Sadness as Odeon's tower is consigned to history by council
A DEVELOPER has been given the go-ahead to demolish the iconic Odeon building in North End.
Portsmouth City Council has granted permission for 54 flats and houses on the site of the former cinema in London Road, North End.
A similar scheme was refused in January, but developers came back with more parking and a new design which won over city planners.
Councillors hoped the building's Art Deco tower – a trademark of the Odeon cinema group – could be saved.
But a request for protection was turned down by English Heritage.
Tory Luke Stubbs, a member of the planning committee, said: 'Council planning policy encourages building flats in commercial centres and, as the cinema is in the heart of North End, getting mostly houses on this site was never going to be a possibility.
'The loss of the cinema's frontage is a blow, but on the plus side, I'm pleased we managed to negotiate 11 extra parking spaces, which should limit the developments impact on existing residents.'
The building was one of the last cinemas still operating in Portsmouth that dated from the 1930s, but it closed in January last year after plummeting visitor numbers.
Since then it has been used as a discount store while developers awaited planning permission.
The new development consists of three blocks. The first has ground floor shops fronting on to London Road with 18 flats above.
The second is a four-storey building with 24 flats and the third is a three-storey building of nine flats with a terrace of three houses fronting Emsworth Road.
Developers Madinah Properties said it was not possible to convert the existing tower. Instead, the new design includes a central tower feature that is 2.3m higher than the existing one.
Local cinema historian Ron Brown, from Stubbington, said: 'It was fairly obvious this was going to happen but it is a great shame.Anybody who was anybody in the film world went to that particular cinema in North End.
'That old building has seen some of the greats, even Gracie Fields I think, and some terrific changes over the years.
' It is a real shame.'
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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