The Odeon Luxe Leicester Square is a prominent cinema building in the
West End of London
The West End of London (commonly referred to as the West End) is a district of Central London, Central London, England, in the London Borough of Camden, London Boroughs of Camden and the City of Westminster. It is west of the City of London an ...
. Built in the
Art Deco
Art Deco, short for the French (), is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design that first Art Deco in Paris, appeared in Paris in the 1910s just before World War I and flourished in the United States and Europe during the 1920 ...
style and completed in 1937, the building has been continually altered in response to developments in cinema technology, and was the first
Dolby Cinema in the United Kingdom.
The cinema occupies the centre of the eastern side of
Leicester Square
Leicester Square ( ) is a pedestrianised town square, square in the West End of London, England, and is the centre of London's entertainment district. It was laid out in 1670 as Leicester Fields, which was named after the recently built Leice ...
in London, featuring a black polished
granite
Granite ( ) is a coarse-grained (phanerite, phaneritic) intrusive rock, intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly coo ...
facade and high tower displaying its name. Blue
neon
Neon is a chemical element; it has symbol Ne and atomic number 10. It is the second noble gas in the periodic table. Neon is a colorless, odorless, inert monatomic gas under standard conditions, with approximately two-thirds the density of ...
outlines the exterior of the building at night. It was built to be the flagship
of
Oscar Deutsch's
Odeon Cinema
Odeon Cinemas Limited, trading as Odeon (stylised in all caps), is a cinema brand name operating in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Norway and Greece, which along with UCI Cinemas and Nordic Cinema Group is part of the Odeon Cinemas Group subsid ...
chain and still holds that position today. It hosts numerous European and world
film premiere
A premiere, also spelled première, (from , ) is the debut (first public presentation) of a work, i.e. play, film, dance
Dance is an The arts, art form, consisting of sequences of body movements with aesthetic and often Symbol, symbolic ...
s, including the annual
Royal Film Performance.
History
The Odeon cinema building was completed by
Sir Robert McAlpine in 1937 to the design of
Harry Weedon and Andrew Mather on the site of Nevill's
Victorian Turkish baths
The Victorian Turkish bath is a type of bath in which the bather sweats freely in hot dry air, is then washed, often massaged, and has a cold wash or shower. It can also mean, especially when used in the plural, an establishment where such a bath ...
and the adjoining
Alhambra Theatre a large
music hall
Music hall is a type of British theatrical entertainment that was most popular from the early Victorian era, beginning around 1850, through the World War I, Great War. It faded away after 1918 as the halls rebranded their entertainment as Varie ...
dating from the 1850s. The site cost £550,000, and the cinema took seven months to build, at a cost of £232,755,
with 2116 seats. The opening night was Tuesday 2 November 1937; the film shown that night was ''
The Prisoner of Zenda''.
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
nymph
A nymph (; ; sometimes spelled nymphe) is a minor female nature deity in ancient Greek folklore. Distinct from other Greek goddesses, nymphs are generally regarded as personifications of nature; they are typically tied to a specific place, land ...
s 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 UK's first
widescreen
Widescreen images are displayed within a set of aspect ratio (image), aspect ratios (relationship of image width to height) used in film, television and computer screens. In film, a widescreen film is any film image with a width-to-height aspect ...
(screen ratio 1.66:1) was installed and premiered on 14 May 1953; the film shown was ''
Tonight We Sing''. The British public debut of
CinemaScope
CinemaScope is an anamorphic format, anamorphic lens series used, from 1953 to 1967, and less often later, for shooting widescreen films that, crucially, could be screened in theatres using existing equipment, albeit with a lens adapter.
Its cr ...
(screen ratio 2.55:1) followed on 19 November 1953 with the quasi-biblical epic, ''
The Robe''. (The first cinema to install
CinemaScope
CinemaScope is an anamorphic format, anamorphic lens series used, from 1953 to 1967, and less often later, for shooting widescreen films that, crucially, could be screened in theatres using existing equipment, albeit with a lens adapter.
Its cr ...
in the UK was the Odeon Tottenham Court Road on 9 June 1953, but it was not open to the public until later).
The theatre's chief engineer, Nigel Wolland, was appointed
MBE for services to the film industry in 2007. The theatre's general manager, Chris Hilton, was appointed
MBE for services to the film industry in 2010.
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.
