Pilgrim Street, Odeon Cinema (Paramount)

HER Number

6449

District

Newcastle

Site Name

Pilgrim Street, Odeon Cinema (Paramount)

Place

Newcastle

Map Sheet

NZ26SW

Class

Recreational

Site Type: Broad

Cinema

Site Type: Specific

Cinema

General Period

20TH CENTURY

Specific Period

Early 20th Century 1901 to 1932

Form of Evidence

Extant Building

Description

Designed by Frank Verity and Samuel Beverley for Paramount in 1931. It was an American style super-cinema with a Wurlitzer organ, orchestra and Tiller Girls. Has a blank brick face to the street relieved by huge pilasters, brick panels and decorative stone cornice, balconies and first floor windows. It became the Odeon in 1939. Two metal Paramount logos can still be seen above the cornice at the top of the building.

Easting

424990

Northing

564440

Grid Reference

NZ424990564440

Sources

N. Pevsner and I. Richmond, second edition revised by G. McCombie, P. Ryder and H. Welfare, 1992, The Buildings of England: Northumberland (second edition); D. Lovie, 1997, The Buildings of Grainger Town; Grace McCombie, 2009, Newcastle and Gateshead - Pevsner Architectural Guide, p. 34 and 143; Frank Manders, 1991, Cinemas of Newcastle, 108-118; Frank Manders, 2005, Cinemas of Newcastle, pages 70-73, 75, 89-90, 91, 160; Heritage Architecture Ltd., 2006, Historical Assessment of East Pilgrim Street, Newcastle