The superb Art-Deco 1400-seater Odeon cinema by impresario Oscar Deutsch was the first cinema in Bury St Edmunds to be designed especially for sound films.
Yes, there were cinemas preceding the Odeon: The Central (today’s Abbeygate in Hatter Street), The Electric in St John’s Street (later called The Gem, no trace remains) and the Empire destroyed by fire in 1926, junction of Market Thoroughfare / St Andrew’s Street South.
And, of course, there was the superlative Playhouse, in Buttermarket, which had opened in 1925 only to close at the end of 1959, becoming a Co-op superstore, Quality House (now The Cambridge Building Society).
Bury St Edmunds Odeon had a capacity of 1,400. Picture: Submitted
At the grand opening ceremony of the Odeon on July 5, 1937, the national anthem was played and in attendance with their good lady wives were the mayor Councillor Robert Olle J.P. supported by J. Maitland Wilson esq J.P. The latter’s connection to West Suffolk Hospital enabled a collection for a children’s ward extension there to take place; in fact the sum of £30 19s 7d was raised.
The music interlude was provided by the band of the 2nd Battalion of The Lancashire Fusiliers, ably conducted by Mr E.J. Talbot-Haywood, the bandmaster. In those days this approach to ceremonies was commonplace.
There was a grand reception in the stalls for 200 invited attendees in their bibs and tucker, ladies wore best frocks, and the splendid catering was undertaken by Messrs. H. Palmer and Sons of 43 Cornhill.
Oscar Deutsch. Picture: Submitted
So, who was Oscar Leopold Deutsch?
He was born in 1893 in Ballsall Heath, Birmingham, and was the son of Leopold Deutsch, a Hungarian Jewish scrap metal dealer.
After attending King Edward VI Grammar School in Bartley Green, Birmingham, he went to work for his father and by 1925 after he had married he became interested in cinemas, renting some in Wolverhampton and Coventry.
He opened his first very own cinema in Brierly Hill, Dudley, in1928 and by 1933 he had progressed to having 26 Odeons, the name he had selected for his burgeoning empire. The name Odeon being used for amphitheatres in Ancient Greece as well as a kind of theatre where musicians and poets submitted their work for public approval. However it was not lost on some observers the first two letters were his own initials.
By 1937 he had an incredible 250 cinemas all over the country, the same year he not only opened his flagship Odeon in Leicester Square, London, but also that in Bury. He was the chairman and governing director of Odeon Theatres Limited as well as a great supporter of his Jewish faith.
In December 1941, he sadly died prematurely from cancer and was buried in the Hebrew cemetery in Birmingham. Following his death his wife Lily, who had been very much involved in the interior colourways of the cinemas, sold the Odeon chain to the J Arthur Rank Organisation – you know, the one where a muscle-bound man (boxer Bombadier Billy Wells) strikes a huge gong.
The contractors for the Bury Odeon
Amazingly, not one of the contractors involved in the building of the Odeon were from Bury. Even the architect did not hail from the town. He was George Coles F.R.I B.A. (1884–1963), brought up in Leyton, East London, and trained at Leyton Technical Institute. Known mostly as a designer of Art Deco cinema theatres in the 1920s and 1930s. From 1912 he was in partnership with Percy Adams, their company acquired a reputation for their cinema designs, involved in many projects for Oscar Deutsch’s Odeon chain, as well as numerous other cinemas.
Most of their cinema designs were built in the Greater London area, but they also appeared in Brighton, Bournemouth, Halifax and Sheffield, among others. Coles’ most notable works include two cinemas, the Gaumont State Kilburn (1937) and Muswell Hill Odeon (1936), which are now both Grade II* listed.
Over the years, his avant-garde designed cinemas are no longer such, a streamlined modernesque build which opened as a cinema in 1937 is now the New Wine Church in Woolwich, a notable example. Though no doubt Wetherspoons, who are famous in their re-use of public buildings throughout the land, have acquired one or more of the Odeon cinema buildings!
The main contractors in Bury were Leightons (contractors ) Ltd of 62, Oxford Street, London W. 1. Co; incidentally Mr Leighton himself served in the Suffolk Regiment in World War One as a commissioned officer.
A long list of 50 sub-contractors were overseen by Cinema Service Limited of Bennets Hill, Birmingham, who were technical advisers and managers to the owning company. Oscar obviously made sure his empire ran to a tried and tested formula, using trusted contractors mostly from the London area.
He was very proud all materials used within his cinemas were British. A major component in the construction of the Bury Odeon was Hathernware Faince, which is made by mixing ground clay with sand or powdered fired clay. After painting it gave the Odeon its distinctive creamy look. The manufacturing company Hathenware Ltd came from Loughborough.
