# Bradford Odeon. New Gaumont



## phill.d

The Bradford Odeon was built in 1929 and closed it’s doors for the last time in 2000. Bradford City Council and the owners of the building wish to demolish this grand cinema amongst much local opposition. The Bradford Odeon Rescue Group (B.O.R.G) have been fighting a valiant battle along with many Bradfordians seemingly to no avail, I believe English heritage have turned down listing it on 6 occasions. The building is very high profile, even more so as It has just been featured in a negative story in the local evening paper. Things aren't looking good for the Odeon.



















Bradford Odeon was one of the largest cinemas in England when it opened in September 1930. It started life as the New Victoria Cinema with 3318 seats and also had a cafe, a ballroom, 10 dressing rooms and a Wurlitzer Organ. The architect was William Illingworth who designed the building in an Italian Renaissance style.




View of Odeon 2 the largest auditoria from the projectionist box.




Odeon 2 big screen 2008.




The cinema was modified into twin cinemas in 1969 and became the Odeon film center. Behind the false walls and ceilings are many of the original balconies and the ornate plasterwork. evidently it's not grand enough to warrant listed status!!!!




This can't be worth saving then??




Odeon 2 projection room. Suprisingly everything is still intact.














The view looking across the water damaged foyer towards the smaller screens 1 & 3.




This is Odeon one created in 1969 when the twin cinemas and Bingo hall were created. You can see rows of dusty empty seats. Through the beam of the torch you could see a continual snow shower of dust falling down.




Looking in the opposite direction of Odeon one you can see the original decor is covered by false plasterboard walls and ceilings. during the 1969 modifications the auditorium was split into three units. The former stalls area was converted into the Top Rank Bingo Club with capacity for over 1,000 players.














Odeon 3 the smallest and newest screen to be added in 1988. You can see the contrast of styles, the false ceiling hides the original ceiling but the original 1930’s pillars haver been retained.




This is the view of the fully intact bingo hall that closed in the summer of 1997. 




The Bradford Odeon is massive. In total we spent 4 hours in there. Unfortunately long exposure light painted shots take there toll on torch and camera power. I need to get back real quick to photograph those old balconies and original ceilings.

There's my full history and archive picture story of the Odeon here.
http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=265602590&blogID=369914900


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## King Al

*Re: Bradrord odeon. New Gaumont*

Looks like a great explore, "just been featured in a negative story in the local evening paper" come on you can't leave it at that!


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## krela

*Re: Bradrord odeon. New Gaumont*

Wow, so all that ornate decoration is hiding behind the plywood partitions?

That would be a sight to see!


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## smileysal

*Re: Bradrord odeon. New Gaumont*

What a beautiful place it looked in its heyday. The main auditorium and the ballroom are out of this world, then they split it all up and stick up horrible, bland plasterboards up to separate it all. 

I really hope this building can be saved, and returned to what it was when it was built. 

Cheers Phill

 Sal


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## fezzyben

*Re: Bradrord odeon. New Gaumont*

great post seems such a waste


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## freebird

*Re: Bradrord odeon. New Gaumont*

Great shots.  Love the odeon 3 shot especially


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## ashless

*Re: Bradrord odeon. New Gaumont*

Lovely shots chap, nice to see it not trashed. Well done.


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## Virusman26

Brilliant site mate, good photo's! Nice work there dude!


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## reddwarf9

*Re: Bradrord odeon. New Gaumont*

What a great place, luv seeing the old projector, nice job.


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## no1rich

Good explore. I bet Oscar Deutsch is spinning in his grave


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## Foxylady

What a fantastic find. I would so love to see all the ornamentation behind the plasterboards. Excellent stuff, Phill. 



phill.d said:


> The Bradford Odeon Rescue Group (B.O.R.G) have been fighting a valiant battle...



I'm amazed that no-one has come up with any 'resistance is futile' jokes!


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## manamaga

*Descision has been made*

Hi all, i read our local paper this morning and well, its not good news for the Odeon, Bradford. Please see the link below :-( After reading it i immediately googled for "derelict odeon bradford" and came across this forum, the pics are fantastic Phil. I know they were taken some time ago and i cant help reading about when you said you might be able to get photos of the hidden original features inside the odeon, did you manage to get any??? I would love to see them if so. If not, are you up for the chance to get some final snaps before the inevitable happens very soon?? I would love to a final chance to see inside before it goes :-( Please let me know. Here is the link to the news article from this morning.

http://www.thetelegraphandargus.co....__Councillors_vote_for_Odeon_to_be_torn_down/


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## skittles

phill.d said:


>



Some parts of the cinema look as if someone had hoovered - or is it just me

Love these pics, 

Why will English Heritage not list the building?


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## Wile-E

skittles said:


> Why will English Heritage not list the building?



It'll be the same excuse as with Odeon/Paramount Newcastle - changed from it's original layout. They used that as an excuse to de-list Newcastle because of the tripling work done in the early 70's, despite the fact that all the drop walls that were put in could easily be removed to return it to a single screen


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## Bonnet1

Looking through these pictures, and reading the descriptions, this place totally reminds me of Wimbledon Odeon. This was demolished about 5 years ago, but looked identical inside, and I'm fairly sure it was one big cinema split into three (also had a further two screens added more recently by taking over the car park out back).

The place is uncannily similar, right down to the lateral walkways about halfway up the seating area, and the foyer looks familiar too


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## Wile-E

Bonnet1 said:


> Looking through these pictures, and reading the descriptions, this place totally reminds me of Wimbledon Odeon. This was demolished about 5 years ago, but looked identical inside, and I'm fairly sure it was one big cinema split into three (also had a further two screens added more recently by taking over the car park out back).
> 
> The place is uncannily similar, right down to the lateral walkways about halfway up the seating area, and the foyer looks familiar too



Was pretty much the same for all the Odeon's that were tripled in the early 70's - stalls from the original screen became the 2 new smaller screens, upper circle extend to cover them in to make the main Odeon 1 screen.


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## DaveyGTI

Wow, thats fantastic, I went to uni in Bradford a few years ago and used to walk past the place almost daily, unfortunatly that was long before I was interested in Urbex, although was always curious as toi what it was like inside, such a shame it hasn't been paid the same attention as the alhambra opposite and kept in as fine condition!


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## manamaga

With the Alhambra, St Georges Hall, and if the odeon had been restored to its original theatre glory, we could have been the west end of the north!! Such a shame. I`d still like to get in and get some snaps of the original ceiling though, i`m new to all this Urbex though, thats why i asked Phil if he would want to be my mentor! LOL


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