Odeon Buildings and Odeon Cinema
Odeon Buildings and Odeon Cinema, 1-5, Northgate Street and Row
Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places
Overview
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- II
- List Entry Number:
- 1376369
- Date first listed:
- 07-Feb-1989
- List Entry Name:
- Odeon Buildings and Odeon Cinema
- Statutory Address:
- Odeon Buildings and Odeon Cinema, 1-5, Northgate Street and Row
Location
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Images of England Project
- Date:
- 2002-05-02
- Reference:
- IOE01/06878/21
- Rights:
- © Dr John L. Wishlade. Source: Historic England Archive
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Discover moreOfficial list entry
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- II
- List Entry Number:
- 1376369
- Date first listed:
- 07-Feb-1989
- Date of most recent amendment:
- 06-Aug-1998
- List Entry Name:
- Odeon Buildings and Odeon Cinema
- Statutory Address 1:
- Odeon Buildings and Odeon Cinema, 1-5, Northgate Street and Row
The scope of legal protection for listed buildings
This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.
Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.
For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.
The scope of legal protection for listed buildings
This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.
Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.
For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.
Location
- Statutory Address:
- Odeon Buildings and Odeon Cinema, 1-5, Northgate Street and Row
The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.
- District:
- Cheshire West and Chester (Unitary Authority)
- Parish:
- Non Civil Parish
- National Grid Reference:
- SJ 40422 66549
Details
This list entry was subject to a Minor Amendment on 9 December 2024 to amend the architect's name and text reformated to display correctly on NHLE.
SJ 4066 NW
595-1/1/292
CHESTER CITY (IM),
NORTHGATE STREET AND ROW (west side),
Nos. 1-5 (consec) Odeon Buildings and Odeon Cinema
(Formerly Listed as: NORTHGATE STREET Odeon Cinema)
07/02/89
GV
II
Cinema and five lock-up shops. 1936. Designed by Robert Bullivant of Harry Weedon and Partners for Oscar Deutsch and the Odeon group of companies, adapted in detail to harmonise with its setting. Steel frame on reinforced piers clad in hand-made brick; green glazed-tile roof to Hunter Street.
EXTERIOR: on a prominent corner site, the entrance, foyer and south side of the auditorium are to Hunter Street and the shops with two storeys of ancillary rooms above are to Northgate Street. The fronts to both streets are of blue brick with banded rustication to entrance canopy level, and largely buff brick above. A tower at the street corner one storey higher than the rest of the building and towers at both ends of the auditorium have shaped vertical ribs; the south face of the auditorium has raised brick bands above canopy level, surmounted by the glazed tile roof between the false towers.
The entrance and foyers, between the corner tower and the auditorium, has four pairs of plain glazed double doors, a canopy with programme advertisements and a tall window to the upper foyer of seven rows of three panes in a raised brick panel. The south side and west end of the auditorium each has two pairs of exit doors; three tiers of triple three-pane windows in the false tower west of the foyer; three tall narrow windows of seven panes in the Hunter Street face of the corner tower.
The shops, one in the corner tower facing Hunter Street and four facing Northgate Street, have modern shop fronts of no interest. Each of the two upper storeys to Northgate Street had four horizontally proportioned windows of three lights of three broad panes.
INTERIOR: the foyer survives little altered with Art Deco solid bowed balustrades and partitions and ceiling light fittings. The auditorium has been divided, principally affecting its lower parts; the large upper auditorium retains the full former dimensions in plan, the original lighting, Odeon clocks, wood veneer dado, decorative ventilation grilles and proscenium reveals.
Listing NGR: SJ4042266549
Legacy
The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.
- Legacy System number:
- 470364
- Legacy System:
- LBS
Sources
Books and journals
Harwood, E, Picture Palaces, (1999)
Modern Cinemas, (1936)
Eyles, A, Odeon Cinemas 1: Oscar Deutsch Entertains Our Nation, (2002)
Hornsey, B, Cheshire Cinemas from 1910 until the Present Day: A Survey, (1993)
Legal
This building is listed under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 as amended for its special architectural or historic interest.
Map
This map is for quick reference purposes only and may not be to scale. This copy shows the entry on 19-Jun-2026 at 20:10:51.
Download a full scale map (PDF)End of official list entry
All text content is available under the Open Government Licence v3.0 , except where otherwise stated. Any supplied maps are © Crown Copyright [and database rights] 2026 OS AC0000815036 and may not be reproduced without permission.