Bradford Odeon
Bradford Odeon is the name applied to two different cinemas in central Bradford, West Yorkshire, England. One was built in 1930 and survives; the other was built in 1938 and demolished in 1969. Neither should be confused with the Odeon Leeds-Bradford, which is a multiplex 3 miles (5 km) away at Thornbury, West Yorkshire, midway between Bradford and Pudsey.
The first building is in Godwin Street and was completed in 1930 as the New Victoria. It is on the site of William Whittaker's brewery and malting, which had closed in 1928. It is a Renaissance Revival building designed by the architect William Illingworth, with copper-covered cupolas on two corners complementing those on the neighbouring Bradford Alhambra theatre. The New Victoria combined a 3,318-seat auditorium, 450 square feet (42 m2) ballroom and 200-seat restaurant. The auditorium was primarily a cinema, but also a concert and ballet venue with a stage, orchestra pit, Wurlitzer organ and excellent acoustics.
As a cinema it was the third largest in Britain when it opened, with only the Trocadero at Elephant and Castle and Davis Theatre at Croydon being larger. By 1930 cinemas had converted to screen sound pictures, which had been introduced in 1927, but the New Victoria was the first cinema in Britain to be purpose-built for "talkies". It was built at a cost of £250,000 for Provincial Cinematograph Theatres, backed by the Gaumont British Picture Corporation. In 1950 the complex was renamed the Gaumont, in 1968 it was sold to Odeon Cinemas, and that November it closed for nine months.
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