st albans odeon photos

New website for insider pix of odeon restoration

2012-02-13T05:47:00.000-08:00

.....good new site at odeon2odyssey with views of roof and basement most of us have no chance of getting to see any other way...

.....am looking forward to the exciting news mentioned in the blog. Could it be an actual opening date?

St Albans Fire Service & our cinema

2011-09-14T01:13:00.001-07:00

long e mail from J.H explaining last weekend's events stopped by our Fire Service. As this pic from 1927 (thanks to S.A. museum site) shows they know what it's like when there's trouble at the cinema.

At some point in the late 90's there was an attempt to burn the cinema down & as some Lower Paxton Rd residents might remember the Fire brigade had to park their appliances in London Rd and run the hoses down the steps to fight the blaze. So the Fire Service has bad memories of this site. Anyway only an idiot wouldn't co-operate with them so we'll all have to wait a bit longer......

All events this weekend cancelled

2011-09-10T08:35:00.000-07:00

e mail this a.m. saying both Grease & open day on Sunday cancelled. No explanation. Wd be nice to know why even tho' I couldn't have gone. No doubt reason will be revealed. Annoying for people who'd planned their weekend round it all......

St Albans cinema limbers up -

2011-08-30T01:07:00.000-07:00

Yes, the moment has arrived....a showing of Grease on Sat 10 Sept at 7 30pm...take blankets, your own supply of chocolate & wear warm socks etc...for those of you who haven't had an e mail from Mr H the number to ring to book is 01442 877759. Numbers limited to 300.

And the building will also be open 12.30 - 2.30 on Sunday the 11th....just to admire progress.

St Albans Odyssey open day

2011-06-12T06:23:00.000-07:00

Some pictures of today's Open Day. I went late...but it seemed just as crowded as these days have been before, despite the cold rainy weather.

Much more sense of a new cinema emerging...the model is encouraging...and the drawings show just how much work has been done to clear the space.

A feature film is being made of the whole restoration. A pity they weren't there eight years ago to film the Public Enquiry when it was survival or the bulldozers for the whole building. I know who was there to speak up for it...but then I have the memory of a particularly bitter elephant....

Odyssey signed up

2011-06-11T05:05:00.000-07:00

If you half shut your eyes and have a good imagination it's just about possible to get a sense of how the cinema will look when once again it has its name up in big letters....this banner is the first bit of glamorous signage the poor old wreck has had the chance to show off in years so it's worth appreciating.

Hope there's a milling crowd of thousands tomorrow for the chance to see the extent of the restoration.

(This week I am moving out of the area. If I get the chance to call back and take pictures will try to do so but it's good bye Lower Paxton Rd and goodbye to the cinema as my neighbour. )

2011-06-11T05:00:00.000-07:00

St Albans Odyssey; work gathers pace

2011-06-01T09:26:00.000-07:00

Some pictures here of the team van, a new pile of rubbish outside, signs of early morning coffee.

The shots from the doors give some idea of the efforts taking place inside..think it's possible to see there's now much more space. And a pic of the staff rest deck ...they're too busy to be there of course...

Odeon/Odyssey open day 12 June 2011

2011-05-29T02:16:00.000-07:00

Pix here of the offical publicity for Open Day for all those who do not have chance to mooch round building as often as I do. Note all the usual warnings which just make me want to totter round it in a silly red carpet dress & Betty Grable style six inch high ankle strap wedges. But I won't.

Also a photo of the music posters now deconstructed & adding a note of urban artiness to the frontage. And round the back a lovely self seeded wild poppy (these have just appeared for the first time ever in the pavement cracks of Lower Paxton Rd); also some hieroglyphs from the rear wall of the building which prob. mean something vital to Mick and Lads in terms of where things will go....

Odeon/Odyssey new phase of works begins

2011-05-28T03:32:00.000-07:00

Lots going on on Friday....men in masks/diggers/lorries. Mick says they are at wall pulling down stage & interior will all look v diff by next open day (?12 June ..will confirm) Will also try to get pix of activity next week. Tres exhilarating to see so much happening.

Odeon votes for Green candidate

2011-05-06T11:48:00.000-07:00

see Herts Ad

...well, I'm sure it would if it cd have got into Marlborough Rd Methodist Hall to cast its X....

anyway 700+people in the Odeon's home ward did. And I bet most of them were also proactive in saving the Odeon. There's clearly a connection...restoration, community, best use of local resources...Yes, where St Peter's leads others, Clarence, Verulam,
Marshalswick etc will follow. We hope.

St Albans Odeon backs street party

2011-05-02T08:13:00.000-07:00

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......all us residents, monarchists, republicans and those who couldn't give a hoot but were interested in the dress, had a street party behind the cinema last Friday. It was an amazingly lovely event, leaving lots of happy memories and a more decorative pavement..see pix above.

Much talk of our cinema of course...which provided a stylishly period back wall to the goings- on. Maybe we should have asked along Mr H, sat him down in the April sunshine, plied him with prosecco and Union Jack cupcakes, and asked him what's going on with the Odeon/Odyssey. Would be nice to know esp. as we live with it so to speak.

(apologies for long silence: sad bereavements explain it...as well as lack of any recent material progress on cinema to report...)

St Albans Odyssey & Melbourne-Cooper

2010-10-11T05:29:00.001-07:00

Thanks again to Tjitte de Vries for this interesting photo - Arthur Melbourne-Cooper with local eminences actually in the foyer of the old Odeon at an exhibition in the 1950's to celebrate his work. It would be nice to see this happen again - another exhibition of course - no chance of getting Arthur though I'm sure his presence will be there somehow.

St Albans Odyssey back story

2010-10-09T03:22:00.000-07:00

As you can see all done in 24 hours - looks like a building site now. Somehow when you walk past one of these, even though it's only chipboard, white paint and safety notices, you know people are serious about what they are doing. Gives the Odeon an air of moving on. The second pic shows in the distance that the Virginia Creeper which embellishes the south side of the building is still going strong. I hope that it and the ivy survive the updating - must provide homes for so many moths/beetles/ bugs. This bit of St Albans needs to hang on to every bit of bio-diversity it has. Most of it's gone. We used to have a colony of pretty frogs at the other end of Lower Paxton Rd but they disappeared when the old dairy was converted into housing ( which floods...as the frogs warned us about, of course...).

And while we're on the topic of temporary additions what about the lean-to along the side of the building - top pic gives view of its front. It's quite a big space inside. Mick and Darren have been trying to work out what it was used for. One guess is it provided a space for patrons' bikes/motorbikes? Maybe somebody out there remembers?

Odyssey cinema - extension at back

2010-10-08T02:08:00.001-07:00

Pic of MIck and Darren chatting to a local resident as they work on a new extension at the rear. This will make back of site safer and neater...but local mousers will find entry to their hunting patch blocked. Almost runover by a reversing Oveolia waste wagon as I took this....it's usually the plumbers' merchant's lorries you have to look out for down here.

Clearance continues

2010-10-05T03:35:00.000-07:00

Some pics of the work today - lots of radio/whistling/thuds of rubble and planks being heaved around.....this is all hard hats and face masks stuff so I stayed outside. But last week as I was going to the station saw Mick making the morning coffees on the table by the front doors and he showed me round to admire the completely clear foyer. It's now possible to get a sense of what it was like to walk in in the heyday of the Capitol.

And there's the original booking office hatch, and the manager's cosy office and the huge business like safe for the takings. Easy to imagine what it was like in there on a dark rainy St Albans Sunday afternoon in, say, 1942 - the sound of the film sound track in the background, the sturdy radiators chugging out heat, the manager and his staff all smoking like chimneys, tea and chocolate biscuits (or were they rationed?) And while we can imagine them they would never have imagined us doing this. In their darker moments they might have thought the cinema would still be here but showing films with German stars & Wagnerian sound tracks...

It's so atmospheric even in this raw state. Maybe particularly in this state. Maybe when we have the glossy new wonderful Odyssey we will lose touch with the old warhorse of a cinema we are so close to at the moment....

St Albans Odyssey - film of meeting 12 September

2010-09-14T00:48:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Ian Cundell you can watch this excellent little movie catching the moment when the new name was announced.

St Albans Odyssey - Melbourne-Cooper journey

2010-09-12T10:21:00.000-07:00

I'm sure Arthur Melbourne-Cooper would have been happy with the new name - maybe a little sorry not to see his Alpha remembered but O.K. about the heroic ambitions of this new era. Today's walk to rediscover sites connected with him was very well taken up - pics here of it at various stages including the station, Alma Road (to admire BFI plaque on Telford Court) and London Road...

St Albans Odyssey

2010-09-12T10:15:00.000-07:00

Exploiting the right of bloggers to quote what they like here's the text of Cavafy's poem Ithaka for anyone who's not sure what the original Odyssey was about.....no apologies for grabbing the chance to get a poem in - only one in the whole blog so far....

