Thanks for your posting rroberts…
Well news has been pretty quiet on the Odeon front since April. We have tried on several occasions to get an answer from the owners as to the future of the cinema, but to no avail. It would seem that they are determined to run it into the ground with little or no maintenance work being done to maintain what does remain. They put prices up in April which we think is a further ploy to drive customers away. A couple of weeks ago a front page article in our local paper ran showed readers the run down state of the interior with bare light bulbs on fittings in the foyer, filthy and neglected toilets, taped down carpets, damage to railings and cordoned off seating. It has now been a year since the owners announced that they were assessing the site for its economic viability, and we fear that as a result of this forced neglect the news will not be good. We are still watching the future of the building with bated breath and going to see films there, but unless an independent operator or a film loving millionaire takes its on this art deco gem and rightly restores it to its 1937 opening day splendour the neglect will continue. The owning chain has recently been bought by a venture capital firm so it remains to be seen if they will invest any money into the builidng or whether they are just in the cinema business to make a quick profit and sell off those older properties for redevelopment. Regardless of the outcome there is great local support for the cinema, the population of York is steadily growing with new housing developments being built all over the city, and us volunteers will go on fighting for the best cinema in the north of england.
Any help would indeed be appreciated as to suggestions from other like minded organisations. Please get in touch with me at
I will endeavor to keep you all posted.
Since my last update we’ve had some good news and bad news with regards to our campaign.
On the plus side we’ve had over 13,000 signatures of support, in less than 9 weeks, to save the cinema, from all walks of life, and indeed all parts of the globe.
This week we heard the fantastic news that Oscar winning actress Dame Judi Dench was backing us in our fight after one of our campaign team wrote to request her help.
Dame Judi,who was born and grew up in York, wrote back “ I am delighted to add my support to your campaign to save the York Odeon cinema. It is the most beautiful art deco building.
“I have very happy memories of it and would be devastated to see it closed.
“ I wish you every success with the campaignâ€.
Not so good was the response we received from Odeon’s head office when representatives of the campaign team, MP for York Hugh Bayley, and the Evening Press newspaper tried to deliver the 13,600 signatures collected so far. Upon arrival at their building, just off Leicester Square, they were made to wait whilst it was asked if anyone in a senior position within the company would come down to reception to receive. Through the intercom a lady replied that there was no one available but it could be posted through the door! Hugh Bayley refused and said that out of respect for the thousands who signed it he would only deliver it by hand.
Finally a woman who refused to give her name or position appeared at the front door to take the packaged petition, promising to pass it on to the Chief Executive, Ian Pluthero.
I have suggested that maybe people should write directly to the Chief Executive at Odeon and gladly post his details on here for anyone that may wish to do so
Ian Pluthero
Chief Executive
Odeon Cinemas Ltd
54 Whitcomb Street
London, WC2H 7DN
This snub to our campaigners says a lot for the owners of the cinema, but the collecting of signatures and our fight to keep it open will continue. More news when we have it.
As of this week we have now raced past the 10,000 signature mark with our petition. Our local politician and council leaders were meeting Friday (27th) with senior managers from the Odeon’s owners to decide on its future. We await further news and I will post updates as and when I hear anything…
We’ve had a tremendous response so far to the campaign and have attracted over 8,000 signatures of support in under 4 weeks. We still have a long way to go to convince the owners not to close and sell off the place, but it just shows that the building has the overwhelming support of the community. More news will be posted when we hear more.
Our campaign continues with fantastic results. In less than 4 weeks we have now reached over 8,000 signatures of support. The removal of wall tiling in the auditorium is apparently beacuse they are made from some composite material which includes asbestos and have been removed, illegally it has to be said, as a health and safety issue. The council conservation architect is now to meet with the owners to discuss a suitable replacement, hopefully to the same streamlined design as before.
So far we have had a fantastic response to our Save The York Odeon campaign with over 6,000 people signing up their support in less than 3 weeks! Although we have some way to go to persuade the owners to keep it open and treat the building to a sensitive refurbishment this is a wonderful start, and shows that many people out there still love the building.
On a rather more cryptic note a recent visit to the building by one of our campaigners revealed that large sections of original Art Deco wall tiling which form part of the auditoriums streamlined decoration have been needlessly removed. When asked, management refused to confirm why this had been carried out! This has now be reported by campainers to the local city council as this is a breach of listed building status which means permission has to be sought before any original features are removed. The councils conservation architect is now investigating the matter.
The next step is getting the campaign some national coverage and I have been writing to celebrities who come from York in the hope that they may be able to help us, so fingers crossed we could have some celebrity backing soon. For those who might be interested Dame Judi Dench, Mark Addy, and David Bradley (caretaker Argus Filch in the Harry Potter films) are all from York.
If you haven’t done so already please sign our online petition and read all about our campaign at www.thisisyork.co.uk
I will keep visitors posted.
Hi Patrick. On the sites homepage there is a small caption saying Save York Odeon. Click on this and the next page gives all recent articles about the campaign and the online coupon is at the bottom of this page. Thanks.
On November 27th it was announced the owners are looking at the sites economic viability which more than likely means that the Odeon now faces closure. I intend to fight this and hope I can rally the support of local people, and also readers of this site. Please email your comments to me at
The historic facade sign, the only one left in this style, has fortunatly been saved, despite the owners wanting to remove it and replace with a hideous new style example. Now only if they cna be bothered to restore it.
Demolition begins on 7th of April 2003, as the new bingo hall is now open next door. The site will become a car park. The building has been heavily altered inside for bingo but retained the huge proscenium and original seating in the circle.
