located in London's West End
• Odeon West End, a second cinema on the south side of Leicester Square until 2015

• Guide to British Theatres 1750–1950, John Earl and Michael Sell pp. 128 (Theatres Trust, 2000) ISBN 0-7136-5688-3

• Alhambra Theatre History Archive material, information, and images on the Alhambra Theatre, Leicester Square
• Leicester Square webcam – Close up of the Odeon Cinema for film premieres
• The Cinema Organ Society information on the organ
• Film Premieres in Odeon leicester square