Ithaka

As you set out for Ithaka
hope the voyage is a long one,
full of adventure, full of discovery.
Laistrygonians and Cyclops,
angry Poseidon—don’t be afraid of them:
you’ll never find things like that on your way
as long as you keep your thoughts raised high,
as long as a rare excitement
stirs your spirit and your body.
Laistrygonians and Cyclops,
wild Poseidon—you won’t encounter them
unless you bring them along inside your soul,
unless your soul sets them up in front of you.

Hope the voyage is a long one.
May there be many a summer morning when,
with what pleasure, what joy,
you come into harbors seen for the first time;
may you stop at Phoenician trading stations
to buy fine things,
mother of pearl and coral, amber and ebony,
sensual perfume of every kind—
as many sensual perfumes as you can;
and may you visit many Egyptian cities
to gather stores of knowledge from their scholars.

Keep Ithaka always in your mind.
Arriving there is what you are destined for.
But do not hurry the journey at all.
Better if it lasts for years,
so you are old by the time you reach the island,
wealthy with all you have gained on the way,
not expecting Ithaka to make you rich.

Ithaka gave you the marvelous journey.
Without her you would not have set out.
She has nothing left to give you now.

And if you find her poor, Ithaka won’t have fooled you.
Wise as you will have become, so full of experience,
you will have understood by then what these Ithakas mean.

Translated by Edmund Keeley/Philip Sherrard

(C.P. Cavafy, Collected Poems. Translated by Edmund Keeley and Philip Sherrard. Edited by George Savidis. Revised Edition. Princeton University Press, 1992)

St Albans Odyssey

2010-09-12T10:03:00.001-07:00

...so it's the Odyssey. A good name and fitting choice, because we've certainly been on a journey with this building; & let's hope we've now begun on one of its calmer stages.

The photos above are of the newly christened cinema looking, it has to be said, much the same as it always does, with some of the queues for today's meeting - in London Road, and in the foyer, where it was standing room only in the end.

Also one of Marian Hammant, who did so much to save the building from development as flats, being interviewed for the Review

St Albans Odeon - some details

2010-09-10T06:22:00.000-07:00

These are my favourite fragments:

At some point this radiator in the foyer was painted a bright green. There is also (see next section) green plasterwork in the foyer. We know the seats in the Cromie interior were green - so was there a green theme going on? And ...so...what about the shamrock grilles in the auditorium. Did the Capitol have an Irish design link?

The red lights in the auditorium are nice - maybe not from the 30's but pretty & it's good to see they've hung on.

The curly end to the stair rail is great...

Vintage switches and electrical bits found under 70's boarding in the foyer

The plasterwork in the store room is wonderful - big Californian-esqe swirls - click to see more clearly....

St Albans Odeon - the auditorium

2010-09-10T06:08:00.000-07:00

As all St Albans citizens of a certain age know this is a gracious and lovely space....and quite a lot of original bits and pieces have survived - the radiators, now very chic, got through the 60's & 70's unscathed. The lovely shamrock ceiling grilles are still perfect, the door up to the projection box is still there, and so is the staircase on the left ....everyone will remember coming up those stairs, clutching your ticket and starting to trip in the dark till your eyes got used to it....

St Albans Odeon - the 30's plasterwork

2010-09-10T05:54:00.000-07:00

One of the most interesting things about the restoration of the Odeon is the survival of the plasterwork from its life as the Capitol in the 30's. There are several types of plasterwork pattern - those above are from the foyer and the main auditorium. No doubt this was seen as a cheap and modest form of decoration in its day...but is anything more evocative now of the heyday of provicial cinema? Just a close look at a square foot of this work and it all sweeps over you, the enchanted atmosphere, the excitement, the otherwordliness of it all...

St Albans Odeon (for 2 more days) - work going on

2010-09-10T05:44:00.000-07:00

Mick, Darren and comrades here today working on more clearance to have building ready for Sunday. It feels very close to being a cinema - no smell of damp/age. Disappointingly none of them have seen or heard any sign of the ghost who is rumoured to haunt the main screen....

if there is a ghost there's only one person it can be....and I'd guess he'll only start taking an interest again when the projector is whirring and even then only to keep a curious professional eye on the advances in cinema technology since his day...

Name will be revealed 12 September

2010-09-09T04:01:00.000-07:00

...notice for Sunday's meeting at which we'll learn what the Odeon's new name is to be. And after that there will be the appearance of the cinema's own dedicated web site and we will have a new reliable source of information on what is going on. Not that this blog will gracefully disappear. Oh no. No effort will be spared to bring you a record of the work as it goes on...for example look at this one of the back of the building....a comparison with earlier pix will show how things have changed...the cats have gone for a start as presumably the mice & rats are packing up & leaving...

Melbourne-Cooper Walk

2010-08-29T23:35:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Tjitte De Vries for this lovely image from his archives. This was used as publicity for Arthur Melbourne-Cooper's first studio venture in Bedford Park. IF you would like to see the house itself then join the free Melbourne-Cooper walk being led by Marian Hammant of St Albans Civic Society on Sunday 12th September, starting at 2 .30 from the CIty Station. That's just after the James Hannaway meeting at the Odeon - so you can have a total immersion St Albans cinema day.....

St Albans cinema name - How about the Kubrick?

2010-08-19T00:25:00.000-07:00

One of the names suggested for the cinema is the Kubrick after that other well known cinema connected local, Stanley K. There's a very nice piece by Jon Ronson in today's Guardian in which Christiana Kubrick remembers what life with him at Childwickbury was like. And if you haven't yet seen the excellent Kubrick exhbiition at St Albans museum in Hatfield Rd there's still time to go - it's on till 5th September.

Yes, we could get used to The Kubrick.....in fact we could get used to whatever moniker for the dear old pile. It's soldiered on cheerfully enough through several manifestations. A cinema by any other name etc etc. The main thing is to have it in the first place.

St Albans cinema - what do we call it?

2010-08-16T08:21:00.000-07:00

You've probably all seen the details of the competition to suggest a name for the cinema. If not go to allaboutstsalbans site to add your contribution.

While I think the fact that the site began with the Alpha, the very first ever cinema designed in the way a modern audience would recognise, means we'd be wise to call it the Alpha in order to maintain this link with Melbourne-Cooper and his pioneering work, I can see the challenge in trying to find a new name of local and heritage/cinematic resonance. How about:

the Audrey - after Melbourne Cooper's daughter, local resident who did so much to fight for her father's creative reputation..also a link with the Hollywood Audrey of course, and why not call a cinema after a girl anyway? They don't all have to be boys or neuters?

the Watson - after nearby Watson's Walk where Melbourne-Cooper's father had his photographic studio. And we can all have fun for years asking What's on at the Watson.

the Pax - after local adjoining roads and in connection with the late lamented Crystal Palace pub nearby - all named in memory of the great Joseph Paxton. engineer and gardener. Goes with Rex and could hardly have a more dignified meaning.

i don't promise not to add to this list...once you start it gets addictive...

The Alpha/how will it look

2010-06-26T01:42:00.000-07:00

We've reached the moment where our collective imagination is being challenged to work on the idea of how the cinema will look when refurbished. Of course most of us, when faced with the sight of the time-damaged Odeon at next week's viewing, will fall back on what we have seen at the Rex i.e. romantic soft edged deco ( the scallop shells in gold, the flower /leaf scroll screen border, the red velvet seating) as its future manifestation.

But there are reasons for nudging your fantasies down a different aesthetic route. Think more zig zaggy early 30's modernism. There are photos of the Odeon in its Robert Cromie designed Capitol era with wonderful wall patterns in this style ( see one above from Architecture Illustrated 1932) And one of my insider sources ( yes, stick with this blog for such snippets) says they will be going down a more modern track than with the Rex. So expect it to be stylish, maybe more MGM Studios than arty little sanctuary - all no doubt done to the last degree of precision and good craftsmanship. Less romantic maybe but great.....full of the optimism and sharp, satiny glamour of early cinema. And the seats were green.

Odeon Car Park: Notice lives again

2010-05-21T04:13:00.002-07:00

Yes, Mick and Darren have found the old car park notice and put it on the front door. Next time you drive up London Road and get stuck at the lights glance to your left because clearly the front of the Odeon is going to become a bit of a public art work. The two chairs are still there too.

The two other pics are from the back door which was open this morning. The carpet in particular evokes memories. I'm not intrepid enough to go further in without permission - what if I were accidentally locked in without my mobile and they didn't come back for a few days? Who would know where I was? The thought of being shut up alone in the Odeon, much as I love it, is quite scary. So you'll have to do with images from the threshold for now. But they'll all add up....

