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This topic comprises 2 pages: 1 2
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Topic: Odeon Leicester Square (London) to become a hotel
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Leo Enticknap
Film God
Posts: 7474
From: Loma Linda, CA
Registered: Jul 2000
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posted 04-12-2012 01:54 PM
Many thanks to Paul Rayton for emailing me this link:
quote: Sydney Morning Herald
London's most famous cinema is on track to be transformed into a luxury hotel.
The Odeon Leicester Square cinema will become a Radisson Blu Edwardian hotel after being purchased by the privately-owned hotel group for an undisclosed sum. Work on the development is likely to commence early next year with planning permission now in place.
The hotel group says it will appoint a team of architects over the coming months and the site will be "treated with the utmost respect", to create something the city can be proud of. The Odeon Leicester Square is known for its glamorous movie premieres, with countless international movie stars having walked its red carpet.
It has been there since 1937 and various restoration projects have helped retain much of the building's original grandeur. Planning permission for the site allows for a 245-room hotel, 33 residential properties, a two-screen cinema and five restaurants on Leicester Square.
A director of the Edwardian Group, Robert Morley, says the hotel will be a landmark development for London and will be a "jewel in the crown" of the hotel group. The Radisson Edwardian group now has 14 hotels in London, after going on a £200 million ($303 million) spending spree in recent months.
I have to confess that I had no idea it had closed as a cinema (but there again not really surprising - I haven't lived in London since 1992 and it must have been at least two years since I've been in Leicester Square).
That's a real shame - AFAIK that was the last Oscar Deutsch picture palace that hadn't been twinned, tripled, knocked down or otherwise modified from its original dress circle/stalls auditorium. I wonder where future royal film shows will take place now?
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Brian Guckian
Jedi Master Film Handler
Posts: 594
From: Dublin, Ireland
Registered: Apr 2003
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posted 04-12-2012 02:07 PM
Fear not - this is an error - it is the Odeon West End that is in question:
Odeon West End re-development
quote:
Odeon West End to undergo hotel redevelopment
Published: 31/01/2012 - www.businesstraveller.com
The Odeon West End on Leicester Square is to be redeveloped into a mixed use hotel, cinema, residential and restaurant complex, following its purchase by Jasminder Singh, chairman and CEO of the Edwardian Group.
The Odeon West End is situated on the south western corner of the square, and according to a press release by Radisson Edwardian Hotels, the property has planning permission for “a new 245 bedroom hotel, a two screen cinema, 33 residential properties and five restaurants on Leicester Square”.
No further details about the development have been released at this stage, but Radisson Edwardian said that “Mr Singh and his group are planning to make significant announcements about the purchase in the coming weeks”.
Leicester Square is currently undergoing a major facelift in time for the London 2012 Games, and last year Starwood opened its first W Hotels property in London on the north west corner of the square.
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Leo Enticknap
Film God
Posts: 7474
From: Loma Linda, CA
Registered: Jul 2000
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posted 04-18-2012 10:30 PM
I tried editing the thread title and adding the following text to my opening post below, but when I clicked save edit I got "Sorry - the time period for editing your post has expired". Brad or anyone else with moderator privileges: if you could apply the edit as and when time allows, I'd be grateful.
quote:
Note to readers who found this page through a Google search, added when I edited this post and the thread title on April 18, 2012: The news report I originally posted (see below - everything below this paragraph is unedited) stated incorrectly that it was the Odeon Leicester Square that is to be "turned into a hotel" (i.e. it is implied, knocked down and a hotel built on the site). At the time of writing there are two Odeon cinemas built on the blocks that form Leicester Square, a large open space in the city centre of London. Confusingly, one of them is called the Odeon Leicester Square and the other is named the Odeon West End (as in London's West End, the city's entertainment district). The Odeon Leicester Square is, as described in the Sydney Morning Herald article, one of Britain's most iconic and best-known cinemas. Built in 1937 on the site of an equally iconic music hall/vaudeville venue (the Alhambra), it was and still is the flagship venue of the Odeon chain, and is one of a tiny number of Britain's "super cinema" auditoria from the inter-war period that still exists in roughly its original form without having been divided into smaller, multiplex-style theatres. The Odeon West End is also much loved by staff and visitors, but is not the venue I originally feared was about to go when I started this thread. I guess it's not really surprising that a journalist on the other side of the world got confused!
Original post starts here:
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