Other important contractors were Etna Cinema lighting from Birmingham, Newalls Insulation Co. of Manchester for the acoustic treatment and H.H. Martyn (good name that) of London for the decoration and fibrous plaster to name a few. The building had superb acoustics and ventilation; it was calculated that the air was changed every three-and-a-half minutes, this 1,000 cu ft of fresh air was included in the price of the admission.
The Odeon projection room. Picture: Submitted
The Odeon itself
With an estimated 1,400 people attending the opening night (the capacity of the cinema itself ) on July 5, 1937, the programme started with British Movie-tone News followed by a coloured cartoon, Three Little Wolves, then another coloured item, Private Party at Catalina Isle.
The main event was a certificate A black and white film, Beloved Enemy, starring Merle Oberon and Brian Aherne, about the 1921 Irish war of independence – run of the mill fare by today’s standards but I’m afraid it did not do well at the box office!
The foyer on the first floor of the Bury St Edmunds Odeon. Picture: Submitted
On the opening night the Odeon resident manager with an unfortunate surname was a Mr J Longbottom. Admission was just 6d – this was certainly the charge when I attended for the younger generation ‘Saturday Morning Pictures’ in the 1950s, a great treat, 6d for ‘down stairs’ and 9d for ‘upstairs’ and, as you would expect, it was always well attended. The back seats were much appreciated for obvious reasons.
Jean Lacey, of Tollgate Lane, worked at the Odeon as a young usherette around 1946.
“We had great times there,” she said.
The former Bury St Edmunds bus station, with the long-gone Odeon behind. Picture: Submitted
A name change
The Odeon owned in 1975 by Rank Theatres was leased out for five years to the Brent-Walker Group with a name change to The Focus in the same year – why I will never know, I always thought ‘if it ain’t broke don’t fix it’.
Possibly the introduction of home-entertainment, Betamax in 1975 and VHS in 1976, might have hurried its demise. After a showing of that wonderful sci-fi alien-type film Close Encounters of the Third Kind in 1977 I remember my wife, Sandie, and I exited and, like so many others, looked up to the heavens above!
The Oden projection room and, right, Oscar DeutschBelow left: The Odeon first floor foyer and, below right, Cornhill Walk
Brent-Walker decided films were not for them and decided to pull out around the time the Art-Deco Odeon was Grade II listed as being of a building of interest by the Department of the Environment.
Certainly the popularity of home videos saw audiences dwindle and it closed on October 30, 1982, with the ever-popular showing of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, thus leaving Bury with only one cinema, in Hatter Street.
The Odeon site after it was demolished in 1983. Picture: Submitted
Cornhill Walk
Now here is the dilemma, what to do with a building what is now considered to be a white elephant? Bingo, perhaps, but that was swiftly disregarded – after all that road had been trod down in one of the makeovers of the former Abbeygate cinema, in Hatter Street.
In some unfathomable, disgraceful, decision the Focus was de-listed, suffering an ignominious demolition a year later in 1983, along with the neighbouring auctioneers Cheval Lawrence, Ethelbert Taylor’s barber-shop and the ancient White Lion public house.
How and why this happened is still angrily viewed today, especially when it comes to talking about what was built in its stead – a large pedestrianised shopping mall, Cornhill Walk. If ever the Focus was deemed a white elephant then this was a pachyderm of the highest order.
Cornhill Walk. Picture: Submitted
The leasehold prospectus drawn up by Arlington the letting agents in 1988/9 stated that each lease would be for 25 years, with rent reviews at the end of each fifth year, 12 commercial units were offered.
The units on the ground floor (two service floors above), a varied mix of ‘low-end’ retailers were at first popular, part of the 40,000 sq ft shopping available. However there were no ‘premier retailers’ to attract shoppers in and, as the initial attractive lease terms finished, they were not renewed and one by one they closed, Buy the Light being the last shop to close.
The final ‘nail in the coffin’ for Cornhill Walk was undoubtedly the opening in December 2009 of the arc Shopping Centre on the site of Bury Cattle Market, which had closed at the end of 1998.
Owners of Cornhill Walk, Landmaster Properties, went into administration in 2014, with Knightspur Homes purchasing Cornhill Walk from the receivers in 2016.
Subsequently several planning applications have been put forward with a mix of retail and residential units. Unfortunately, the major stumbling blocks are lack of parking, the property designs and over-development. These are major issues for the nearby Well Street Residents Association, which has objected to the plans submitted, as has the Bury Society.
The demolition of the deteriorating Cornhill Walk and whatever replaces it is eagerly awaited in what is a very important area of the town. We can only hope there is a satisfactory conclusion for all concerned.
