Odeon cinema to close after 99 years in Oxford

The cinema has changed hands frequently over the years, and was previously run by ABC and Virgin

People have been left saddened by the closure of a cinema, seven months before its 100th anniversary.

Odeon announced it is shutting its Magdalen Street branch in Oxford as well as its Banbury branch on 5 June.

The Grade II listed building in Oxford, built by renowned theatre constructors Frank Matcham & Company, boasts 1,000 seats.

The company says the closure of some of its branches was a "difficult decision".

"We know this will be disappointing news for our guests and we apologise for any inconvenience caused," it said.

"We are looking to secure jobs for as many team members as possible in one of our 116 other cinemas across the UK and Ireland."

The cinema in Magdalen Street is one of 116 Odeon branches across the UK and Ireland

In recent weeks more Odeon closures have been announced for the same date, including in Weston-super-Mare, Blackpool and Ayr in Scotland.

Low ticket sales and rising prices have been hitting the industry, with the average ticket price now at an all-time high of £7.69, according to the UK Cinema Association.

The Oxford Odeon's first showing was the silent film The Four Horsemen and of the Apocalypse on 1 January 1924.

Fred Connelly worked at the cinema in the 1990s, before eventually becoming a screenwriter thanks to a run-in with an editor for Orbit magazine in the building's foyer.

He said the closure was part of an "epidemic".

"That cinema - it was like magic. It was like stepping into another world, the music playing before the film, the beautiful raised curtains. Everything felt like an event," he said.

Filmmaker Jon Spira is another regular mourning the closure.

"It deserves to be celebrated. It was one of the original purpose-built cinemas with an orchestra pit that's probably still there under the floorboards," he said.

"When I was young they had painted murals on the walls and velvet everywhere. I'm really sad that it's closing, but I think it's naïve to try to petition against it because it's a business."

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