Jehovahs Witness Hall
Jehovah's Witness Hall, Castle Hill, Dudley
Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places
Overview
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- II
- List Entry Number:
- 1385009
- Date first listed:
- 05-Oct-2000
- List Entry Name:
- Jehovahs Witness Hall
- Statutory Address:
- Jehovah's Witness Hall, Castle Hill, Dudley
Location
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Discover moreOfficial list entry
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- II
- List Entry Number:
- 1385009
- Date first listed:
- 05-Oct-2000
- List Entry Name:
- Jehovahs Witness Hall
- Statutory Address 1:
- Jehovah's Witness Hall, Castle Hill, Dudley
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:
- Jehovah's Witness Hall, Castle Hill, Dudley
The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.
- District:
- Dudley (Metropolitan Authority)
- Parish:
- Non Civil Parish
- National Grid Reference:
- SO 94885 90546
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.
SO9490NE
726/1/10029
DUDLEY
CASTLE HILL
Jehovah's Witness Hall
05-OCT-00
GV II
Also Known As: Odeon Cinema, CASTLE HILL, Dudley
Former Odeon cinema. Opened 1937, architect Budge Reid of Harry Weedon and Partners, for Oscar Deutsch and the Odeon group of companies. Brick, with steel frame; foyer block clad in black and cream faience. Double-height auditorium with balcony, reached via foyer and staircases.
Symmetrical facade to Castle Hill in Moderne style. Five entrances to foyer in deep recesses. Wide curving canopy above entrances, over which are five ventilation apertures. Five deeply recessed vertical windows at first floor level surmounted by moulded canopy. Brick rear wall of auditorium behind foyer block, with rounded and channelled corners. Pitched roof hidden. Single-storey curving links either side also in faience. Return walls in plain stock brick.
Wind lobby - five sets of original glazed swing doors with acid-etched decoration. Pay box in centre facing outwards. Wide entrance foyer with stairs at either end leading to balcony. Three plaster saucer domes in ceiling with concentric mouldings.
Large double-height auditorium splayed out from proscenium. Shallow stage. Ceiling stepped down in arched lighting coves, with plain segmental ceiling over balcony. Continuous plaster mouldings on splay walls sweep to proscenium from last cove above balcony. Moderne style ventilating grilles on splay walls. Continuous moulding over proscenium and flanked by wings studded with roundels. Honeycomb design fibrous plaster grille in ceiling cove nearest balcony and again at high level in ground floor rear wall. Original standard `Odeon' style doors with streamlined mouldings over glazing panel in rear ground floor wall, right hand proscenium splay wall and rear balcony wall. Wide vomitory entrance at centre of balcony. An atypical feature is the greater number of rows (nine) in the front of the balcony compared to the rear (seven) - the reverse of the usual arrangement.
Included as an almost complete example of typical Odeon cinema of the 1930's, with no subdivision of the auditorium or alteration of its floor levels. The Odeons were style-leaders in cinema design of the time. The Odeon became a Jehovah's Witness Hall in 1976.
Literature: Ned Williams, Cinemas of the Black Country, p.147-9, Urlaia Press, 1982 Rosemary Clegg (editor), Odeon, p.155, Mercia Cinema Society, 1985
Allen Eyles, Oscar and the Odeons, Focus on Film No.22 p.43 & 54, Autumn 1975
Dennis Sharp, The Picture Palace, p.135 & 144, Hugh Evelyn, 1969
Francis Lacloche, Architectures de Cinemas, p.172, Editions du Moniteur, 1981
Richard Gray, Cinemas in Britain, p.138, Lund Humphries, 1996
Listing NGR: SO9488590546
Legacy
The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.
- Legacy System number:
- 485469
- Legacy System:
- LBS
Sources
Books and journals
Sharp, D, The Picture Palace, (1969), 135 144
Williams, N, Cinemas of the Black Country, (1982), 147-9
Lacloche, F, Architectures de Cinemas, (1981), 172
Gray, R, Cinemas in Britain: One Hundred Years of Cinema Architecture, (1996), 138
Clegg, R, Odeon, (1985)
Eyles, A, Focus on Film in Oscar And The Odeons, Vol. 22, (1975), 43 54
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 18-Jun-2026 at 01:36:47.
Download a full scale map (PDF)End of official list entry
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