Odeon Sale

Biffaskin on January 21, 2017 at 1:18 pm

By chance I visited Sale overnight, and passed by the Pyramid/Odeon, which is now a Sports Direct Fitness gym. I was surprised to find that the main street presence has absolutely no signage at all for the gym, and indeed the main doors looked like the building was shuttered and disused. I didn’t realise that the entrance is in fact at the rear of the premises! Even so, you’d think that there would be something on the front elevation wouldn’t you? The building is looking scruffy, with plants starting to grow, not good for a Listed building!

Ian on August 31, 2011 at 1:26 am

A 1988 shuttered shot here

ODEON SALE

woody on March 23, 2009 at 3:20 am

two very different views
shortly after opening in its full glory
http://www.flickr.com/photos/woody1969/3376186179/

and in 1985/86 at its worst
http://www.flickr.com/photos/woody1969/65274530/

hugovk on September 18, 2006 at 10:54 am

[i]“… Undoubtedly the most splendid cinema in Sale was the Pyramid on Washway Road; this was designed by Drury and Gomersall in an "Egyptian” style, hence the name. The Pyramid was built 1933-4 to seat 2,000 at a cost of £70,000. The building included a first-floor cafe advertised as the “rendezvous for discerning folk” and, flanking the cinema, two rows of shops were built in a style which harmonised with the nearby Post Office.

“Once built, the Pyramid then needed a licence to open; this was refused by the magistrates after oppostion from, among others, the Palace and Savoy cinemas and the Regal, Altrincham. A protest meeting was organised by a local committee which included the vicar of St. Paul’s. The meeting was a success, as the Pyramid’s 2,000 seating capacity was filled and another 2,000 gathered outside; a petition had attracted 18,000 signatures.

“The result was that a licence was then granted and the Pyramid was opened for its first public performance on Monday, February 26, 1934 with a film and stage show. It is a cinema typical of prosperous suburbia of the 1930s and was built with a spacious car park. The Pyramid was bought by Rank in 1941 and, later, became an Odeon cinema. The Odeon showed its last film in October 1981; the cinema was sold and later re-opened as the Tatton, finally closing in 1984.”[/i]

From A History of Sale, by N.V. Swain.

Since the Tatton closed, it opened as a nightclub called JFK’s in 1990, then it closed again for a few more years before reopening as an L.A. Fitness gym, which it is now.

Here are some more photos of the Pyramid Cinema/Odeon Cinema, inside and out.

• 1934, Pyramid Theatre’s opening, “Only the best is good enough for Sale”
• 1934, interior at opening.
• 1942, Desert Victory
• 1943, Air Training Corps inspection
• c. 1943, Screening of Colonel Blimp
• Pageant of * Victory, * 1944
• Victory Day, 1945
• 1966
• 1981, the Odeon “taken on the day of its supposed closure, later re-opened.”
• And finally, 2006, LA Fitness gym.

Ken Roe on September 11, 2005 at 5:37 am

Two exterior views of the Pyramid, Sale when it was the Odeon here:

1. Possibly late 1940’s/early 1950's
   View link

2. In 1971
   View link