Odeon Epsom
114-116 High Street,
Epsom,
KT19 8BT
114-116 High Street,
Epsom,
KT19 8BT
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Stevev, In 1963 I was also at Wandsworth Technical College on day release from the Odeon Richmond so we have probably met.
It was at the Old ODEON Epsom where I first started my career in the film industry as a trainee projectionist after leaving school in 1963. 10 months later I left to join the projection team at the Granada North Cheam as it was closer to my home and provided day release to Wandsworth Tech College as part of the deal. 3.5 years after that I left to join BBC TV. And yes it was true that there was an emergency connection to the railway electricity supply but it was never used while I was working there.
A vintage photograph of the Odeon, soon after its 1937 opening:
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Epsom now boasts (if that is the right word) a new 8 screen soulless and sterile Odeon multiplex. The two identical operating boxes, situated one above the other and each serving four screens, consist of even more mind-numbing expanses of plain plastered walls. For someone like me – a film fan of some 55 years, who has projected films of all gauges from 8mm to 35mm for over 40 years – one visit was more than enough.
I was told by a projectionist who worked at Richmond Odeon in 1964 that the Odeon Epsom, which was very close to an electric railway line, had an alternative power supply from the railways supply. So in case of a “town” electricity failure, the cinema had the railway as a secondary supply.
Never went to that cinema but certainly drove past and saw it in days of old.
John
An exterior photograph of the Odeon, taken in October 1949:
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In the Summer of 1971, a few weeks before closing:
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