2010-05-21T04:13:00.001-07:00

Odeon Tues 18 May 2010

2010-05-18T06:31:00.001-07:00

This is the scene front and back today...Darren and Mick's van, and 2 chairs outside, set to catch the early morning sun in London Rd. No human beings anywhere (outside).

I'm sure you'll agree these are like stills from a movie about restoring a cinema...the 2 chairs are just waiting for the scene where James Gandolfini and A.N. Other-Actor ( haven't decided who'd play Darren yet) sit and discuss the wiring up. And the van is an art work in itself. I expect someone out there is halfway through the script. Have thought of tackling it myself.

Early start on Odeon Monday 17 May 2010

2010-05-17T08:38:00.000-07:00

I noticed early this morning that vans were packed into the little parking space by the Odeon.The front door was open, a litre carton of fresh mik left handy and temporary lighting on in the foyer. And the sugar pink neon Shop sign (please keep this - it's very pretty) was on as if the Odeon had been open to sell sweets and chocolate last night. But not a soul in sight. As regular readers of this blog will know I have been cameraless and couldn't take any pictures of this evocative early morning scene. But - sparing no expense - I went off to Boots in St Peters St and forked out from my blog-budget of millions for their cheapest camera. So you have some details from later today - the vans - notice the new neat tarmac where the road was dug up last week to connect the water. And the shiny new tap on the back wall. And a glimpse of the inside- well, of the old Odeon litter point actually. Note the innovative health and safety feature on the door.

There were thundrous noises of heavy labour. Noone answered my shouts of hello - so no pics yet of the noble labourers themselves. But they're on the job everyone. Things are starting to move.

The music of pneumatic drills

2010-05-07T04:37:00.000-07:00

Yes, as I sat in my front room this lunchtime watching the election analysis on BBC1, I was delighted to hear the constant noise of drilling in the background. A cluster of white vans had appeared, and men in fluoro jackets were, I knew, busily digging away to connect up the water supply for the cinema. First step to bringing a building back into life. They seemed very happy to be doing it when I asked them if that's what the work was. And I'm certainly happy to live with the noise. Context is all.

Next: electricity. The shiny new locks haven't gone unadmired either. Every little change is a long awaited and welcome sign of transformation.

Just hope Jas Hannaway is not now the Right Hon.(must check) The Odeon needs his concentration. What's wrong with just being a cinema magnate - heroic enough in the circumstances, I would have said, for anyone.

AT LAST: Michael Glasheen on site

2010-04-29T00:28:00.000-07:00

Yes, it's all going to happen - the final incontrovertible bit of evidence. Mick Glasheen, chief gaffer/fixer/craftsperson of the Rex was seen in Lower Paxton Rd at 8.15 this a.m. helping his mate Darren to park up behind the Odeon. Hurrah. In the dark days when restoring the Odeon seemed a very faint hope I used to think if I ever see Mick here I will know we've managed to rescue it.

And here he is, looking like Tony Soprano and wearing his lovely 'Who's the Daddy t-shirt?' And our Odeon is in his hands. At some point when he's not too busy will try to get a pic of him to post...but take it from me Mick's presence means action.

The Odeon: just how bad is it inside?

2010-04-23T08:38:00.000-07:00

Not too dreadful actually.See the pictures taken this week now on the Allaboutstalbans link. I had imagined swathes of rotted plaster, stalactites/mites of decaying matter, vast holes, maybe the odd fox lair or two, corpses, bats pinging from wall to wall. But no. It looks like a...a CINEMA. And that's before a penny has been spent. How good is it going to look once £2 million has been spent with art and care? Fabulous, that's what it's going to be.

But, oh the memories. It's so painful. At least they've been rescued for us too.

136th anniversary Arthur Melbourne-Cooper

2010-04-15T00:07:00.000-07:00

Yes, it's Arthur M-C's birthday. The Odeon is basking in a cold April sunlight; no open doors and busy figures in fluoro jackets yet but it shouldn't be long. Maybe at some point in the future this date could become a day of special festivities - a programme of early Brit movies and Edwardian teas. Someone on the Facebook page is suggesting the cinema be named after Stanley Kubrick but , much as this blog admires S.K., the pitch here will be for it to be named the Alpha. After all A M-C was struggling in the teeth of all sorts of technical/historical/cultural obstacles S.K. never had to face, and yet managed to think up, cast, direct, make and get distributed over 336 films, 36 of them the effort consuming and intricate puppet animations.

And at the same time, and before anyone else, he saw what a cinema should and could be - and brought that into popular reality on this very site. He deserves credit for all kinds of firsts; the first ever animation, the first animated advertising film, the first ever long documentary (The GWR commission London to Killarney) and the first ever real film made in Ireland ( should have posted that on March 17th). But the best of them is his intuitive grasp of how people could get together comfortably and safely in large numbers to have a good time watching moving pictures - in comfort, if not a degree of luxury, with all sorts of accompanying treats. And who could deny they were going to need that blameless escapism in the years ahead of them. So thanks, Arthur Melbourne-Cooper and the Alpha...set to shine again.

SOLD it's official

2010-04-08T06:47:00.000-07:00

how nice...a sunny April day and the sold sign on the cinema again...

and now this blog can revert to what it was originally set up to be - a record for local residents and neighbours of the Odeon of the changes we can expect/hope to take place. Let's hope there are no more dramas/controversies/failures of optimism. Always a good thing to have someone independent on the spot too. We've spent too long fighting planning applications,sitting in inquiries/leafleting St Peter St to lose interest now. Nor have we anything to gain, not business, influence or media standing. This blog is a labour of love representing everyone who lives near the Odeon and who has hated seeing it wasting away.

Kubrick exhibition St Albans Museum

2010-04-05T03:26:00.000-07:00

Of course Melbourne-Cooper is not the only man of cinema associated with St Albans. The city also has a proud link with Stanley Kubrick. As mentioned earlier St Albans Museum is currently holding an exhibition about his work with many associated activities. I went on Saturday and it's well worth going to. See their site for more info.

And for those whose taste is not really Clockwork Orange or Full Metal Jacket there's some lovely stuff on/from Barry Lyndon:

Sale proceeding

2010-04-05T03:17:00.000-07:00

see allaboutstalbans site for statement by J H on first stages of exchange. So maybe the 9 April is the day we can celebrate.

15 April is Arthur Melbourne-Cooper's birthday i.e. the 136th anniversary - so the rescue /return of the Alpha and that nearly coincided.

sa council suddenly realises town lacks cinema

2010-04-03T04:39:00.000-07:00

See council sitefor report on proposal to turn the Maltings into art cinema. Will give this more reflection but immediate reaction is there's something very peculiar about the timing.

One thing at least about our council: for an organisation so over fond of that old management cliche the word 'vision', at least we don't have to worry about them ever coming up with something resembling original thought.

More on local film making

2010-04-02T06:20:00.000-07:00

Click below for details of another nice new book for your growing libraries on this topic:

Odeon/Alpha Contracts exchanged

2010-04-02T06:16:00.000-07:00

See Herts Ad for details. The cinema is ours.

I'm just looking forward to walking past it tonight on my way to the station and seeing it either without the for sale sign, or knowing the sign doesn't mean anything anymore.

More Arthur Melbourne-Cooper

2010-03-30T01:29:00.001-07:00

Maybe I should start a new blog titled Arthur Melbourne-Cooper Appreciation because he does seem to crop up ever more frequently. In fact St Albans is now being seen as a centre for film-themed tourism ...see Michael Pedley's piece on Suite 101. It's a nice idea. And really keen film obsessed visitors could also stop off at Borehamwood and visit the sites of the great studios once there.And Hertsmere council could think about some kind of centre to catch all that history before it vanishes for ever.

St Albans does seem to have woken up to this aspect of its heritage. There's the Museum's Kubrick exhibition and related activities starting this week ..see their site for more info. We needn't trade on the Romans and the Abbey for ever. Stuff has happened since the 11th century and Arthur Melbourne-Cooper is a very attractive part of it. Of course you do start to wonder what kind of man he was to have left this stubborn creative mark on the town. One of his friends, another local lad, draper's son Roger Pamphilon, said this about him...

He was the most extraordinary personality. He wouldn't stop at anything. He was living 50 years in advance of the times.

latest on Alpha campaign

2010-03-22T10:31:00.000-07:00

see on allaboutstalbans recent statement from J.H. which includes comments on the lack of support/criticism from political parties

Intriguing that St Albans School has taken an interest in the (minor) divisions locally - can see this would be a model exercise for GCSE English Language or Media Studies coursework. At least a B I'd say. I just hope Joe and Mark, the writers, are now really keen supporters of the Alpha campaign.

