Sunday 29 November 2009





the Rex, Berkhamsted, Sunday 29 November 2009...standing room only for the meeting to rescue the Odeon..

Thursday 26 November 2009



The Odeon is not just worth saving because we want a proper cinema...but also because it is on the site of maybe the first cinema (as we know them) in the country..the Alpha Picture Palace built by Arthur Melbourne Cooper, local cinema pioneer , in 1908. More about him in the future.

He also had his Alpha Studios just over the road. In 1996 the BFI put this notice on the side of Telford Court to mark the place. If you're anything like me you've probably walked past it '0000's of times without noticing it.... so here it is...

Wednesday 25 November 2009


it's not all lifeless dereliction round the back...look carefully into the undergrowth......

Sunday 22 November 2009


the Odeon, on Saturday night, 21 11 09, a weekend of drenching rain, heaviest downpour ever recorded in U.K.....









Saturday 21 November 2009

Wednesday 18 November 2009

Monday 16 November 2009









St Albans Odeon in all its sad vulnerable prerestoration seedy glory