One of Britain’s best-loved cinema chains has announced plans to close five branches in coming weeks.
Odeon cinemas states it has taken the decision ‘after a thorough assessment of all available options
The company says that five branches will be closing on June 5, including Magdalen Street, Oxford; Rigby Road, Blackpool; Weston-super-mare; Ayr and Banbury.
An Odeon spokesman said: ‘We have made the very difficult decision to close a small number of our cinemas.
‘We know this will be disappointing news for our guests and we apologise for any inconvenience caused.
‘We would like to thank them for their choosing Odeon to enjoy the magic of cinema.
Odeon cinemas says it has taken a ‘difficult decision’ to close five of its branches in the coming weeks
‘Looking after our people is our number one priority and we are looking to secure jobs for as many team members as possible in one of our 116 other cinemas across the UK and Ireland.’
Already a petition has been launched to save the branch in Ayr, attracting over 700 signatures.
Petition organiser Lynda Hind said the building, which opened in 1938, is the last purpose-built art deco cinema in Scotland, ‘with only six other examples in Britain’.
She stated: ‘Ayr will be left with yet another empty high street building due to the closing of the Odeon cinema on June 5, due to the venue no longer being viable to run.
‘Losing this cinema will not only be another blow to our dying high street, but to the architecture and history of film… With less than a month until closure, Ayr should do all it can to keep one of its last remaining high street attractions.’
The 1,000-seater Odeon building in Magdalen Street, Oxford, is Grade II-listed and was built by famed theatre constructors Frank Matcham & Company.
Its first showing was the silent film The Four Horsemen and the Apocalypse on January 1, 1924, the BBC reports.
Screenwriter Frank Connelly worked at the venue in the 1990s and credits his career to a chance encounter with an editor of Orbit magazine in the building’s foyer.
He said: ‘That cinema – it was like magic. It was like stepping into another world, the music playing before the film, the beautiful raised curtains. Everything felt like an event.’
