The
Unofficial Website The Odeon
also called the Scala previously the Regal
The Regal was a
cinema which opened in 1934 on Corporation Street. In addition to the pictures being shown
there were organ interludes during which you could get your ice creams. I am told that the
Conacher organ which is still in situ is quite rare. The cinema was leased to the Odeon Group
during the Second World War and was later renamed the Odeon.
In 1962 the cafe was turned into a Victor Sylvester ballroom. In 1974 a bingo licence was
applied for and turned down. In 1975 the cinema was taken over by a company called Twainville
and renamed the Scala. The new owners planned regular organ concerts and live shows as well as
films but very few took place. The cinema closed in September 1983 but the cafe/ballroom
continued. A bingo licence was granted in 1983 and the property including the organ was
refurbished. It became the Ritz Bingo in 1989 and I'm sure that it is now called the
Mecca.
The Odeon was a popular haunt of my childhood - they had matinees on Saturday mornings and I made sure that I saw every western. Cut the mush just give me the gunfights! It was still popular when I was in my teens - my friends and I had to queue all the way round the block to see the double bill of Goldfinger and Dr No.