SecretLeeds - History, culture and architecture in Leeds

Don't know if it's been mentioned but I wonder if it would be viable to build a cinema with stage with good acoustics. Filling the gap for small bands (and the like) between the pub circuit and Leeds Arena ala the old Odeon where many a band played before its sad closure.

loiner99 wrote:Don't know if it's been mentioned but I wonder if it would be viable to build a cinema with stage with good acoustics. Filling the gap for small bands (and the like) between the pub circuit and Leeds Arena ala the old Odeon where many a band played before its sad closure.

For the benefit of some of our not even so young readers the Odeon you are referring to is on the North East corner of the junction of Briggate and Headrow. Until recently Primark and at the time of posting Sports Direct. The Beatles definitely played there (before my time). As I understand it the Odeon in the Merrion Centre is still unused.

As for a venue I think the O2 Academy towards the top of Cookridge Street (previously the Town and Country club) already fits that bill and it may even have been a cinema in times gone by

tyke bhoy wrote:

loiner99 wrote:Don't know if it's been mentioned but I wonder if it would be viable to build a cinema with stage with good acoustics. Filling the gap for small bands (and the like) between the pub circuit and Leeds Arena ala the old Odeon where many a band played before its sad closure.

For the benefit of some of our not even so young readers the Odeon you are referring to is on the North East corner of the junction of Briggate and Headrow. Until recently Primark and at the time of posting Sports Direct. The Beatles definitely played there (before my time). As I understand it the Odeon in the Merrion Centre is still unused.

As for a venue I think the O2 Academy towards the top of Cookridge Street (previously the Town and Country club) already fits that bill and it may even have been a cinema in times gone by.


Hello tyke bhoy.
When i was lad we went to Classical concerts there on Thursday afternoons (Ugh) and in later years when my daughter was at Notre Dame school and at a concert she and about 500 other girls gave a concert playing their Recorders, this is something that i will never ever forget and neither my ears. Beautiful building that i am pretty certain it could never have had films shown there, although more or less opposite was the Gaumont cinema. All this on Cookridge Street.

Hi Jack,

The cinema on Cookridge Street was originally the Coliseum. It later became the Gaumont but some people called it the Gaumont Coliseum. I used to go there myself on Saturday mornings (and some evenings) in the early/mid 1950's. I think that the concert, which you attended, was probably at the Civic Theatre which was once the Leeds Institute and Technical College and is now the home of the Museum.

The swimming baths were opposite the Civic Theatre and the Gaumont cinema was further up Cookridge Street towards Woodhouse Lane just below the College of Art. As tyke bhoy has said, the O2 Academy is now on the site of the Gaumont and it used to be the Town and Country Club.

http://www.leodis.net/display.aspx?reso ... 7_61434573

http://www.leodis.net/display.aspx?reso ... 7_57188052

http://www.leodis.net/display.aspx?reso ... 834_166252

Ian

Thanks Jack. I had a vague notion there was a cinema in the vicinity but am probably not old enough (53) to remember it exactly so confirmation it were over t'road is good

Thanks Ian, all you say is spot on, as you say the baths were oposite and the Cinema higher up. I should remember just where the baths and the Cinema where as my first job when leaving school was on the corner of Woodhouse Lane and i had to walk up Cookridge Street past them every morning.

1950 map of Cookridge Street which shows the baths and the cinema

Great Picture B. Skinner.
It reminds me that in the late 50s on our Wed. Half day off we would go to the Mecca Locarno and if we did not pick up a couple of girls to go to the Cinema we used to go up to the Cookridge St Baths and there you would get the full treatment which included power shower body sprays, steam rooms, Turkish bath / box if you wished and finally a man gave you an allover massage with bowls of hot soapy water, then you were put in a cubicle wrapped in hot towels and given an hour or so to recover ( which you bloody well needed ) also given Bovril and toast while you were in there.
Would stagger out a couple of hours later and go in the Cobourg or the Fenton for a couple of pints just to make sure we were not dehydrated.

At the risk of taking this even mor off topic. Buffalo Skinner's map shows up a few interesting anomalies.

Portland Gate appears to be the road behind the Civic Hall whwere itscr park between it and the current RoseBowl now is.
I believe Portland Gate is now the name of the unmarked stretch of road between Portland Crescent and Cookridge Street and adjacent to what was the Gaumont and is now the Academy
The road to the top left appears to be marked St James' Street but is now Portland Way.

Thanks for that map buffaloskinner .

Though I used to go to the Gaumont cinema I have little recollection but one thing I recall is that going in from Cookridge Street there was a long corridor on the right that you walked down to get to at least the front rows of the auditorium (then back along after the film ended). It seemed to be a very long corridor but then things did seem longer and/or taller when you are young! I have however no recollection of the baths, though I really should at least recall the building.