The History Hunter

There was once a cinema in South London that stood there for 60 years.

I’d like to share a story about a cinema that no longer exists in reality but still remains as a distant memory.

That cinema was the Odeon in Lewisham.

Spoiler alert: There is no happy ending.

I found myself dreaming of that old place recently, I don’t know why, I hadn’t seen it since 1980 and it’s all a bit of a hazy childhood memory.

In my dream I was walking into the vast auditorium through a cloud of smoke and could see the lit arches all along the walls and the huge stage area. I could feel my feet sticking to the floor and could smell the cigarette smoke and popcorn.

Was there any reason my subconscious chose to show me this place again? I have no idea but the very next day I found myself doing a little bit of research about it.

I knew before I started looking that the cinema was no longer there. I’d read of it’s destruction years ago but I couldn’t help but feel a pang of nostalgia in looking at photos of it again.

Let’s just flash back to the late 1970’s for a moment, back then it was my local cinema and it was a special treat to be taken there to see a film in what was arguably a great era for cinema.

My first memory of the cinema was of being taken to see a little space film from America called Star Wars (Now known as Episode VI A New Hope for those pedants out there). I had pestered my mother for ages for her to take me and I first got to see it in February of 1978 (While America had it in 1977 we had to wait in the UK until January 1978 before we could see it). I think in total, over the following few months, I got my mother to take me to see Star Wars again something like six or seven times.

To this day my mother hates Star wars.

This first trip to the cinema also started a small obsession for me with the Star Wars universe but that is another story for another time.

Later, in 1978, I begged my mother to take me to see Superman with Christopher Reeve (Christopher Reeve was the star of Superman. He didn’t come with us. That would have been cool though.) a couple of times at least, maybe more.

For a five year old the Odeon Lewisham was an amazing building to visit, it was a glamorous ex theatre but it was a fading glamour that was a reminder of a glory age cinema and the opulence that a night out at the theatre presented back in the 30’s. By the late 70’s thought the Odeon was a shadow of its former self and looked a little raggedy and worn at the edges.

Looking at photos of the cinema and seeing it for the first time since childhood I could remember not just how the cinema looked but the powerful fragrances that filled my nasal passages upon entry quite distinctly.

In the late 70’s smoking was still allowed in cinemas (and pubs, clubs, shops everywhere really) and the first smell that would hit you as you walked up the steps at the entrance and entered inside the foyer was the stale smoke that had seeped into the carpets, the seats and the huge curtains that surrounded the screen. There were normally people just standing around smoking too and it was not unusual to see staff standing behind the counter with a smoke on the go.

Heading toward the box office you would then be met with the smell of popcorn and hot dogs that were sold (I never had a hotdog or popcorn from this cinema when a child as my mother told me that it had all been left there days and would have made me sick. Of course when I was old enough to go to the cinema alone the first thing I did was have a hot dog. It was horrible. The bun was hard and the hot dog sausage was really chewy, like it was made of rubber. I guess the lesson here is that I really should listen to my mother). They also sold cigarettes and tobacco along with sweets that were double the price as the shop next door.

When entering the darkened auditorium the overpowering smell (and cloud) of smoke hit you, the seats reeked of stale smoke and dust if you slapped the seat a stale smelling cloud erupted from them. It really was a certain smell that I don’t think I have smelt in many, many years. There was a non smoking section but the smoke drifted over to and it really made no difference where you sat there was still a huge cloud of smoke that just filled the auditorium.

On the backs of the seats in front of you were little ashtrays, these were normally overflowing with ash and cigarette butts and normally someone had shoved some sweet wrappers in there meaning smokers just dropped cigarettes on the floor.

The seats themselves were the old kind that would tip up when you stood up type, kind of like the ones you may find in any theatre these days. As I was a very short 5 year old I used to balance on the edge of the seat while it was in the up position in order to see over the row in front of me, these days they give kids a little booster to make them higher but in the days before health, safety and common sense the balance method was how I did it. It wasn’t the safest way as it would regularly fall so I learnt to sit very still during a film.

My memory also seems to have remined me how sticky the floors were. I mean really sticky in places. So much so I think my shoe got stuck to the floor once. I guess in the days when nearly all soft drinks contained a tonne of sugar it’s understandable as when spilled it created a syrup on the floors.

