By

My Home Town

Whilst the Westfield debacle continues to attract most attention in the sorry saga of Bradford’s city centre, across town the iconic Odeon site refuses to lie down and die. A recent article in Private Eye (1314) suggested some very unsavoury goings on; this will come as no surprise to Bradfordians weary of shady, incompetent councillors and pie in the sky proposals dreamt up by unelected quangos and consultants with no motive other than crude political and financial gain.

The Odeon, originally the New Victoria, was built in 1930 and the red-brick theatre and cinema claimed to be the third-largest auditorium in England. It is the last remaining building designed by the prominent Bradfordian and pre-war architect Alderman William Illingworth. The domed landmark boasted an Italian Renaissance interior design and fantastic furnishings throughout.

The Beatles performed there twice in 1963 and other names included Bill Haley and the Comets, Tom Jones, Buddy Holly and the Rolling Stones. It was the first in the country to be fitted with Cinemascope in 1954; in 1969 it was split into Odeon 1 and 2 and in 1988 the redundant ballroom was converted into the Odeon 3. In 1997 Top Rank Bingo (the owners of the Odeon at the time) ceased trading and the closure of the cinema followed in 2000. In 2003 it passed into public ownership and the hands of the now defunct quango, Yorkshire Forward (YF).

Will Alsop’s Childhood Fantasy

In 2004, a consultation exercise, carried out after the Bradford Centre Regeneration (BCR) Master plan was unveiled, found that the future of the Odeon was top of people’s concerns. Maud Marshall, then BCR chief executive, said its future was being reconsidered in the light of demands for it to be retained. The City Park plan, a sort of scaled up Legoland, was produced by Alsop architects – who also produced a plan for Barnsley claiming it to be the Tuscany of the North which I would if brainless officials were paying me thousands to do so – and jointly funded by Yorkshire Forward and Bradford Council.

“Bradford lends itself to a completely different kind of approach – not only do people generally like open space and water, it pushes up property values dramatically” gushed Marshall. “We would be very respectful of the city’s architectural heritage. People in the city…want to see modern architecture sitting alongsideBradford’s architectural heritage in a way that protects it. This…is not a fantasy.”

Dream On

Those old enough to remember when Bradford was home to beautiful Victorian architecture also remember the wanton destruction of the Sixties and the ugly modernistic concrete blocks that were built only to be flattened to make way for Westfield. Eight years on and with some 3,000 empty city centre properties now there is plenty of open space but little sign of a property boom although we do have water in the guise of a £30m pond.

Since the plan was announced there has been an admirable and often derided campaign led by the Bradford Odeon Rescue Group (BORG) to save the Odeon from demolition but, curiously, despite the words of Marshall and weight of public opinion, those in control have been hell bent of flattening the Odeon. Insistent that theirs was the only option they have ignored any alternatives and the public have been misinformed and misled.

In 2005, instigated by YF/BCR a report by structural engineers Arup (the Council could have commissioned this internally at nil cost) suggested that the building would cost too much to renovate and concluded the only options were to demolish the whole building or demolish most of it and keep only the facade. The cost was put at £3.6m to save the towers but demolition was £1.44m – a net cost of £2m. Once again Marshall assured us: “As a result of what we have learned…we have decided to take further soundings from the people of Bradford.”

Of course this all proved bluster with a competition announced early 2005 for an iconic structure to replace…an iconic structure. The deal had been done whatever the public sound bites offered by Marshall and the Council. Things then took several twists.

The T&A – Mouthpiece Of The City

In 2006 plans to revamp the city’s St George’s concert hall were revealed. Private Eye suggests this explains the apathy towards the campaign to save the Odeon site from local paper, the Telegraph & Argus (T&A), which stood to benefit from any redevelopment of the St George’s site as its adjacent and redundant press halls would be central to this. Indeed it suggests that the editor of the T&A was involved in this project.

Several quotes from the T&A suggest its editorial had become a mouthpiece for YF/BCR and I wrote to the T&A asking for clarity but strangely silence. Notably its correspondent, Mike Priestley, remained consistently opposed to the demolition plans.

Apparently consultants looked at several options including building a new purpose-built concert hall and also converting the former Odeon building but decided that St George’s, which dates back to 1853, was the best choice. Interestingly the plan was estimated at costing between £5-10m. Meanwhile, Leeds was on with plans to build an arena much needed to attract larger events away from Sheffield andManchester.

And We Have A Winner…roll Up, Roll Up For The Great Carve Up

Soon after, the winning plan for Marshall’s competition was announced by developers Langtree-Artisan H Ltd and Carey Jones Architects. This included a hotel, restaurants and galleries with Bradford College moving some of its activities to the New Victoria Place development, as it would be known; deal done and dusted and surely bad news for the twin towers?

As we all know it never happened and, with the construction of the new Jurys Inn hotel across the road, it seems it’s another master plan for the bin labelled “Bradford”. Fast forward again and all the main parties behind New Victoria place have either gone bust or been dismantled and Marshall is nowhere to be seen. Fortunately the twin towers, although shrouded in a canopy, remain defiant, almost smiling behind their shroud.

Morphe Ltd… Here We Go Again?

So what future for the Odeon? Ominously, as revealed by Private Eye and further by the Yorkshire Post (26/5/12) a consultancy set up by the former director of city centre regeneration plus its former head of property and a former chairman at Yorkshire Forward – Morphe Ltd – is seeking to advise the remnants of Langtree on the Odeon though why these parties should have any say in the matter is unclear. The prize here remains very real as Langtree stand to gain a 250-year lease at a peppercorn rent so surely it is time for the council to show some backbone and demonstrate some transparency as an elected body?

Few will be aware that Bradford was designated in 2009 as the UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation) first ever city of film. Of course we have the excellent National Museum of Film & Photography adjacent to theAlhambra theatre. Modern day cinema requirements make restoration of the Odeon as a cinema unviable, plus there is now a multi-screen across town (however ugly it is), but this magnificent building should not be flattened.

An Honest Transparent Future?

Putting sentiment aside, there is no case now for either a hotel or shopping development; let’s at least be honest about what Bradford can and cannot justify. The twin towers could though, and should be preserved as part of either office or student accommodation and, at worst, simply retained as a façade overlooking the expensive pond. If the city can justify £30m for a pond then it must be possible to make a case for restoring the towers.

The Bradford public has been misled for years by unelected individuals vis-à-vis the public purse without any interest in the city itself. They have allowed the building to decay for over a decade which is tantamount to vandalism. Having refused to fall for so long we must ensure that the fight was not in vain; there is little left in Bradford to be proud of and the destruction of one of its remaining treasures would shame us all.