Technical specifications

The first
Dolby Cinema system to be installed in the UK is at the Odeon in
Leicester Square
Leicester Square ( ) is a pedestrianised town square, square in the West End of London, England, and is the centre of London's entertainment district. It was laid out in 1670 as Leicester Fields, which was named after the recently built Leice ...
. This introduced a combination of
Dolby Vision
Dolby Vision is a set of technologies developed by Dolby Laboratories for high dynamic range (HDR) video. It covers content creation, distribution, and playback. It includes dynamic metadata that define the aspect ratio and adjust the picture ...
dual-laser projection system and a
Dolby Atmos
Dolby Atmos is a surround sound technology developed by Dolby Laboratories. It expands on existing surround sound systems by adding height channels as well as free-moving sound objects, interpreted as three-dimensional objects with neither horiz ...
sound 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
Digital usually refers to something using discrete digits, often binary digits.
Businesses
*Digital bank, a form of financial institution
*Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) or Digital, a computer company
*Digital Research (DR or DRI), a software ...
on a 48 ft. widescreen and includes stage facilities for live performances.
The cinema has an operating
Compton organ
Organ and organs may refer to:
Biology
* Organ (biology), a group of tissues organized to serve a common function
* Organ system, a collection of organs that function together to carry out specific functions within the body.
Musical instruments
...
, 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
Dolby Digital, originally synonymous with Dolby AC-3 (see below), is the name for a family of audio compression technologies developed by Dolby Laboratories. Called Dolby Stereo Digital until 1995, it is lossy compression (except for Dolby Tr ...
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
''The Hateful Eight'' is a 2015 American western thriller film written and directed by Quentin Tarantino. It stars Samuel L. Jackson, Kurt Russell, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Walton Goggins, Demián Bichir, Tim Roth, Michael Madsen, and Bruce De ...
'', ''
Dunkirk
Dunkirk ( ; ; ; Picard language, Picard: ''Dunkèke''; ; or ) is a major port city in the Departments of France, department of Nord (French department), Nord in northern France. It lies from the Belgium, Belgian border. It has the third-larg ...
'' and ''
Death on the Nile
''Death on the Nile'' is a work of detective fiction by British writer Agatha Christie, published in the UK by the Collins Crime Club on 1 November 1937 and in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company the following year. The UK edition retailed at ...
''. 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.
Screens 2 – 5
Five screens, each seating between fifty and sixty patrons, were added in April 1990 in what was once an alleyway running alongside the main house. The screens were originally known as Odeon Mezzanine and were renamed Odeon Studios in 2012. Following the refurbishment in 2018, the number of screens was reduced to four with reduced capacity and renamed as Screens 2 – 5.
Recent developments
In 2018 Odeon undertook a full refurbishment at a projected cost of £1015 million, which saw the building retained as a single-screen cinema with stalls and circle levels, with the stated intention to maintain its character. The cinema closed on 10 January 2018 with an anticipated reopening in time for the
BFI London Film Festival
The BFI London Film Festival is an annual film festival held in London, England, in collaboration with the British Film Institute. Founded in 1957, the festival runs for two weeks every October.
In 2016, the BFI estimated that around 240 fe ...
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.
See also
*
Odeon Cinemas
Odeon Cinemas Limited, trading as Odeon (stylised in all caps), is a cinema brand name operating in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Norway and Greece, which along with UCI Cinemas and Nordic Cinema Group is part of the Odeon Cinemas Group subsi ...
, the British cinema chain
*
Odeon Marble Arch, a former cinema also located in London's West End
*
Odeon Luxe West End, a second cinema on the south side of Leicester Square
*
Scenes in the Square, which includes a statue of Batman on the roof of the cinema
References
Sources
* ''Guide to British Theatres 1750–1950'', John Earl and Michael Sell pp. 128 (Theatres Trust, 2000)
External links
*
Alhambra Theatre HistoryArchive material, information, and images on the Alhambra Theatre, Leicester Square
*
ttps://web.archive.org/web/20130815071644/http://www.cinema-organs.org.uk/venues/lon.leicestersq.html The Cinema Organ Society information on the organbr>
Film Premieres in Odeon leicester square
{{London landmarks
Cinemas in London
Streamline Moderne architecture in the United Kingdom
Leicester Square
Leicester Square
Leicester Square ( ) is a pedestrianised town square, square in the West End of London, England, and is the centre of London's entertainment district. It was laid out in 1670 as Leicester Fields, which was named after the recently built Leice ...
Art Deco architecture in London