Venue

881 Granville Street,
Vancouver, BC V6Z 1K7

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Additional Info

Previously operated by: Odeon Theatres (Canada) Ltd.

Architects: Thomas L. Kerr

Styles: Streamline Moderne

Previous Names: Maple Leaf Electric Theatre, Plaza Theatre, Odeon Theatre, Plaza Club

Nearby Theaters

Odeon Theatre exterior

Opened as the Maple Leaf Electric Theatre on March 17, 1908. Following a remodel by architect Thomas L. Kerr it became the Plaza Theatre on September 2, 1936 with William Powell in “Escapade”. This 925-seat movie house was renamed the Odeon on March 20, 1963, when it was acquired by the theatre chain of the same name.

Closed in 1991, the Odeon was reopened in 1997, but within a year, was closed once more.

In 1999, the former theatre was converted into a two-level nightclub/live performance space, its marquee retained, called the Plaza Club. Renovations were carried out in the Summer of 2009, and it reopened as The Venue, a nightclub and concert venue. It was closed around 2020 and the building stands vacant in 2023.

Contributed by Bryan Krefft

Recent comments (view all 19 comments)

Splashcat66
Splashcat66 on July 17, 2013 at 10:00 am

Plaza opened Wednesday, September 2 1936

http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=jPRlAAAAIBAJ&sjid=FYkNAAAAIBAJ&pg=3363%2C30387

rivest266
rivest266 on February 9, 2014 at 9:01 pm

September 1st, 1936 grand opening ad can be found at the photo section.

DavidZornig
DavidZornig on May 1, 2018 at 6:04 am

October 15, 1973 photo added credit Vancouver Archives CVA 800-0438.

Splashcat66
Splashcat66 on August 21, 2019 at 5:19 pm

^^ I was at the 2:45 PM showing of Police Academy 5 at the Plaza on March 18 1988.

DavidZornig
DavidZornig on July 24, 2020 at 4:32 am

Multiple Vancouver theatre images in below Flickr link.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/99915476@N04/sets/72157636305761336/

ScreenClassic
ScreenClassic on November 9, 2023 at 11:54 am

I’ve seen photos posted on Google of the interior of the theatre when it was the Venue nightclub, but I sometimes wonder what it looked like inside during its cinema days. Shame that it’s been sitting boarded up for over three years since Venue closed and I fear it could end up undergoing “demolition by neglect”, as some other older buildings in Vancouver ended up being fated to experience (like the building on East Hastings that once housed the Only Seafood restaurant, which underwent a similar fate when it was boarded up after the restaurant closed and was left to sit and crumble until it was eventually torn down at some point around 2021).

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