Through The Round Window

This picture shows the domes of the Alhambra Theatre and the Odeon Cinema and was taken through one of the 'portholes' in the Camera Lucida sulpture which stands in front of the National Media Museum.

Prince's Way and Odeon Cinema

I quite like these newly planted trees in Prince's Way in the town centre, they kind of lead the eye towards the domed building, the former Odeon Cinema, in the distance there. The domed building, or should I say doomed building closed for business over ten years ago and has been slowly deteriorating since then. The building has quite a history, it was opened in 1930 as the largest cinema outside London, with a seating capacity of 3,300, a Wurlitzer organ, ballroom and restaurant. It was visited by the Prince of Wales (later the abdicated Edward VIII) who was 'most impressed', the BBC installed microphones and broadcast organ concerts from the building, visiting rock and roll stars from the United States gave concerts there in the 1950's, and I saw Stanley Kubrick's 2001 A Space Odyssey there in 1968, and like the Prince of Wales, was 'most impressed'.