See pictures of former Bury St Edmunds Odeon/Focus Art Deco cinema before its 1982 closure
The year was 1937. Frank Whittle ground-tested the world’s first jet engine designed for aircraft, the Coronation of George VI and Elizabeth took place, Amelia Earhart disappeared while flying over the Pacific Ocean and closer to home in Suffolk, the Odeon cinema opened in Bury St Edmunds.
On the corner of Brentgovel Street and Well Street, the cinema was one of the original Odeon Theatres, built by Oscar Deutsch.
The Bury cinema – the first in the town to be designed for sound films – opened on July 5, showing Beloved Enemy, starring Merle Oberon, and Star for a Night, starring Claire Trevor.
The cinema’s glitzy gala opening event was attended by Merle Oberon in person.
The Art Deco Odeon’s facade had two glazed side towers, with a recessed central tower bearing the cinema’s name.
The Bury cinema boasted an impressive 1,289 seats, with 867 of those seats in the stalls and 422 seats in the circle.
The auditorium’s side walls featured decorative bands and columns. Meanwhile, there was also a 20ft-deep stage and two dressing rooms.
During its heyday, younger generations could enjoy 'Saturday Morning Pictures' and audiences would pay 6d to sit downstairs and 9d for upstairs.
In October 1975 the Odeon was leased to Brent Walker Ltd and renamed Focus Cinema, however audiences declined due to the rise in popularity of home videos.
On May 1, 1981, it was Grade II-listed, only – with planning applications to develop the site in the pipeline – to be de-listed a few months later, on August 11, 1981.
The Focus closed in October 1982, with the last film to be shown Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
The cinema was demolished in October 1983, alongside neighbouring auctioneers Cheval Lawrence, Ethelbert Taylor's barbershop and the White Lion pub, to be replaced with the now-derelict Cornhill Walk Shopping Centre.
Bury Free Press photographers visited the Focus days before it closed, during the demolition process and when the site was cleared, in 1985.
