Odeon Leicester Square. Architectural Review (003) by Harry John Wallis
I sense a dangerous shift in attitudes to conservation within the Westminster City Council lately. Some sort of epidemic architectural lunacy must have taken hold within the ranks of the officials and bureaucrats for them to make a decision so incomprehensibly stupid that in several hours of browsing I am yet to discover a single positive article on the new development that has been approved to replace an original 1930's cinema.
The Odeon West End (Leicester Square Theatre as it was known until 1988) was built primarily for Jack Buchanan, and after changing hands countless times in the past it was finally given over to the Radisson Edwardian hotel company in 2012. Their planning application to have the cinematic gem destroyed and replaced with a tasteless ‘anywhere’ building was shockingly approved by Westminster Council recently. What strikes me as odd about this is that, unlike other London boroughs, Westminster has always been very conservative towards development. You could probably count on one hand the instances where a pre-war building has been demolished in the past decade for modern developments. This is in stark contrast to the money-hungry lunatics sitting in Guildhall who would demolish Jerusalem if they thought they could earn more money out of it. My point is why the sudden shift towards approving developments blatantly aimed at destroying buildings of heritage? My guess is that, like Guildhall, they have realised that handing heritage assets over to developers for commercial and retail projects equals one hell of a big paycheck for them. And that is the crime here, rather than putting the heritage of London at the forefront of their concerns, they have opted instead to line their own pockets.
The whole thing brings back connotations of Odeon Marble Arch; a beautiful cinema with a Portland Stone facade that was demolished in 1964 simply because it‘s attendance had fallen. It was replaced with a vile office block and concrete cinema that a mere 50 years later is due for demolition again (like so many other 60’s “masterpieces”) so it can be redeveloped. The lesson to be learned with Odeon Marble Arch and, soon, Odeon Leicester Square is that once history is gone, all the money in the world cannot bring it back. Westminster Council may think themselves terribly clever for inviting a new money-making scheme to replace an old 1930's block, but their disregard for a building that has survived the Second World War will only see them reviled by architectural conservationists in the future.
On a positive note, I am glad to see 48 Leicester Square being redeveloped properly. The retention of the facade amongst other things means that whilst the heritage of the building survives, internally it can be renovated and redesigned to boost it’s commercial capabilities. I only wish that Edwardian Group would follow this example: retain the facade, and replace the insides. That way you get a win-win situation. You get to keep the historic character and charm of the building, AND you get more money from the rejuvenated stores/shops inside. Unfortunately, reasoning is likely to fall on deaf ears when developers smell money. Such a shame.
By Harry John Wallis, Tuesday 19th of May 2015