For those of you who have tenaciously followed the ups and downs of this debate - you might be interested in this letter from the Civic Soc. which was sent to the Review at the end of Feb but did not see the light of day. Who knows why. Anyway here it is now. A little late but still topical it seems.

Dear Editor

ST ALBANS CIVIC SOCIETY AND CINEMA

For a former member of the Civic Society, and a former district councillor, Andrew Rose seems remarkably ill-informed about local affairs.
In a political news sheet recently circulated in central St Albans, he suggested that the Civic Society was intent on turning The Odeon into an exclusive art house cinema (wrong), and now (Review, 24 February) he puts forward the idea that we opposed the concept of a city centre cinema in principle.
In fact it was quite the other way round . At the time of the Council’s ill-starred partnership with developer Henry Davidson, we commissioned an award-winning architect to design a cinema worthy of this setting. It was presented to the Council, and received much publicity, not just local.
And that’s the point. A city centre cinema in a place as sensitive as St Albans needs to be a whole lot more that a clutter of boxes with expensively dug out parking beneath and storey upon storey of skyline-shattering flats on top to pay for it..
This is what the Civic Society opposed, along with many St Albans residents, and the Council’s own planners. Davidson’s schemes were withdrawn not once, but twice. Surely you remember, Mr Rose.
Yes, we too know that local young people want a cinema, but it mustn’t be at all costs. Having the latest horror film a few streets away doesn’t make up for lowest common denominator architecture, and surely our aim should be to enrich people’s lives with their surroundings, not coarsen them.
What’s been so exciting about The Odeon campaign has been the number of young people involved, creating their own publicity and using their expertise in the latest technology to spread the word. Clearly they realise there’s more to life than multiplexes.
And would a multiplex provide the width of programming Andrew Rose yearns for? Or would some seven-screen cinema be filling six of them with the latest blockbuster? What’s good about The Rex, as well as its choice, is its flexibility. A year or two ago, the cry went up for Mother and Baby afternoons: and behold, with careful monitoring and adaptation, they still exist. I wonder, could a multiplex be so responsive?
By the time this letter is published, we may know if James Hannaway has succeeded in his bid to secure The Odeon, and the project, which has caught the imagination of so many in and about St Albans, will move on to the long haul of gathering funds for restoration. I do hope Andrew Rose will watch, and listen, and learn. And perhaps even join in.

Yours sincerely

Marion Hammant
St Albans Civic Society

More about Arthur Melbourne-Cooper & St Albans

2010-03-21T09:06:00.001-07:00

Tjitte de Vries (L.) Marion Hammant (Centre) and Ati Mul (R.) met last Thursday in the Abbey Refectory to talk about Arthur Melbourne -Cooper and his link with the Alpha. As everyone in St Albans knows Marion has done much to help save the cinema and is now planning a conducted walk on the 20th June (see SACS site for more info) to show interested members of the public the sites associated with Melbourne-Cooper's career here.

Did you know know , for example, that Melbourne-Cooper's father's first photographic studio was in what is now the Chinese take-away on the corner of Watson's Walk? Or that M-C's logo was the Hertfordshire hart? It all just gets more and more local.

2010-03-17T03:40:00.001-07:00

Alpha studio films

2010-03-17T03:09:00.000-07:00

In a mood of (cautious) celebration I've been watching the dvd which comes with They thought it was a marvel by T de Vries and Ati Mul. All the films are interesting of course but I most loved Noah's Ark...much of it made in the bath at the Melbourne -Cooper family home in Alma Road as well as in basement of the first Alpha cinema. What is interesting is not just the pioneering technical skill but the tender creation of that animated imaginative world for an audience of children which we all now know so well - very impressive rain, cute animals moving cutely, lots of little jokes such as the bossy elephants being more competent than Noah at running a boat, a lovably happy ending. You'll have to buy the book to watch it..but go to the Bioscope site for a chance to view the famous Dream of Toyland, with its very naughty white bear...

Melbourne-Cooper seems to have been the very first pioneering cinematographer who saw that animated film would be of enormous significance for audiences of children...yet another reason to be glad the site is rescued for the kind of cinema the Alpha will be....

More thanks from Jas.Hannaway on allaboutstalbans site. At some point we shd. thank him. This country is/was full of cinemas whose sad histories read 'bingo;demolition;supermarket'...just 5 minutes Googling will prove that...

Alpha return

2010-03-10T09:09:00.000-08:00

Before we citizens of St Albans start to think of champagne-fuelled conga-ing up and down London Road, it is good to reflect that we have not only retrieved a place of entertainment for ourselves, but a significant chunk of cultural history....the site of some of the earliest film making ever. This is where Arthur Melbourne-Cooper made at least 6 films in 1908-1910, including the wonderful sounding Cats' Cup Final, starring toy tabbies bought in Hamleys and brought back to St Albans in a basket on the train.

When I e mailed the de Vries's (authors of the recent book on Melbourne-Cooper)to tell them about the Alpha's renaissance they said:

Both Cooper's daughters, Audrey and Ursula who have helped us so much with our book, would be very pleased to hear this.

All the more reason to feel proud of what we've done.

Alpha rescue fund tops £1milllion

2010-03-10T02:11:00.000-08:00

See the rex for details and allaboutstalbans.

Well done St Albans.

alpha cinema - total now£971k

2010-03-08T00:45:00.000-08:00

It might be a Monday and cold, but it's nearly spring and the Rex is telling us the money has reached £971,000. It also says don't celebrate yet.

Maybe the point for celebrating is a long way off. After all there will be 2 years of more money raising and trying not to listen to those who will still be saying 'they'll never do it/we need a mulitplex.' And even when/and if the Alpha finally opens they'll still be there saying the same miserable, carping, negative things.

Some of us, maybe quite a lot of us, might however have allowed ourselves a glass of champagne by then....

the Alpha campaign - some stats

2010-03-05T02:31:00.000-08:00

No. of weeks since inaugural meeting at the Rex: 14

No. of weeks of frenzied campaigning for £: 6

No. of Friends on Facebook 2984
(if they were really friendly we could have bought three cinemas by now)

No. of editorial tantrums score: 2-1… to the Herts Ad

No. of Rex/Hannaway tantrums (in public, anyway): 0

Degree of support from council/political parties: 0%

Degree of community support: 99%

No. of times close friends nagged by me to sponsor a seat: too often,probably

No. of times I’ve looked at Odeon and wanted to cry : lost count

St Albans Odeon is now Tweeting

2010-03-05T00:54:00.000-08:00

as a species cinemas seem to Tweet rather a lot but I think St Albans can claim to have the only derelict tweeting cinema in the
entire world....

Many thanks to St Albans Museum service for its support and encouragement...earns them the distinction of being the ONLY public sector/cultural organisation to give this campaign to rescue our cinema active support. The Alpha will not forget this.

Alpha St Albans..almost made it....

2010-03-04T12:14:00.000-08:00

total now £944,000!!!!! I don't much like exclamation marks but for once gave into temptation to use a few...this is now so close...

A mere (my, how all this has changed my perspective on money - I normally think of a tenner as a big sum) £56,000 to get now.....just 56 sponsors. What's 56? One Routemaster load of people.

See allaboutstalbans for latest statement from Jas.Hannaway.

the Alpha St Albans - there is no more time

2010-03-04T04:28:00.000-08:00

Another £75,000 needed (see today's Herts Ad) and time is now a matter of hours rather than days..so all those people who've been meaning to get round to sponsoring a seat but haven't because their money ' is tied up' or they are by nature are the kind of people who always wait for others to test the water, and who want everything in life to come with a cast iron guarantee, should take a deep breath and loosen the money up a bit or learn how to take a (small) risk..and sponsor a seat.

If there are 75 of you out there dithering then for once grit your teeth and jump. Or do you want to go down in local history as the 75 who ruined the whole endeavour?

It won't hurt and you will be proud of yourself.

the Alpha - the emotional cost

2010-03-03T08:42:00.000-08:00

Well, that’s both of them – another editor has cracked…see today’s Review. As regular readers know this blog got on the wrong side of the Herts Ad. quite sometime ago ( see post/comments 28 January ).

And the Labour party ‘s local activists are the wild eyed Ancient Mariners of this tale, wandering around stopping anyone who’ll listen, to croak on about how we ‘really need a multiplex’. At the same time the other political parties and the council remain conspicuous by their absence from the ups and downs of this mighty local effort, in the way Iago is absent from the action in Othello.

Meanwhile the rest of us spend our time obsessively logging onto allaboutstalbans in the hope that things might have moved on significantly. It may as well be the default setting on my browser.

If this comes to a successful conclusion no doubt time will cast a rosy glow over the past few weeks. But it hasn’t been easy. Especially if you’re a journalist or apparatchik (which I’m not, thankfully).

