Odeon Leicester Square

The site has played a crucial part in the history of public entertainment in London, having been occupied in turn by the Royal Panopticon and the Alhambra ( a conversion of the Panopticon) in a series of guises, as the Alhambra Circus, Alhambra Palace Music Hall, etc, rivalling the Empire as (inter alia) a variety palace and, for a time, a home for the otherwise neglected art of the ballet.

The Odeon which replaced the Alhambra in 1937, does not at once spring to mind as a live theatre, but it was, in fact, built with a big stage. In some ways, its history has been an architectural tragedy. The striking black granite exterior with its 36.5m (120ft) high cubist tower has had some minor alteration, but the original interior was all but destroyed in 1967.

The story might serve as a horrible warning to all who believe that anything old needs to be brought ‘into the present day’. The Odeon auditorium had one of the finest interiors of its time, using coved light, rippled surfaces and figure relief by Briton Riviere to outstanding effect. The modernisers, following the latest five-minute fashion, bashed it all into a state of insensibility. Later works have been directed to retrieving the situation and, in particular, Riviere’s elegant ‘flying ladies’ have been recreated, but a truly civilised society would restore this key monument to a perfect state.