Report - Aylesbury ODEON, REVISITED, Six Years on and Emotion Realised - Aug 2015

[Landie_Man]

Video Report

 

[GRONK]

Great report mate, and very interesting history. Well done.

 

[Hexvessel]

Very cool the projector's room but it's too sad for all of these grafitis...

 

[Mini nut]

Hmm, good one. I`d love to have the ODEON letters and now I at least know for sure that the clocks have gone. I went there with the intention of getting in last year but was defeated by the fact that the fence around it is a damn sight higher when in than when out. I could have got in but I`d never have got out again! lol. Penalty of old age I`m afraid.

 

[Landie_Man]

December 2016/Jan 2017 Update!

I vowed to not return to this place having done it to death in my early and even later urbex years. But I received a message about showing a fellow explorer around the place; so I went back with my camera to photograph what was left.

I'm glad we did this, because the contractors who had stripped out the site had left some pretty amazing Original Art Deco Features (in places)

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We walked through the totally stripped out screens, which looked exactly as I envisaged them, not quite so interesting, so we went into the foyer.

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[
B]For Comparison, here is a 2009 Photo of the foyer:[/B]
https://c7.staticflickr.com/1/500/32018573662_cfa1b4e4dc_b.jpg

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WOW! The original double staircase was exposed for the first time in at least 30-40 years, having had one side boxed in by the Heath Robinson Kiosk, and at closer inspection, the original ODEON floor was still intact!

Hidden beneath a cheap, nasty carpet for decades was this absolute beauty of a floor. I returned ten days or so later equipped with cleaning products and a friend of mine and we set about preparing the wonderful floor, which took some graft I can tell you, we didn’t manage to do the whole floor, and what we did took all morning!

Makes you wonder what they were thinking, sticking blue carpets over the top. If you look at the centre of the floor, you will see that the sort of, pinstripe effect curves around. This was where it went around a long lost Box Office which was in the middle of the foyer from the 1930s till the 1970s/1980s.

As a result, there was lots of carpet glue on the floor which didn’t come off, but a few days, some masks and the right equipment would sort this right out

The cinema is earmarked for demolition sometime this year. Perhaps the discovery of the floor will de-rail this? We can only hope….

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Thank You Everyone, More At:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/landie_man/albums/72157677409628490

 

[Mini nut]

This is a superb report Landie, but poignant and sad at the same time. It kills me that the gorgeous terazzo floor with ODEON across it is going to be lost forever along with everything else. The place may be stripped but it`s looking the better for it in some aspects.

 

[Landie_Man]

Thank you mate, its quite a contrast to the original isn't it!

 

[svrb]

Wow! what a fantastic cinema I live in Hertfordshire and I'm relatively new to urban exploration, this one is definitely on my bucket list!

Brilliant photos, that odeon floor and double staircase is just beautiful

 

[Landie_Man]

Wow! what a fantastic cinema I live in Hertfordshire and I'm relatively new to urban exploration, this one is definitely on my bucket list!

Brilliant photos, that odeon floor and double staircase is just beautiful

Thanks mate. Shame it's going :/. Are you in Tring?

 

[svrb]

Thanks mate. Shame it's going :/. Are you in Tring?

Better head over their soon then and no bud i'm based in Hemel Hempstead (Leverstock Green)

 

[Underground_Jazz]

Great report. A friend and I visited this week, you can still get access but you need to be quick.

Most, if not all interesting artifacts are gone. The projectors and filing cabinet are still there though The double staircase is lovely but the floor needs another clean!

We couldn't work out the original layout of the place, a lot of what I guess is flooring and walls have been removed so it's hard to picture how it was.

 

[Landie_Man]

Great report. A friend and I visited this week, you can still get access but you need to be quick.

Most, if not all interesting artifacts are gone. The projectors and filing cabinet are still there though The double staircase is lovely but the floor needs another clean!

We couldn't work out the original layout of the place, a lot of what I guess is flooring and walls have been removed so it's hard to picture how it was.

Don't suppose you found my black banners I had made did you? They cut them down! Were they inside?

 

[Underground_Jazz]

Don't suppose you found my black banners I had made did you? They cut them down! Were they inside?

Didn't see them I'm afraid

 

[Underground_Jazz]

There'd be no point in starting a new thread, I didn't take many photos.

Overview by Jazzy D, on Flickr

OdeonStairs by Jazzy D, on Flickr

Gallery by Jazzy D, on Flickr

 

[Landie_Man]

That's cery very cool. Shame you didn't get this get floor in, the main attraction here now.