Everything seemed huge to me back then and I mean HUUUUUUUUUGGGGEEEE. The auditorium was just vast and cavernous, the columns that sat along side seemed like they were ten times my height, there seemed to be miles of seating and the screen! That massive screen!

In my memory the projection screen inside it’s huge delicately decorated proscenium arch was so big it would put a modern IMAX screen to shame and this was just a single screen cinema.

All of this is probably not quite true mostly because I was only half the height I am now so everything seemed big back then.

Here’s a brief history of this wonderful cinema.

The cinema opened as the Gaumont Palace on 12th December 1932 in Lewisham town centre.

If you’re interested then the first films that were documented as being shown there were the Jessie Matthews starring “The Midshipmaid” and Laurence Olivier in one of his earliest films “Westward Passage”.

Appearing on the stage was the Bobby Howells Big Band Show.

In the photo below you can see the movies that were showing and the next band show in the middle.

The front of the building had gold patterned horizontal bands (These can be seen it the photo above. Remember them as we’ll see them again a bit later) where letters were added to advertise what was showing that week.

There was a large central window (Again, remember the shape and brick pattern of those windows), which allowed light into the 200 seat restaurant that was located in the circle foyer level.

The name ‘Gaumont Palace’ was in large neon letters in a recess across the top of the building (I have no idea why the photo below has a caption that says “The Obelisk”).

The foyer was hugely majestic place and featured highly polished wood paneled walls with wood around the display cases and decorative panels above the doors to the circle. These can be seen in the photo below.

The lighting in the picture below is certainly something I do not recall but it really does look amazing.

There was highly polished wood paneling everywhere you looked.

The floors were (from what I remember) a polished marble (or possibly Granite) and were slightly slippery on wet days.

In the main auditorium the proscenium (Screen surrounding) was 56 feet wide (large for the time and even bigger to a five year old), the stage 85 feet wide and 36 feet deep, and it was fully equipped for stage shows.

Around the side of the auditorium were lit arches and the lights would dim when the film started.

The roof was stepped which gave a weird perspective that the building was getting smaller as it moved down toward the screen.

There was also an orchestra pit, that can be seen in the centre of the photo below, along with a Compton organ.

The statues at the side of the screen were long gone when I knew it.

I mentioned it briefly earlier on but the first floor housed a rather elegant restaurant and café.

The windows that can be seen at the back of the restaurant are the same that I mentioned previously and let a lot of light in.

This restaurant was eventually turned into a Bingo hall and a dance studio. Shame. It looks quite like something that would be found on a White Star line ship.

As mentioned earlier the cinema was outfitted with a Compton 3Manual/12Rank organ which was on a riser that could lift it up onto the stage for performances.

When it wasn’t needed it sunk down and was hidden below the stage.

It was on the 27th February 1962, towards the end of an early performance of “The Guns of Navarone”, that a fire (which was thought to have been deliberately started by vandals) caused extensive damage to the rear stalls seating area. The whole building also suffered from extensive smoke damage.

Ella Fitzgerald was due to perform here (The poster advertising her appearance can be seen on the left of the above photo) the following Sunday but the concert was quickly moved to the Trocadero at Elephant & Castle instead.

The Gaumont Palace, as it was then, closed down for a few months for renovations.

After several months of repairs the cinema reopened as part of the Odeon chain on 29th July 1962 with a special showing of the Doris Day movie “That Touch of Mink”.

There was also a special surprise for cinemagoers that day as the cinema had arranged a screening of the first film shown way back at the opening of the cinema in 1932, “The Midshipmaid”.

Remember those golden bands that crossed the frontage containing details of what was currently showing? In the photo below they are still there but are no longer in use. Films that were showing were advertised on the boards at the front of the cinema, presumably as it was easier to change the poster in the frame than climb a ladder and change those massive letters. This is how it looked when I first visited.

Also note that the sign that once read “Gaumont Palace” at the top of the building has now been replaced with the Odeon livery.

In the 60’s and 70’s the huge stage also played host to many famous artists for live concerts.

