Odeon Clerk Street
So, this week saw the announcement that the re-development of Edinburgh's old Odeon cinema on South Clerk Street will go ahead. The Planning Committee passed the verdict by majority vote. Most of the cinema will be demolished excepting the facade and, I think, parts of the main auditorium.This was a cinema that I loved. This was a cinema that many people in Edinburgh loved. I grew-up with it as the primary place to watch films, even though it wasn't my closest cinema. I even worked there for a while. I worked its closing night, and a sad night that was. It was somehow a very magical environment. OK, so I was good at burning popcorn and bad at cleaning it up afterwards, and I really didn't have a good summer that year, but nothing was going to affect my love for the building.
Built in the 1930s in an Art Deco style, it was opened as The New Victoria. In the latter third of its life, it was divided, subdivided and extended from one screen to five, resulting in a very bizarre layout. Operationally, it was a bit of a nightmare -- for the projectionists at least. I'm too young to remember the site with any less than 5 screens, but for me the place still had immense character. Something entirely missing from our multiplexes of today.
Indeed, the Odeon was the most prestigious cinema in the city with the biggest and most impressive main auditorium, despite being a tad run-down. Oh, and it did have a small problem with mice. Structurally however, the building was sound. Had it been saved and re-opened by a different organisation, it would have needed significant investment, a new business model, and very probably an updated layout. All of those things were achievable.
Duddingston House Properties (DHP), who bought the building from Odeon, seemed quite intent on using the space for whatever would make the most money. Student flats and a nightclub were two ideas that were ultimately dropped because of massive opposition from local residents. The planning application that has just been approved will see the cinema turned into a concept hotel named 'Zed'. The design of the hotel, including the Odeon's facade, does look interesting and I always like to see old redundant buildings fused with new, useable solutions.
Nonetheless, I cannot support this. The building was not in use, but it wasn't redundant or without a viable future as a cinematic venue. The vision was there. The people were there. The backing was there. In the end, however, Duddingston's appreciation of this cultural treasure and it's desire to see it put to use were non-existent. Profit before people, and to hell with the community. Furthermore, not enough was done to save it; we didn't do enough. Big famous names expressed dismay and disappointment at the Odeon's closure, but no-one helped.
We lost the Odeon. And Edinburgh lost its most important surviving cinema. May we all mourn its passing.