Assembled for “Norfolk at the pictures”
The Odeon stood on Botolph Street, long before it became the Odeon that glowered down in a 1970s way over Magdalen Street, which is now the Hollywood. This particular incarnation dates to 1938, a rather lovely Art Nouveau cinema. There’s a photo of the interior on the English Heritage website which show a plush but minimalist interior. I’m just about old enough to remember this still existing, but sadly I don’t . I do remember the cleaners on the left though on St Georges, there was also another Dry Cleaners further down on the left right into the 1980s, where I’m standing to do this. In about 1986 me and couple of Piggly Wigglys (the Norwich noise band not the chain of US supermarkets) tried to make a classic pre-indie noise-nik video using super 8 cameras. HMSO security put paid to that very quickly, using a nice Anglo-Saxon phrase involving going away. The source photo was provided by Derek Cork and dates from around 1970.
This is from the top end of St George’s Street and before that Middle Street. The top end of Calvert Street, which ran under Sovereign House is lost. This area had gradually deteriorated for a while before. Anglia Square was an inevitable development really given the need at teh time to revitalise the area. Interestingly, for me at least, I couldn’t take this from where Derek Cork stood, as there’s a fence in the way to stop people getting bits of broken not very stationary Stationery office on their heads, I believe Derek was working at Anglia TV round the corner when he took this on a borrowed camera from somebody at Work. Thanks to both of them, as without that and the History Wall project and Derek and Janet’s generosity, this little beauty of a photo would quite possibly never have seen the light of day.
The photo below is slightly earlier, maybe 1967 as some of the land has already been cleared. The original forms part of the Geoffrey Goreham collection at the Norfolk Heritage Centre; party of the Norfolk County Archive.
This is different, curiously, I’d not created a colour ghost before. The original, by Geoffrey Goreham heavily yellowed, not uncommon with some transparency films from the era and the way they degrade. You can again see here the way the Odeon sat on the then Botolph Street, This is looking up along what was then called St George’s Street at what is now a car park. This was of course replaced by the quite huge Odeon in Anglia Square which if memory serves me correctly was one giant screen until the mid to end of the 1980s, but now is a multi-screen. I miss how it was because it was painted white and had an Odeon logo on it. Funnily enough it’s still my favourite cinema in the city.
So anyway, this little beauty is from the real era and formed the flank of a whole community that partially vanished when the Magdalen Street Wall was built, by which I mean Anglia Square and the Brutish HMSO which cancelled sight-lines and voided St Augustines from Anglia Square, such is progress.
Original Photo: © Geoffrey Goreham, c1967. Used with the kind permission of Picture Norfolk/NCC. With thanks to Clare Everitt.
Original Photo: © Derek Cork, 1971.
More ghosts and rephotography here.
Thanks to Jay for pointing out my previous error here. This street was St Georges Street, and Middle Street which stretched to Colegate, where it joined Bridge Street, or now Botolph Street which goes as far as the Ringroad, which turns into St Georges. Time being confusing at err, times.
Im trying to pinpoint the location of Fountains Yard which was on Botolph Street I believe it was next to the Fountain Pub.
My Great Grandparents Moore lived there from cences I have seen, one of their Sons William Robert Moore killed in Gallipoli and I have a letter from my Great Grandmother writting to the war office for her sons effects addressed 7 Fountains Yard. Ive looked at some old maps but cant see the yard named on them cant find the location of the pub, but from searching the cences of what adrress was next to fountains yard it was a pub and next to the pub were addresses with number 73, 74 and 75 the side the Odeon Cinema was then the cences goes into St Augustines Street so Im presuming that Fountians Yard was that end and side of Botolph Street.
Hi Melita. I’ve had a quick look through some material. It would appear that the Fountain pub and Yard was at 47 Botolph Street, it appears to have shut at the end of the 18th century, I’d assume the name continued in the Yard. Counting up the street from The Globe pub which was number 37 on the 1885 OS map, that would indeed put it very close to the site of the old Odeon, almost opposite the head of Calvert Street, which no longer exists but ran parallel to What is now sometimes mistakenly called Calvert Street but is actually titled Botolph Street and is in fact part of St Georges just to confuse everything. The Yard would actually be roughly where the small parade of closed units is on the Northern entry of Anglia Square at Botolph Way. It sort of runs backwards under the edge of what is now the car park and continues under what was a supermarket but is now an empty car showroom. I’ll email you this with a map overlay too.