And I still think it would have been appropriate, even dignified for the Herts Ad to have sponsored a seat.

Alpha fund - speeding up

2010-03-02T11:42:00.000-08:00

It's now 7.45 p.m. (by my watch - I can't understand where that 11.42 comes from) and we have £913 thousand on allaboutstalbans site yet the Herts Ad on line is saying £921 thousand...

all in the best cinematic tradition of course. Some of us haven't got any fingernails left.

Alpha fund now £911k

2010-03-02T00:59:00.000-08:00

....so £89,000 to go.

If a well heeled town like this can't turn its pockets out and find that by the end of the week then maybe we don't deserve a cinema. £89,000 wouldn't even buy a garden shed round some streets here.

What St Albans could do with is a few more risk taking citizens...then we wouldn't be in danger of becoming the indoorsy, sluggish dormitory we are horribly likely to turn into.

Alpha Picture Palace

2010-02-27T05:50:00.000-08:00

Drawing for the new entrance of the first Alpha...thanks to Tjitte de Vries and Ati Mul, international experts on Melbourne-Cooper's career, who would of course like to see a cinema back on this site....

Alpha..now £870,000

2010-02-27T04:16:00.000-08:00

see allaboutstalbans for more details....

but we can't really be pleased about the money. It's still not a million. It's March 1 on Monday. We're in debt to Wattsdown's patience as well & how long can that be expected to last?

Arthur Melbourne-Cooper puzzle - can you help?

2010-02-25T06:53:00.000-08:00

Is this church in St Albans or a nearby village? Do you know where? These are stills from a Melbourne-Cooper movie over which there is a scholarly dispute about directorship. If you can identify where it is the question will be solved...

Alpha cinema -the latest 25 February 2010

2010-02-25T06:19:00.000-08:00

total now £840,000...see Allaboutstalbans site for more detalis....

so if 150 people sponsor seats by tomorrow, or one wise donor/investor can come up with £150k, that'll be it. If not the alligator developers who are always prowling around St Albans will pounce and bingo...... goodbye cinema, goodbye precious piece of film history, goodbye to the idea that St Albans can ever act independently and have what its citizens want. And anyone who thinks that instead we will magically acquire a nice little multiplex without an associated scheme of nightmare proportions is naive beyond words.

This has been a long saga and some of us have the folders of notes from lengthy planning inquiries and associated letters to prove it. More than sad for the town if it has all been for nothing but another block of luxury flats.

Alpha cinema St Albans - latest total 24 Feb

2010-02-24T06:00:00.000-08:00

The money has now reached £814,000 - see allaboutstalbans for full facts and more from J Hannaway.

But even those of us with poor accounting skills can see this rate is not going to achieve £1 million by the end of the week. At least one can say all it will take now are 180 people to sponsor a seat but that's asking a lot in forty eight hours.

Good intentions and plans to send something next week are not enough. Do it now. Or the Alpha will be no more a reality than the poor old Doncaster Odeon...see the horrible story below......(St Albans the future, posted 2 February)

Alpha cinema 23 Feb.....

2010-02-23T01:34:00.000-08:00

Latest statement on allaboutstalbans from James Hannaway.

It's so simple: yes, loans and investments are more complicated, but to finish this deal it would only take 4 busloads of people to sponsor a seat......

just in terms of the local businesses and institutions who will benefit hugely from the regeneration of London Road, and who could now sponsor a seat, this form of donation must make sound sense.

Alpha cinema St Albans...four days left

2010-02-22T04:05:00.000-08:00

yes, four days...see the Review's piece for latest......

Alpha fund £800,000 & a week to go

2010-02-20T05:31:00.000-08:00

See allaboutstalbans for full facts and latest from James Hannaway.

200 people to sponsor seats @£1000 each needed. A thousand might seem a lot of money but it's what plenty of people spend on weekend breaks, or a new gadget they don't really need, or a party they live to regret having anyway. You could club together with friends to raise the money...

...because if we don't get this together by the end of the month then all those people who go around saying St Albans should have a cinema, and who haven't shared in this enormous local effort will know who to blame when the Odeon is lost...themselves, and their lack of courage and generosity.

Chris Adkins R.I.P.

2010-02-19T08:20:00.000-08:00

from the Herts Ad. 18 2 2010

the family of a St Albans man who died recently - Christopher Adkins - have asked for donations to the cinema fund instead of flowers at his funeral to be held on Wednesday.

Chris was a nice man who cared about St Albans. It would be good if there was enough for his name to be on one of the seats in the Alpha......

Alpha cinema St Albans - alternatives: a modest proposal

2010-02-18T06:04:00.001-08:00

Sadly the For Sale sign is back, relegating the Odeon from desired hot property to white elephant status once again.

Yet could it be we are being a little precious? For in truth St Albans is not short of cinemas locally – Hemel, Hatfield and, closest of all, Borehamwood – yes, Borehamwood, recently nationally noted as the home of the Jigsaw murderer. Borehamwood has a multiplex – click here for full details. Teen-attractive programmes, a cheerfully colourful foyer well served with drink machines etc. and reasonable prices. And it’s only 6 or 7 minutes away on the train, which you might remember is this blog’s recommended mode of travel. You could even combine your trip with a visit to the 24 hr Tesco’s not far down Shenley Road – also conveniently full of fast food outlets.

All this on our doorstep. Why on earth are some of us getting so worked up about a derelict art deco pile like the Odeon? Why in fact aren’t some of us detaching ourselves from sentiment about our house values, selling up and moving to Borehamwood so we and our families can become regular, happy members of the Reel’s audience?

Alpha cinema fund

2010-02-13T02:54:00.000-08:00

Latest total is £718 K. See Allboutstalbans

If only another 200 people would sponsor a seat..relative peanuts...that will be it more or less...

St Albans cinema rescue

2010-02-11T04:40:00.000-08:00

This is a picture of a bored eleven year old. It was a cold winter Sunday. The television had broken down and drawing pictures was not going to be enough for long enough. So we went and saw Big Foot and the Hendersons at the Odeon. Not a movie I'd make a huge effort to see again but it was entertaining enough to save the day. Not the only time the Odeon rescued anyone of course. I expect there are thousands of stories out there about the Odeon, or the Capitol as it was during WW2, rescuing people from boredom, depression, loneliness, anxiety.

Now, of course, the rescue is the other way round.....

Alpha fund rises

2010-02-11T01:12:00.000-08:00

Today (11 Feb) the total has reached £600k.plus. Statement from James Hannaway and facts as ever on allaboutstalbans.com as well as the Herts Ad's site.

St Albans Chamber of Commerce is also encouraging support.

Look out for leafleting in the market on Saturday and in the Farmers' market on Sunday. I hope all those nice people who take a leaflet, even in the snow, saying Yeah, I'll have a read, do...

the Alpha....getting the money there

2010-02-08T09:45:00.000-08:00

Total now more than £500,000. See allaboutstalbans.com for the latest figures.

Wrote another cheque, but thought I would take it over myself as it’d be quicker. Arrived at 12.45 at Watford Junction to find the Platform 8 waiting room contained fed up looking people and a computer screen listing nothing but delays and cancellations. Waiting there still was the 12.11 to Birmingham train full of passengers. Time passed. No trains went anywhere. The people on the train were told to get off – maybe a hundred of them who had got on at Euston expecting to be taken to Brum. They (especially the Americans ) were not happy. They all thundered off down the stairs with their little cases on wheels, and towards the nearest manager at the barriers. When I moaned to a member of staff he said it was taking a long time to fix because it depended on where they had to come from to fix it, as if all this were taking place in the Scottish Highlands. Well done, Network Rail.

Still it was easy for me. All I had to do was catch the next faithful Flyer back home, the only service at Watford junction which was working.

Posting my cheque in St Peter St I met a friend doing the same. He told me about the total going up to 500k+.

So that’s 2 lots of money, and probably lots more, on its way. What will be the total this time tomorrow? This is kind of exciting. Or it would be if so much didn’t rest on it. Today in the grey February sleet the Odeon looked particularly forlorn and vulnerable.

But at least it is still there. And the cash to rescue it is bubbling up like yeast.

Alpha cinema - St Albans Labour party gets it wrong

2010-02-07T09:41:00.000-08:00

2 extracts from a Labour party leaflet currently being circulated - under the heading Cinema News (sic)

...the current proposals for a single screen 'art house' cinema do not meet the needs of the city. They may delight the Civic Society, but will provide nothing for our young people or families who will still have to travel to Hatfield, Garston or Hemel to see the latest films.

and,

It is sad that inaction by the Lib-Dems lead(sic) to two schemes for a real city centre cinema with parking being lost.