Thanks for your posting rroberts…
Well news has been pretty quiet on the Odeon front since April. We have tried on several occasions to get an answer from the owners as to the future of the cinema, but to no avail. It would seem that they are determined to run it into the ground with little or no maintenance work being done to maintain what does remain. They put prices up in April which we think is a further ploy to drive customers away. A couple of weeks ago a front page article in our local paper ran showed readers the run down state of the interior with bare light bulbs on fittings in the foyer, filthy and neglected toilets, taped down carpets, damage to railings and cordoned off seating. It has now been a year since the owners announced that they were assessing the site for its economic viability, and we fear that as a result of this forced neglect the news will not be good. We are still watching the future of the building with bated breath and going to see films there, but unless an independent operator or a film loving millionaire takes its on this art deco gem and rightly restores it to its 1937 opening day splendour the neglect will continue. The owning chain has recently been bought by a venture capital firm so it remains to be seen if they will invest any money into the builidng or whether they are just in the cinema business to make a quick profit and sell off those older properties for redevelopment. Regardless of the outcome there is great local support for the cinema, the population of York is steadily growing with new housing developments being built all over the city, and us volunteers will go on fighting for the best cinema in the north of england.
Any help would indeed be appreciated as to suggestions from other like minded organisations. Please get in touch with me at
I will endeavor to keep you all posted.
I have posted more news about our campaign and our Oscar winning celebrity backing, under the main Odeon York page. Check it out.
Since my last update we’ve had some good news and bad news with regards to our campaign.
On the plus side we’ve had over 13,000 signatures of support, in less than 9 weeks, to save the cinema, from all walks of life, and indeed all parts of the globe.
This week we heard the fantastic news that Oscar winning actress Dame Judi Dench was backing us in our fight after one of our campaign team wrote to request her help.
Dame Judi,who was born and grew up in York, wrote back “ I am delighted to add my support to your campaign to save the York Odeon cinema. It is the most beautiful art deco building.
“I have very happy memories of it and would be devastated to see it closed.
“ I wish you every success with the campaignâ€.
Not so good was the response we received from Odeon’s head office when representatives of the campaign team, MP for York Hugh Bayley, and the Evening Press newspaper tried to deliver the 13,600 signatures collected so far. Upon arrival at their building, just off Leicester Square, they were made to wait whilst it was asked if anyone in a senior position within the company would come down to reception to receive. Through the intercom a lady replied that there was no one available but it could be posted through the door! Hugh Bayley refused and said that out of respect for the thousands who signed it he would only deliver it by hand.
Finally a woman who refused to give her name or position appeared at the front door to take the packaged petition, promising to pass it on to the Chief Executive, Ian Pluthero.
I have suggested that maybe people should write directly to the Chief Executive at Odeon and gladly post his details on here for anyone that may wish to do so
Ian Pluthero
Chief Executive
Odeon Cinemas Ltd
54 Whitcomb Street
London, WC2H 7DN
This snub to our campaigners says a lot for the owners of the cinema, but the collecting of signatures and our fight to keep it open will continue. More news when we have it.
As of this week we have now raced past the 10,000 signature mark with our petition. Our local politician and council leaders were meeting Friday (27th) with senior managers from the Odeon’s owners to decide on its future. We await further news and I will post updates as and when I hear anything…
We’ve had a tremendous response so far to the campaign and have attracted over 8,000 signatures of support in under 4 weeks. We still have a long way to go to convince the owners not to close and sell off the place, but it just shows that the building has the overwhelming support of the community. More news will be posted when we hear more.
Our campaign continues with fantastic results. In less than 4 weeks we have now reached over 8,000 signatures of support. The removal of wall tiling in the auditorium is apparently beacuse they are made from some composite material which includes asbestos and have been removed, illegally it has to be said, as a health and safety issue. The council conservation architect is now to meet with the owners to discuss a suitable replacement, hopefully to the same streamlined design as before.
So far we have had a fantastic response to our Save The York Odeon campaign with over 6,000 people signing up their support in less than 3 weeks! Although we have some way to go to persuade the owners to keep it open and treat the building to a sensitive refurbishment this is a wonderful start, and shows that many people out there still love the building.
On a rather more cryptic note a recent visit to the building by one of our campaigners revealed that large sections of original Art Deco wall tiling which form part of the auditoriums streamlined decoration have been needlessly removed. When asked, management refused to confirm why this had been carried out! This has now be reported by campainers to the local city council as this is a breach of listed building status which means permission has to be sought before any original features are removed. The councils conservation architect is now investigating the matter.
The next step is getting the campaign some national coverage and I have been writing to celebrities who come from York in the hope that they may be able to help us, so fingers crossed we could have some celebrity backing soon. For those who might be interested Dame Judi Dench, Mark Addy, and David Bradley (caretaker Argus Filch in the Harry Potter films) are all from York.
If you haven’t done so already please sign our online petition and read all about our campaign at www.thisisyork.co.uk
I will keep visitors posted.
Hi Patrick. On the sites homepage there is a small caption saying Save York Odeon. Click on this and the next page gives all recent articles about the campaign and the online coupon is at the bottom of this page. Thanks.
On November 27th it was announced the owners are looking at the sites economic viability which more than likely means that the Odeon now faces closure. I intend to fight this and hope I can rally the support of local people, and also readers of this site. Please email your comments to me at
Sadly noting remains of this impressive super cinema. It was demolished in June and the site is now a car park for the bingo hall next door.
The historic facade sign, the only one left in this style, has fortunatly been saved, despite the owners wanting to remove it and replace with a hideous new style example. Now only if they cna be bothered to restore it.
Demolition begins on 7th of April 2003, as the new bingo hall is now open next door. The site will become a car park. The building has been heavily altered inside for bingo but retained the huge proscenium and original seating in the circle.