Oadby Cinema
12 London Road,
Oadby,
LE2 5DG
12 London Road,
Oadby,
LE2 5DG
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Located in the outer Leicester district of Oadby. The Oadby Cinema opened in 1937 with Will Hay in "Good Morning Boys". It was built for and operated by the brothers George & Milford Cockroft, owners of the Magna Cinema, Wigston Magna, the Lawn Cinema, Birstall and the Fosse Cinema, Leicester.
The centre of the facade had a slim tower feature centrally located, which carried the name of the cinema. Inside the auditorium, seating was provided in stalls and circle levels.
The Oadby Cinema closed in 1981 with Burt Reynolds in "The Cannonball Run". It was converted into an undertakers/funeral home by A.J. Adkinson & Son, who were already operating from a building next to the cinema. The original Art Deco style facade has now been modified beyond recognition.
Contributed by
Ken Roe
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Recent comments (view all 4 comments)
“Cannonball Run” what amovie to close a grand old theatre on.Did a film like that even do box office over there?
I was second and became chief operator at the Oadby beginning 1940 Paul Salz
During the late 1970’s I was a part time projectionist at the Oadby cinema. We had two Peerless Magnarc projectors. When the original Exorcist film was released one of the other projectionists refused to run it so I did. I grew up going to the Oadby cinema, me and my friend used to watch many horror films there. Richard Blackburn now 70 years old.
The Oadby Cinema was a big part of my childhood. I saw so many movies there: Jaws, Lady and the Tramp, Pete’s Dragon, Star Wars, Superman I and II, National Lampoon’s Animal House, the Life of Brian, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Watership Down, Warlords of Atlantis, Crime Busters, The Jungle Book. And of course all those Saturday Morning shows with cartoons, Laurel and Hardy shorts and Children’s Film Foundation movies, where I always got shouted at for moving the barrier prohibiting us kids from front-seat paradise. (What ever was the purpose of that barrier?) And in the 1980s they turned the place into (of all things) a FUNERAL PARLOUR!!! Like the dead needed that place more than the living??? And no one apart from ME seemed to be outraged! It still drives me into a fit of Nebuchadnezzan rage every time I think about it!!