Well, apart from pointing out that those 'cinemas' were rejected because of the horrendous developments they were part of, words, for once, almost fail me. Maybe people don't have enough reasons for not voting Labour this year (Iraq/the economy/avaricious M.P.s etc.). Oh why not add to the list by attacking the local desire to have our historic, purpose built cinema back. A master stroke of political strategy by Alma Rd H.Q..

the Alpha St Albans - eleventh hour facts

2010-02-07T09:21:00.001-08:00

statement as of today (7 2 010) now on Allaboutstalbans site.

You might need to flex your synapses a bit to alternate between the Hannawayese idioms and the financial facts - but in the end the gist is clear enough: there is still time to help.

Bear in mind - there will be '000's of people (not just here but in places like London Colney, Shenley, Borehamwood etc) who will enjoy going to the Alpha and who don't, and never will have, the resources to help with this effort. If those of us who can pay at this point don't then it's not just us who will be going without.

(Sorry this is just dull old text. I know a pic of a signed cheque wd be nice. Not yet though.)

Alpha leaflet campaign Sat 6 2 010

2010-02-06T01:51:00.000-08:00

Leafleting in St Albans market (near M&S) from 10.30 today ...see comment below from Sarah.

Anyone who wants to help now, or who would like to take leaflets to distribute elsewhere please just turn up...

Alpha cinema opportunities and audiences

2010-02-05T04:58:00.000-08:00

Satyajit Ray takes a shot

As we are all too painfully aware the battle to rescue the Odeon and reopen it as a Rex style working cinema has hit a nasty moment fundswise. But there are some who have been forecasting doom for the project from the outset. A minority, of course, but they do exist. One of them is the Picotts End Residents Association blog which said back in the autumn:

But St Albans isn't Berkhamsted. The Rex succeeded because it was a David and Goliath kind of battle which people in a small town greatly applauded. St Albans is more streetwise and chavvy than Berkhamsted.

My own Borehamwood ingrained instincts tell me that anyone who thinks St Albans is chavvy needs to get out more but maybe that’s how people in Berko and its environs see S.A. Certainly there are differences. S.A. is bigger, livelier, much more mixed in class/ethnicity/ and age groups. But surely this is not a drawback to having a successfully functioning cinema? Surely it offers all sorts of opportunities for ventures that the Rex, lovely though it is, could never stretch to. The Alpha could for example host short film festivals for the culturally diverse audience it will command - for example festivals of Italian, Bengali, Irish and Polish interest. S.A. is not short of teenagers who would be game for all sorts of programming, with or without 3D spex. Older people in S.A. tend to the media/bohemian far more than in the Rex's own audience. No offence meant, Berko, but anything the Rex can do, the Alpha could do with more risk and boldness. Streetwise and chavvy it may be here, but since when did that ever mean a lack of life – or people willing to buy a cinema ticket??

Alpha St Albans Civic Society leaflet campaign

2010-02-03T02:55:00.000-08:00

This is currently being distributed to help the fund raising bid...just in case you're not lucky enough to get one pushed through your door here's the text in full......

CINEMA IN ST ALBANS: ODEON TO ALPHA
FEBRUARY 2010 CUE ACTION NOW!

Wouldn’t it be nice to have The Odeon back again?
Wouldn’t it be lovely if it were just like The Rex in Berkhamsted?
IF YOU’VE EVER SAID THIS, THEN NOW IS THE TIME TO ACT
With days to go before exchange and completion, James Hannaway, the would-be buyer of this Art Deco building, urgently needs your help. Forget any assumptions about backers waiting in the wings: we are where we are.

WHAT YOU CAN DO

• If you attended that packed meeting at The Rex on 29 November and made a financial offer you have yet to fulfill, PLEASE DO SO NOW.
• If you were thinking of making a contribution, think no more: ACT.
• Visit the website www.allaboutstalbans.com which is being used as well as that of The Rex for regular updates and for full details of the money-raising schemes on offer (brief details below).

HOW YOU CAN HELP

• For £285, sign up for first year membership of the Advanced Booking List at the restored Odeon – possible name Alpha, after the original cinema to operate on this site.
• For £1,000, sponsor a chair with your name recorded in perpetuity.
• For undying gratitude, give a donation – of any size.
• For even more gratitude, offer a loan of £2,500 upwards. Read more about this on the websites, or contact James Hannaway direct at The Rex on 01442 877999.
• Make your cheque payable to The Alpha Cinema Ltd/The Alpha
St Albans Ltd, and send, giving name, address, tel. no. and email, making clear the appropriate category, to The Alpha St Albans, The Rex Cinema, Three Close Lane, High Street, Berkhamsted HP4 2FG.

JAMES HANNAWAY IS ALMOST CERTAINLY OUR LAST HOPE
OF SAVING AND RESTORING THIS BUILDING
LET’S SUPPORT HIM NOW

Published by St Albans Civic Society - 01727 834113

Alpha cinema St Albans loan from Civic Society

2010-02-02T05:59:00.000-08:00

see the St Albans Review for details on one positive story so far this week. Text of their press release here too:

ST ALBANS CIVIC SOCIETY

PRESS RELEASE 1 February 2010

Civic Society Lends Its Support to James Hannaway

At an emergency meeting held tonight, the committee of St Albans Civic Society unanimously agreed to help James Hannaway secure The Odeon building by making a loan of £2,500 available, subject to necessary checks arising from ITS charitable status. This represents almost a third of the Society’s funds.
Here, in no particular order, are the reasons why we believe The Odeon matters.
1 It’s a landmark building on a gateway route. Restoration here would mean regeneration for the whole area – which sorely needs it.
2 St Albans has few examples of Art Deco architecture: this is one of them.
3 It’s built on the site of The Alpha Picture Palace, the county’s first purpose-built cinema opened in 1908 by Arthur Melbourne –Cooper, the UK film pioneer, whose importance to St Albans’ heritage is recognised on the continent – if not by our own District Council. And in an elegant compliment to this local celebrity, The Alpha it may very well become …
4 We need a cinema – and a cinema for everyone with a wide-ranging programme, like The Rex. And why not a beautiful cinema too?
James Hannaway is almost certainly our last hope of saving and restoring this important building. He deserves all the support he can get.
Further Information: Marion Hammant
01727 834113
marionhammant@hotmail.co.uk

St Albans cinema - the future?

2010-02-02T02:45:00.000-08:00

this is what will happen if the Odeon is not bought and rescued. When people talk about the cinema 'being in doubt' this is what that actually means - these are pictures of the recently demolished Odeon in Doncaster and how it used to be. And a
drawing of the architectural gem offered as its replacement.

And are the people of Doncaster happy about this? Won't they love the new shopping precinct and casino they're going to get?Maybe not- see the Doncaster Free Press

Alpha/Odeon cinema St Albans - invest and rescue

2010-01-31T05:37:00.000-08:00

A week to go on the Odeon sale and a lot more £££ is needed. See allaboutstalbans for details.

What would most help? Loans. If you are a company/individual with the wherewithal please think about making a loan; after all interest rates elsewhere are hardly rivals for your money. Invest in the Alpha and be part of a great project. Art Deco cinemas all over the U.k. are being razed to the ground (see Independent on Sunday 31.1.2010)...but there is still (just) a chance for you to help save this one. In the end you'll get your money back with %. And you'd have done something so worthwhile.

And as encouragement two ( small, I'm afraid) pics of the Odeon in happier times...

Alpha latest news

2010-01-29T02:01:00.000-08:00

For another counterweight to the Herts Ad coverage read the latest, including a statement from James Hannaway on Allboutst albans

St Albans cinema cash shortfall Herts Advertiser 28 January 2010

2010-01-28T09:03:00.000-08:00

Local residents have probably by now seen the pessimistic and scaremongering front page story in today’s Herts Advertiser, about how the Rex bid to raise £1 million to buy the Odeon has only reached £100,00 in hard cash, with two weeks to go to exchanging contracts.

Why oh why don’t people realise that ‘campaigning’ often means parting with money i.e. writing a cheque for a substantial sum; there usually comes a point where yet more hot air and a well intentioned fiver don't cut it.

It would be nice to see the Herts Ad and Archant Regional, its parent group, part with a few thousand for the Odeon, an issue which they’ve used so frequently recently to bolster local interest in their paper. Similarly St Albans Civic Society could do something constructive …maybe a sponsored chair or a loan.

You can’t have it both ways, guys – you can’t undermine a rescue attempt you haven’t really tried to help.

Money for St Albans Alpha

2010-01-27T09:48:00.000-08:00

There's not much time before contracts are due to be exchanged...see All About St Albans for details of how to contribute, including info. on the new 5 yr ABL's.