Here’s a quick, not extensive, list of some of the artists that performed at the Odeon Lewisham. There was (deep breath): Nat ‘King’ Cole, Johnny Cash, Sarah Vaughan & Count Basie and His Orchestra, Ted Heath and His Orchestra, Ray Charles, The Supremes, Chuck Berry, T-Rex, Cliff Richard and The Shadows, The Rolling Stones, Manfred Mann, The Beatles (twice in 1963, on the 29th of March and 8th of December), The Who, Rod Stewart, David Essex, The Clash, Queen and The Bay City Rollers the list is huge.

Several of the concerts that took place were recorded and released as albums including one famous concert by David Bowie, one of his final shows as the character Ziggy Stardust which was released as an album entitled David Bowie at the Lewisham Odeon.

It’s quite well documented and loved amongst Bowie fans as it represents the end of an era, I even managed to find a setlist for the show which I have linked here.

My mother once told me that she had been to see a band perform at the Lewisham Odeon (I don’t recall who it was) but, as the cinema was looking a little worse for the wear when I knew it, I didn’t really believe her.

Obviously, after further research, I know that it was true and the long list of bands that performed there is evidence of that.

I would have loved to have seen early Queen perform there, T-Rex, the Who and of course, if I could time travel I’d probably go and see the Beatles perform.

I really should get round to asking my mother again what band she saw there as I’m curious now.

Attendances at film performances were on the decline in the late 70’s and it was increasingly difficult to fill even a few rows of seats in the huge cinema.

At the performances I went to it was always easy to get in whereas some cinemas had queues around the block I only ever remember having to queue up outside once and that was for one of my trips to see Star Wars when the house full sign had been put up and we had to queue for two hours for the next show.

The building was already in decline in the late 70’s and there was always sections of seating that had been cordoned off due to damage. Unfortunately there just wasn’t any money coming in to repair it.

The Rank Organisation, who were the owners of the Odeon chain at the time, applied three times for a bingo license to convert the entire building into a Bingo hall. In the late 70’s and early 80’s this had been the fate of many cinemas throughout the UK at the time, but Odeon were turned down on each occasion.

The final movies to be shown on the 14th February 1981 were Leslie Neilson comedy “Prom Night” and George Hamilton in the Vampire romp “Love at First Bite” on 14th February 1981.

The Odeon then closed her doors for the last time.

For around ten years the building was left derelict and went into a slow decline while the local council tried to make up their minds what to do with it.

The former restaurant on the first floor, having been converted into use as a bingo club, then a nightclub named Paradise Garage, then a Pool club by the same name, stayed open for a few years even after the cinema was closed and this managed to stave the bulldozers off for a while.

The Paradise Garage pool hall eventually closed in 1983 leaving the building empty.

All Odeon branding had been removed from the building at this point and a large advertising hoarding was eventually attached to the front of the building.

It was for around ten years that the building stood derelict and was regarded as an eyesore by the community in Lewisham.

The end came in 1991 when the building was finally demolished as part of a road widening scheme which saw a roundabout built where the cinema once stood.

There was one little reminder that the Odeon Cinema once stood here that stayed for a while and that was a little strip alongside one of the neighboring buildings.

Remember the golden bands that used to hold the signage for the films that were currently playing? Their remains could be seen as the small sliver of beige with gold on the side of it’s one time next door neighbour.

This too has now gone as the entire block where the cinema once stood was demolished in 2011 for flats and a shopping center.

Even though this cinema has been gone for 30 years I still seem to think of it a lot.

The Odeon Lewisham is the first cinema I ever visited and has become the benchmark for every other cinema I have visited since.

It instilled in me a fascination not just with cinema and films but how wonderful and grand the surroundings could be that could surround me when watching a film.

I’ve never found a cinema that is as grand the Odeon Lewisham is in my head.

Maybe I never will.

Modern Cinemas are normally built to order and are just boxes holding a multitude of screens, there doesn’t seem to be any reason to make the building look the way the old timey cinemas did.

There isn’t many of those cinemas left now and I do feel those that do remain should be cherished.

Even though I’m never going to be able to visit the Odeon in Lewisham in real life ever again, I’m grateful that my subconscious chose to take me back there while I slept.