“Many hold the Odeon in considerable affection, but virtually nothing of it, except the decaying outer shell, remains. The building has lain empty for four years. Is it not time to keep the good memories and move on?”
Maud Marshall, Chief Executive, Bradford Centre Regeneration, 2004.
Taken from the February edition of The Trumpit and coinciding with BBC Look North’s piece on progress to date – see here – which suggests old Maud may have been telling porkies.
It was only when I read an article in Private Eye back in 2012 that I became fully aware of the long battle to save what most in Bradford know as The Odeon, a name that does little justice to a building referred to in a recent television documentary as The Palace of Dreams. The wrecking balls, primed by both those in office and others with less altruistic ambitions, had hovered for years. This will come as no surprise to Bradfordians, weary of inept councillors, drip fed pie in the sky proposals for decades as numerous consultants cashed in and fled.
The Odeon, originally the New Victoria, was built in 1930; the red-brick theatre and cinema claimed to be the third-largest auditorium in England. Designed by the prominent Bradfordian pre-war architect Alderman William Illingworth, the twin-domed structure boasted an Italian renaissance interior design. If any building could, it reflected Bradford’s journey from rags to riches to rags.
The Beatles performed there twice; other names included Bill Haley and the Comets, Buddy Holly and the Rolling Stones. It was the first in the country to be fitted with Cinemascope in 1954; in 1969 it was split into Odeon 1 and 2 and in 1988 the magnificent ballroom was converted into the Odeon 3. By now, due largely to changing times, its glory days were long gone and in 1997 owners Top Rank Bingo ceased trading with the closure of the cinema following in 2000.
Left abandoned it was not until 2003 it passed into public ownership and the hands of the now defunct quango, Yorkshire Forward (YF). The future looked bleak despite a consultation exercise, carried out in 2004 after the Bradford Centre Regeneration (BCR) Master plan was unveiled. It found that the future of the Odeon was top of people’s concerns.
Maud Marshall, BCR Chief Executive, said its future was being reconsidered in the light of demands for it to be retained alongside the City Park plan. This was a ridiculous scaled up Legoland produced by Alsop architects (who also produced a plan for Barnsley as the Tuscany of the North) funded by Yorkshire Forward and Bradford Council.
“Bradford lends itself to a completely different kind of approach – not only do people generally like open space and water, it pushes up property values dramatically” gushed Marshall. “We would be very respectful of the city’s architectural heritage. People in the city…want to see modern architecture sitting alongside Bradford’s architectural heritage.”
Bradford was once full of stunning Victorian architecture but the wanton destruction and the ugly concrete blocks built only to be flattened to make way for the Broadway shopping centre still make those old enough shake heads in dismay. Marshall eventually got her pond at a cost of £30m but with little sign of any property boom flowing. In the background a tireless campaign to save the building included numerous groups united by a passion for the building and what it meant to the city, refused to see another part of our heritage flattened.
Despite the words of Marshall, those in control seemed hell bent on demolition. A torrent of misinformation and dirty tricks ensued culminating in actual physical vandalism to hasten the buildings decline. As Private Eye wrote, referring to Yorkshire Forward: “This quango claimed the cinema was beyond saving and demonstrated that by cutting water pipes in the building, further wrecking the interior…”
In 2005, a report by structural engineers Arup, instigated by YF/BCR, concluded the only options were to demolish the whole building or demolish most of it and keep only the facade. Once again Marshall assured us: “As a result of what we have learned…we have decided to take further soundings from the people of Bradford.”
This was bluster with a competition announced soon after for a structure to replace the Odeon, deal done whatever the public sound bites offered by Marshall and the Council. Things then took several twists.
In 2006 plans to revamp the city’s St George’s concert hall were revealed. Private Eye claimed this explained the consistent opposition towards the campaign to save the Odeon site from local paper, the Telegraph & Argus (T&A), which could have benefited from an extension to the St George’s site via its adjacent, redundant press halls. Numerous articles from the T&A suggested its editorial lacked balance but, notably, its correspondent, Mike Priestley, remained consistently opposed to the demolition plans. “The people who are now deciding the way forward for this city are pursuing their visions without much in the way of genuine consultation with those who live here.”
Meanwhile, Leeds was on with plans to build an arena much needed to attract larger events away from Sheffield and Manchester as Bradford dithered. St George’s would eventually be refurbished a cost of almost £10m by the Council and is due to open mid 2019. The T&A’s redundant building remains empty.
The winning plan for Marshall’s competition – conducted under near Third World ballot conditions – was announced by developers Langtree Artisan Ltd and Carey Jones Architects including a hotel, restaurants and galleries with Bradford College moving some of its activities to the New Victoria Place development. Deal done and dusted and surely bad news for the twin towers?
As we all know it never happened with another master plan for the bin labelled “Bradford”. All the main parties behind New Victoria place have either gone bust or been dismantled and Marshall is nowhere to be seen as the twin towers stood defiant. Interestingly, in the period 2003-09, BCR spent over £35m of public money including £536,000 to allow delegates from Bradford to make four successive trips to the MIPIM property conference in Cannes.
The building was eventually off-loaded to the Council with Government money to make good the internal vandalism carried out by…Government money! There then followed a long battle to determine a future use for the building culminating in the successful bid by Bradford Live to restore the building to a live music and entertainments venue to be operated by the industry leader NEC Events.
Due to open in 2020, there remain many doom mongers who doubt anything good can come of our city. It is to the enormous credit of the many individuals who fought so long and hard against a campaign of publicly funded misinformation that the building now looks to an exciting future. This building has the power to transform the city centre.
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