Alpha cinema St Albans (& its ABL)

2010-01-18T05:45:00.000-08:00

Have just had an e mail (along with 999 other people I assume) to say I'm on this. This is a scheme Arthur M-C. would have admired I guess - a way of lining up customers and loyalty in one early swoop. According to the Herts Ad the money is rolling in for the Alpha. I hope somewhere some workshop is already taking an order for the neon letters A..L etc

Below is an early draft of a piece on the original Alpha which appeared in the H.A. over New Year. How good to welcome it back...two world wars, a cold war and a million movies later....

Feted in Europe, forgotten in St Albans

Arthur Melbourne-Cooper, 1874-1961, film pioneer and St Albans resident.

On Tuesday the 15 December the University of Amsterdam Press together with the Netherlands Filmmuseum will publish They Thought It Was a Marvel, a 6oo page book by Tjitte de Vries and Ati Mul, on the early animation films of Arthur Melbourne-Cooper, local film pioneer. The book, product of many years of research, much of it in St Albans, is about the animation films made by Melbourne-Cooper at his Alpha studio, some in the basement of the Alpha Picture Palace in London Road, the site of the present Odeon. The Odeon we were going to tear down and replace with a block of flats.
Melbourne-Cooper, born and bred in St Albans, was the son of a local photographer. The family lived at 99 London Road (now the Esso garage). Arthur, presumably having learned the basics of the trade from his father, became assistant to an American, Birt Acres, who had a studio in Barnet, and now was by the 1890’s making short films of current news and educational interest. But Melbourne-Cooper seems quickly to have realised the dramatic and narrative opportunities offered by the new medium. In his early twenties he showed his first programmes round village halls in Hertfordshire, taking his equipment by horse and cart. Cooper would pick six boys of suitable size and weight, and sit them on the gas bags to compress the gas supply which lit the projector, as they watched the films in the no doubt crowded and smoky halls. (So much for Health and Safety.) He then set up the 2 acre Alpha studio on land in Alma Road. There is now a plaque there on Telford Court, put up by the British Film Institute.
With the money he made he was able by 1908 to rent from Bennetts, a family of local builders, the St Albans Poly, a recreational building just opposite in London Road, the site of the Odeon. He converted this into his revolutionary concept of showing film. The feature which most caused interest was that the most expensive seats were at the back. It was only experience that convinced audiences that this was the best way to see a film. But the Alpha was not just a picture palace. While outdoor film making continued in Alma Road the basement of the Alpha was a state of the art indoor studio. In 1909 the Herts Ad sent a journalist to interview Melbourne-Cooper about the mysteries of this new art industry. He seems to have been a generous and confident interviewee - ‘There are no secrets in our business,’ he declared, before a tour of the studio fitted by Messrs Tilley and Gitten with exceptionally powerful Davy photographic electric arc lamps, a current of about 200 amps, capable of giving a candlepower of about 700,000 candles. It is here, with professional working London actors, Melbourne-Cooper made films and the animations which are the subject of Mr de Vries’ book.
But maybe for us what is most touching is the Alpha Picture Palace itself described in the magazine the Bioscope at the time as ‘the favourite place of amusement of the district’. Every week the Herts Ad carried large ads for the Alpha. In January 1909 it promises 2 performances nightly at 7 and 9 with seats at 2d, 3d, 6d. There was also the Palace Lounge open to the public from12 to 10 30 pm. On January 23 the Alpha was showing a film of the great Sicilian earthquake ‘the only picture showing the burning of Messina town hall and the king of Italy officially attending the wounded.’ There must have been some controversy about the veracity of this early disaster/news coverage because on February 6 the ad reads ‘This picture is NOT fake - was photographed by A.West of our Navy’ ( so must have been all right then). By February 6 the ads carry a telephone number for the first time ‘call 152 St Albans to book’ So much, so fast. Electricity. Moving pictures. Telephones.
But the Alpha was not just a for profit organisation. It did charity shows – on February 15 1909 it put on a special matinee in aid of the Police Orphan Fund. It also realised its best audience was the young. Later the same year it has started a special children’s matinee on Saturdays for ½ d. Was this how Saturday morning pictures, that much loved institution, began?
In May the bill has become far more ambitious: The Last Days of Pompeii( a most marvellous and sensational picture) plus Oliver Cromwell (artistically coloured) and, possibly the most successful venture of all, the 1909 Cup Tie final when Man United played Bristol City (1nil to Man U. if you must know).The ad finishes

Don’t miss this Bumping programme
BOOK YOUR SEAT TO AVOID DISAPPOINTMENT.

In the summer of 1909 (with electric fans and cycle storage offered) there is on the bill Suffragette wants a husband. And in 1910 there is a special bound programme for Ramona, made by D.W. Griffith in California ( maybe the first Hollywood blockbuster ever for St Albans ) a story of the white man’s injustice to the Indian. It gives a full synopsis of the film’s story but no mention of the director or its star, Mary Pickford. And for this there was a special no-smoking matinee every Thursday at 3.
But sadly, as for many pioneers, Melbourne-Cooper’s boldness out-stripped his resources. He built another cinema in Letchworth. But unlike the worldly, sociable citizens of St Albans who knew a good thing when it was offered to them, the church- going population of Letchworth did not take to the movies. Melbourne-Cooper fell into financial trouble. The Alpha went to other owners, was renamed, burnt down, was rebuilt, and entertained St Albans until shut down in 1995. Much of the credit for Melbourne-Cooper’s work was given to others and it is only thanks to the efforts of his daughter Audrey Wadowska and to the de Vries’s, that we see him start to get some of the acclaim he deserves.
You can buy They Thought it was a Marvel (Eu 39.50 - e mail via www.aup.nl) or you can support James Hannaway’s bid to buy and rescue the Odeon ( e-mail the rexberkhamsted@hotmail.co.uk). Do both. And when eventually (we hope) you do stroll down London Road to take your seat in the back seat of our new cinema remember the people of St Albans who flocked there in the early years of the terrible twentieth century to be enthralled and informed, and also Melbourne- Cooper’s clever, ground-breaking films, made there in the basement studio, which are amongst the earliest ever made. And just be glad it’s not a block of flats.

With thanks and acknowledgments to Tjitte de Vries and Ati Mul

the Alpha St Albans..cheques for ABL now

2010-01-07T02:44:00.000-08:00

Latest news from All about St Albans site

In January 2010, James Hannaway, CEO of The Rex Cinema in Berkhamsted told us that the structural survey had been successfully completed and that contracts are due to be exchanged in early February.
James also made the following statement:
"Thank you for your commitment towards the restoration of the Odeon on London Rd. Please send cheques only at this early stage*. Other methods of payment (BACS, standing orders etc) will be available soon.
ABL (Advanced Booking List) Membership: £285 limited to first 1000 names.
Sponsor a seat/chair: £1,000 each, limited to the first 500 sponsors.
Donations: to kick start the project you can give as little or as much as you like. Please indicate how much (this option is included by request).
Sponsoring other things: The screen, projectors, sound system, lighting and digital equipment will be offered later in January, alongside the other essentials: carpets, curtains and box office systems etc. Please ask about this.
Please make cheques payable to The Alpha St Albans Ltd and send them to:-
The Rex Cinema, High St, (Three Close Lane), Berkhamsted, HP4 2FG

This is a new bank account to raise funds exclusively for the purchase and restoration of the old Odeon, London Rd (originally named THE ALPHA c1920s, thus the name on the company bank account)

Doors and the Odeon 6 1 2010

2010-01-06T04:11:00.000-08:00

the present front door - grim black hardboard with a miserably symbolic padlock. Often covered with posters advertising some esoteric music event or other. The day this horrible door goes, to be replaced by the appropriate sparkling glass and chrome will be the day we'll know the cinema is really back

Above - one of the doors to the back staircase opening on to London Road.In 1964/5 some of my school friends travelled from Finchley to see the Rolling Stones play here. They then hung around on the back stairs hoping for who knows what to happen.
Brian Jones came out and threw a fire bucket of sand over them. They were thrilled, of course.

Above that, is the back door by the steps, seen here in atmospheric dobby snow. For me this has more urban bauhaus glamour than the others. Maybe it's the pipework. Also fondly remembered as the door by which some of us used to slip out, thus avoiding the crowd and getting home in moments.

Top, the Doors movie - which played to a thronged Odeon in 1991. All us locals have long lists of films seen and enjoyed here, but not all of them had music as good as this.

London rd near the Odeon 6 January 2010

2010-01-06T03:48:00.000-08:00

Usually London Road can see off snow- the volume of traffic just hammers it out of existence. But not this morning. At ten the snow was definitely winning, especially up at the Peahen for the driver of a black Audi trying to turn down Holywell Hill.

Bleak as it is, doesn't it remind you of how nice it is to go to the cinema on a snowy afternoon...

