Empire Cinema - Maney Corner, Sutton Coldfield

Empire Cinema - Maney Corner, Sutton Coldfield.

Was formerly an Odeon.

Came here mainly as one of The Big Sleuth bears was located outside.

Empire Cinema

The Odeon was built for and operated by Oscar Deutsch’s Odeon Theatres’s Ltd chain, the 42nd to be built for the circuit. It was designed by Harry Weedon assisted by architect J. Cecil Clavering of the Harry Weeden Partnership.

It opened on 18th April 1936 with Jessie Matthews in “First a Girl”. The cinema is located just outside the town centre on a prominent corner position of the main Birmingham Road at Maney Corner and Holland Road, Maney.

Considered to be one of the best designed Odeon Theatre’s (Odeon Harrogate is an almost exact copy), the low corner entrance is dominated by a high ‘fin’ tower on the left which originally had the word ‘Cinema’ on top. Inside the auditorium seating was provided for 1,600; 1,028 in the stalls and 572 in the balcony. A sleek Art Deco style of decoration was within the auditorium that was illuminated by concealed lighting set into troughs across the ceiling.

It was one of the first of the original Odeon’s to be tripled and became a three-screen cinema from 9th April 1972. The balcony was kept intact with a seating capacity slight increased to 591, while two mini cinemas were created in the rear stalls under the balcony which each seated 132. In 1987 a fourth screen seating 330 was added in the former front stalls area.

The Odeon Sutton Coldfield was one of several Odeons taken over by the Irish-based Ward-Anderson Cinemas in March 2006. Trading under the Empire Cinemas name, it has been renamed the Empire Cinema. Seating capacities in the screens are now; 1. 592, 2. 135, 3. 100 and 4. 329.

On 18th November 1998, the then Odeon Cinema was designated a Grade II Listed building.

Odeon Cinema

Listing Text

SP 19 NW SUTTON COLDFIELD BIRMINGHAM ROAD
(East side)
734/2/10027
Odeon Cinema

GV II

Cinema. 1935-6 by Cecil Clavering of Harry Weedon and Partners for Oscar Deutsch and the Odeon group of companies. Steel frame clad in brown brick with faience tiling to front facade, fin and staircase tower. Banded decoration to sides; flat roofs. Freestanding cinema on prominent corner site, originally having double-height foyer, staircase and double-height auditorium with balcony on naturally falling site, each defined as a separate block in a complex, carefully massed and expressionistic composition inspired by Schoffler, Shloenbach and Jacobi's Titania Palast, Berlin of 1928. Four double doors to entrance on curved corner, under projecting curved canopy. To left a tall advertising fin, now truncated, originally announcing `CINEMA'. To left again, large double-height foyer expressed by four tall metal windows each of two bays with square paned glazing. Smaller windows over emergency exit on curved corner and down sides, where faience tiling continues at ground floor level to final emergency door. Beyond is vertical brick ribbed decoration, with horizontal bands at cornice level. Horizontal brick banding on remaining elevations. The cinema is unusual in sustaining its interest through high quality brickwork on all elevations. INTERIOR. Double-height foyer now has false ceiling, but original decoration survives above. The bottom of the principal staircase with low curved balustrades in Art Deco style, with brass rails. Auditorium now subdivided but original proscenium arch survives, as does front barrier to orchestra pit. Sidewall decoration of streamlined `go faster' mouldings serving ventilation grilles. Principal screen in former circle survives well, with original textured and moulded ceilings. Many doors and staircase mouldings characteristic of the Odeon house style. Odeon interiors were always simple and streamlined, for Oscar Deutsch adopted a deliberate policy of concentrating his finances on producing a spectacular exterior in a distinctive house idiom, with a comfortable and modern interior and excellent films. Sutton Coldfield was the first purpose-built Odeon in the mature house style derived from the Titania Palast; it spawned a number of imitations, at York, Harrogate and Scarborough, which are already listed. This style was first adopted by Clavering at the Beacon, Kingstanding, Birmingham, which was acquired by Oscar Deutsch in the course of construction, and led to Clavering and Weedon being commissioned to design three more Odeons, at Sutton Coldfield, Scarborough and Colwyn Bay (demolished). Clavering left to join the Civil Service, but Robert Bullivant copied his adopted idiom for Odeon thereafter. Sutton Coldfield is thus, historically, perhaps the most important single cinema in the development of the Odeon house style. Although it has lost the top of its central fin, it otherwise survives remarkably completely. Sources: Dennis Sharp, The Picture Palace, London, Hugh Evelyn, 1969, pp.138-135 David Atwell, Cathedrals of the Movies, London, Architectural Press, 1979, pp.147-8 Rosemary Clegg, Odeon, Amber Valley, 1985 Richard Gray, Cinemas in Britain, London, Lund Humphries, 1996, pp.91-2

Listing NGR: SP1190495435

This text is from the original listing, and may not necessarily reflect the current setting of the building.

Some rights reserved

Taken in: United Kingdom / England / West Midlands / Maney (show map)

Taken on: August 6, 2017

Tags:

Sutton Coldfield

Royal Sutton Coldfield

birmingham

west midlands

england

united kingdom

great britain

Maney

Maney Corner

Empire Cinema

Holland Rd

Birmingham Rd

Birmingham Rd, Sutton Coldfield

Odeon

Oscar Deutsch’s Odeon Theatres’s Ltd

Harry Weedon

J. Cecil Clavering

Harry Weeden Partnership

Odeon Sutton Coldfield

Ward-Anderson Cinemas

Empire Cinemas

Grade II listed

Grade II listed building

tree

trees

Art Deco « less

Sets appears in: • Maney, Sutton Coldfield

Groups appears in: • Cinemas • Art Deco more » • Odeon Cinemas • Cinema Architecture • art deco west midlands • Birmingham Post and Mail • Sutton Coldfield • Art Deco Surviving in the UK. « less

Camera: Panasonic DMC-FZ72, f/3.5, 1/2000 sec, 3.6mm, ISO 160 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Panasonic DMC-FZ72
Aperture:	f/3.5
Exposure Time:	0.001 sec (1/2000)
Focal Length:	3.6mm
ISO:	160
Exposure Bias:	0 EV
Flash:	Off, Did not fire
Exposure Program:	Program AE
Exposure Mode:	Auto
Metering Mode:	Multi-segment
White Balance:	Auto
Gain Control:	Low gain up
Color Space:	sRGB
Software:	Ver.1.0
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