Plaza Odeon

The Plaza, later the Odeon, was Gloucester's first super cinema, opened in what was then Barton Street (now Eastgate Street) in 1935. It could seat 1,832 people and boasted a glass screen, Western Electric Mirrorphonic Sound, a huge foyer and a café. A stage could be fitted for live shows and in the absence of a theatre in the city Remembrance Day services were held there after the Second World War until 1956.

That year the Rank Organisation took over the cinema, soon changing its name to the Odeon. The café closed in the late 50s and in 1965 the number of seats was reduced to 1,602. In 1967 The Sound of Music played there for nine weeks, setting a local record, but by 1970 Rank were unsuccessfully applying to the City Council for permission to turn the now commercially-disastrous Odeon into a bingo hall.

The Council held out until 1975, when Rank won on appeal and converted it into a bingo club, which it remains to this day.