More snow 6 January 2010

2010-01-06T03:39:00.000-08:00

The Odeon and the steps in (even more, better) snow. Using these steps in such weather takes nerve. Long ago someone ( a neighbour I suspect, not the council) used to scatter ashes on the steps so no-one coming home from the station or the Great Northern, or the pictures, would break their neck. Not now. We just have to be very careful.

the Odeon car park 11 20 am Tues 29 Dec 2009

2009-12-29T04:26:00.000-08:00

Dull as it looks, this is the only thorny issue connected with the restoration of the Odeon. The chunk of land shown here was not always a van hire park. It belonged to the Odeon and, as you can see, provided plenty of space.

The developer sold it to Tesco. Presumably Tesco (in fit of discovering that it had to stop the rot of London Road caused by its acquisition of so much land and property it had no intention of using) recently leased it out to the van hire firm. No disagreement with that. But one wonders what will happen in a couple of years time. How long a lease has the van hire company? No-one there today to ask.

Or, more challengingly, what is Tesco up to? Will there be another head banging attempt to get planning permission for a superstore nobody wants? Now they are going into the old Woolworth’s in St Peter St maybe not. Maybe they’ll try to build a smaller Tesco down here with some housing…and as a sweetener offer a deal to let the Odeon have some parking space? Or maybe they’ll give up and disappear from London Road. And sell the car park back to the Odeon.

Mmmm, the possibilities are endless. One has trouble picking the likeliest outcome. But what we down here do know is that there isn’t any parking space in the little streets round the Odeon. Ok for us who live here because we’ll just walk. Lots of other people could just walk too. Or get the train. Or bus. But they won’t, will they? They’ll expect to drive here. And they then won’t want to walk the five minutes down from the public car parks slightly up London Road. They will want this car park back.

Don’t actually think anything will make St Albans change its mind about Tesco moving into London Road. Nothing…not even selling the car park back to the Odeon.. is going to achieve that. Maybe out of spite they will sell it to someone else. Then all those people from Harpenden with three kids and a 4 x 4 who’ll want to park near the Odeon will be cramming into Paxton Rd. They won’t be popular either. And the Odeon won’t be popular for leading to such a pass.

It looks insoluble. But maybe it isn’t.

U.K's oldest working cinema?

2009-12-28T02:58:00.001-08:00

it could have been us but it's the Electric cinema in Birmingham..go to the BBC news site to see it....& links to news of other deco working cinemas.

St Albans Odeon - the roof still with snow on it, Christmas Day 10 am.

2009-12-25T02:40:00.000-08:00

7 or 8 hours too late, sadly, for a shot of Father Christmas and the reindeer parking up there for a brief rest and to admire the Abbey...the reindeer love the view from here and Father C. always gives up at this point along London Road (like lots of people) to have a quick look at his map - the little streets round the Hare and Hounds always defeat his memory.

Arthur Melbourne-Cooper: the cinema show at Ridge, this day in 1895

2009-12-18T02:21:00.000-08:00

On this day in 1895 Arthur Melbourne–Cooper, still only twenty one years old, put his projector and equipment onto a cart and set off for Ridge village hall. It was probably getting dark, the weather might well have been as cold and wintry as today’s and the horse or pony had a fair way to pull it all…eight miles or so, maybe round the back lanes through Cottonmill to Napsbury and then up the long drag of Black Lion Hill to Shenley and then along the lanes shown in these images.

The audience, who had paid, maybe only a penny or two, must have been excited about this holiday treat. So amazing did it prove to be that some of them when interviewed in the 1960’s still talked of how wonderful it had been to see moving pictures for the very first time. The title of Tjitte de Vries’s book is from what one of them said..it was a marvel to see even the leaves on the trees moving. All of them , even the little ones, the shiny-eyed five and six year olds in the front row, are dead now, but there is a direct line of enchantment between them and their Christmas evening of moving pictures that night in the village hall, and us and our never exhausted love of film. We inherit their pleasure and excitement every time the credits roll up and the first shots of a movie take us up into its world. Did Arthur Melbourne-Cooper, as he and the cold, tired horse plodded back to St Albans, have any idea of what they’d started?

St Albans Odeon in the snow 7 30 a.m.18 12 09

2009-12-18T02:04:00.000-08:00

these weren't mean to be moving images...so cold I had the camera accidentally on the wrong button. Never mind..it gives some sense of what it was like I suppose

Notice the pigeons are back..all clustered on the front looking glumly down into the garage forecourt...in the hope someone will throw away the remnants of an early morning bun or bar of chocolate.t

The Odeon 8 a.m. 17 December 2009 - so cold my camera fingers got frostbite

2009-12-17T05:37:00.000-08:00

Notice, at the junction with Alma Road, the rare sighting of an early morning 84 from Barnet, a bus route with a history as long and chequered as the Odeon - probably the way many people came in the 20th. century to reach the Odeon, their nearest cinema.

If you simply want to give money to the Odeon Rescue bid you might find this helpful:

2009-12-17T05:34:00.000-08:00

Extract from e mail from James Hannaway of the Rex

DONATIONS (This category is included by request)

Already, before and after the meeting on Sunday 29th November, people have asked how they can simply offer cash to get it moving. Weeks ago a woman asked at the Rex box office, if she could set up a monthly direct debit of £20 until St Albans was up and showing films again! In just two weeks the Donations tick box has already registered 133 names! Overwhelming, heartwarming and extraordinary, it is beyond thanks. Thank you all the same. However, you must not send anything just yet.

Such is the faith in a new cinema from the dust of the old (and even before making anything clear) we have received a number of cheques, one for £5! Before you pledge anything, proper things need to be in place. Therefore, following this please just send your Name, address and/or email (those who have already ticked the Donations box are now registered and on our database, so you should NOT send again).

Donations are the unexpected icing. Of all things, they show a different kind of thinking. While such open gestures of trust and hope do not diminish the leaps of faith in all the other departments, they are a different kind of leap. Made by people who want nothing in return but to see a cinema back in the City Centre, where it belongs; alive and thriving once more after fifteen wasted years.

While I thank you for this best of all no-strings money, I urge you not to give anything you haven't got. It is not a charity, it is a business, albeit not driven by profit, if it works it will make one. It is a limited company and a business all the same.

NB. If you don't mind, we will keep those cheques already sent (no more, please). They will never be cashed. Instead they will form part of an archive to be treasured as the first leaps of faith. We will ask you to write new ones when the time is right.

2009-12-15T07:54:00.000-08:00

They Thought it was a Marvel Tjitte de Vries and Ati Mul

a 600 word page book about the animation films made by Arthur Melbourne-Cooper who owned the first cinema on the Odeon site is being published TODAY in the Netherlands by the University of Amsterdam Press with the Netherlands Filmmuseum .

These are the first animated movies ever made & they were made in St Albans.....read all about the pioneering work of Arthur Melbourne-Cooper, seen here with his daughter Audrey Wadowska. Order your copy from the University of Amsterdam' Press website (www.aup.nl) Eu 39.50 ISBN 97896085550167

2009-12-15T07:49:00.000-08:00

Latest info on how to be part of the Odeon rescue bid

contacttherexberkhamsted.com for the latest information on financial strategies

2009-12-08T12:07:00.000-08:00

The Rex

there to see Bright Star. At least I got a ticket for this which is more than I managed with Coco before Chanel, inexplicably totally booked including matinees. I'd have expected Chanel to draw crowds in London but Berkhamsted? Anyway B. Star is as sad and lovely a movie as anyone could wish for. And here are some shots of the Rex exuding the poised glamour of a ceaselessy busy cinema. One day ( we hope) the Odeon will be as well cared for. Notice the roses on the balcony. Find me a multiplex that would do that.

The railway is the station at Berko just to prove that such jaunts can be done from here on public transport (Flyer to Watford, then trains to B. run every ten minutes) Not possible for evening shows though because, quaintly, the Flyer doesn't run late i.e. after half nine.

2009-12-04T06:21:00.000-08:00

London Road at eight forty five a.m Friday 4 December...

with true art deco panache the Odeon is right in the path of the rising sun - seen here as everyone is trekking off to school and work in St Albans. And looking up the other way the ghost of beautiful winter moon. What a great site for a cinema. We owe a combination of thanks to Thomas Telford for his bold sweep of road and to Melbourne Cooper for seeing the possibilities of what was probably then just a patch of steep scrub alongside the footpath down towards the river.

2009-12-03T05:19:00.001-08:00

It's not only us human beings who have been fighting over the Odeon....for many years a colony of crows roosted happily on the apex of the roof. Recently their numbers have reduced....presumably because the insect suppy up there has diminished. Today a group of pigeons seemed to be making a claim to the territory; after all it's the best perch in the area. But two survivors of the crow colony saw them off. If you click on these images you' ll see them just before the stand off...