AT LAST WENT TO THE PICTURES IN ST ALBANS IN OUR OWN LOVELY CINEMA ..and it was great. Just as it must have been when it was first built - only glossier and safer and more comfortable. A* for glamour atmosphere technical quality. I am going to use a phrase I have used about twice in my life..a dream come true. I thought we would only get the Odeon back if the mighty Fairy of Cinema herself came and liberally sprinkled London Road with magic technicolour dust and waved her wand. Well I suppose she must have done because here it is. This is a shot of the opening of Singing in the Rain last night..the green light to the left is one of the emergency doors of course..the one into dear old Lower Paxton Rd.

And now this blog is finally signing off. Go and see something there yourself. Thanks to everyone who got involved and helped and parted with money..and let's hope S.A. council the Labour party and other not very involved lobbies have learnt a lesson.

YAYYY.....HURRAH.....AT LAST..... it's open..and a moon over the steps for

good luck

New website for insider pix of odeon restoration

.....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

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

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 -

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

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

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. )

St Albans Odyssey; work gathers pace

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

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

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

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

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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

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

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

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

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

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