Odeon Leicester Square

The Odeon Leicester Square is a cinema which occupies the centre of the eastern side of Leicester Square, London, dominating the Square with its huge black polished granite facade and 120 feet high tower displaying its name. Blue neon outlines the exterior of the building at night, making a dramatic presence on the West End. It was built in 1937 on the site of the Alhambra Theatre, a large music hall dating from the 1850s. It is the venue for most European premieres of movies in London. Leicester Square at night in 2005: a view towards the northeast corner. ... This article is about the capital of England and the United Kingdom. ... Close-up of granite from Yosemite National Park, valley of the Merced River Quarrying granite for the Mormon Temple, Utah Territory. ... West facade of the Notre-Dame de Strasbourg Cathedral A facade (or façade) (Pronounced fa-sa-de) is generally the exterior of a building — especially the front, but also sometimes the sides and rear. ... Neon signs are often used to advertise for hotels, bars and entertainment venues. ... West End theatre is a popular term for mainstream professional theatre in London, or sometimes more specifically for shows staged in the large theatres of Londons Theatreland. Along with New Yorks Broadway theatre, West End theatre is usually considered to represent the highest level of commercial theatre in... In 1874 Leicester Square was dominated by Londons Alhambra Theatre. ... Music Hall is a form of British theatrical entertainment which reached its peak of popularity between 1850 and 1960. ...

It is the largest cinema in the United Kingdom and one of the few with its circle and stalls remaining intact. The cinema is fully equipped to show films in 16mm, 35mm and 70mm on a large screen, as well as extensive stage facilities for the occasional live show. The cinema still has an operating Compton organ, it's console lit from within by coloured lighting, and safety curtain detailed in 1930s art-deco motifs. Two sets of tabs (curtains) are also installed and used for most performances. It houses all major digital sound systems: SDDS, Dolby Digital and DTS. It had the United Kingdom's first wide-screen installed in 1953, and more recently, was one of the first to have a digital projector installed in 1999. 16 mm film was initially created in the 1920s as an inexpensive amateur alternative to the conventional 35 mm film format. ... Simulated 35 mm film with soundtracks _ The outermost strips (on either side) contain the SDDS soundtrack as an image of a digital signal. ... In the motion picture industry, the expression 70mm is intended to refer to a format of film. ... The ornately decorated safety curtain of the Vienna State Opera House. ... The Art Deco spire of the Chrysler Building in New York, built 1928–1930 City Hall of Buffalo, New York, an Art Deco masterpiece Art Deco was a popular design movement from 1920 until 1939, affecting the decorative arts such as architecture, interior design, and industrial design, as well as... SDDS stands for Sony Dynamic Digital Sound, which is a cinema sound system developed by Sony. ... Dolby Digital is the marketing name for a series of lossy audio compression technologies by Dolby Laboratories. ... DTS DTS (formerly known as Digital Theater Systems), owned by DTS Inc (NASDAQ: DTSI), is a multi-channel surround sound format used for both commercial/theatrical and consumer grade applications (with significant technical differences between home and commercial/theatrical variants: the latter being a traditional ADPCM compression system and the...

Seating is approximately 1700 — reduced from nearly 2000 to make way for greater leg-room — with a large circle bar and even 'royal retiring room' for visiting monarchs. Seating is divided between the Royal Circle, Rear Circle and Stalls.

Until 1967, the interior was a magnificent art-deco auditorium, with a ribbed ceiling, concealing stripped lighting. Two bas relief sculpture of naked nymphs were positioned on the side walls, as if leaping towards the screen. All the seats were covered in a faux-leopard skin material. A rather misguided modernisation in 1967 destroyed much of this grandeur, although since the 1980s, restoration programmes have restored much of this detail, including the figures, seating pattern and much of the ribbed effect on the ceiling. Detail from the Elgin Marbles, an example of bas-relief. ... In Greek mythology, a nymph is any member of a large class of female nature entities, either bound to a particular location or landform or joining the retinue of a god or goddess. ...

Odeon Mezzanine

Tucked nextdoor is the Odeon Mezzanine, containing five much smaller screens. The site of this "miniplex" was once an alleyway running alongside the main house, until development in 1988 turned into one of London's first mini-plex cinemas. Coordinates: 51°30′38″N, 0°7′45″W Odeon Cinemas is the largest chain of cinemas in the United Kingdom. ... Mezzanine may refer to: Mezzanine (architecture), an intermediate floor between main floors of a building In technology, a mezzanine can refer to a thin sheet of plastic insulating different parts of circuitry from each other in cramped environments, such as laptop interiors. ... Map of Earth showing lines of latitude (horizontally) and longitude (vertically), Eckert VI projection; large version (pdf, 1. ...

External links

• Alhambra Theatre History Archive Material, Information, and Images on the Alhambra Theatre, Leicester Square.

• Leicester Square Webcam - Close up of the Odeon Cinema for film premieres.