Former 1930s cinema back up for sale again

There had been plans to turn the Newport Road building into a live entertainment venue

A former cinema dating back to 1936 is back on the market after plans to turn it into a music venue failed to materialise.

For sale signs have gone up on Stafford Cinema on Newport Road in recent weeks.

The two-storey building had been put up for auction in 2022 after the cinema finally closed in 2021 – 85 years after it first opened as an Odeon.

In late 2022, it was announced that the site was going to be brought back to life as a live entertainment venue, but the plan never came to fruition.

Stafford used to be home to a number of cinemas.

As well as the Newport Road cinema there was The Sandonia in Sandon Road, The Picture House in Bridge Street and Crabbery Street’s Albert Hall.

The Picture House became a Wetherspoons, while the Albert Hall site became part of the Co-op department store, which is set to undergo a further transformation as part of Stafford Borough Council’s regeneration plans for the town centre.

The Sandonia was left derelict for many years, targeted by vandals and at risk of demolition.

The Odeon later became the Astra Cinema and then Apollo Cinema, which hosted an event to celebrate the venue’s 75th anniversary in 2011, before being bought out by Curzon.

In 2017 it closed, then it reopened in 2018, closed again the following year and was once again reopened in late 2019.

It was put up for auction in early 2020, with a guide price of £350,000, shortly before the coronavirus pandemic led to the temporary closure of cinemas.

Its last reopening was for private events in 2021.

The Odeon name lives on in Stafford, as an Odeon Luxe opened on Bridge Street in 2018.

This news was gathered by the Local Democracy Reporting Service which covers councils and other public service organisations.