BEHIND THE SCENES OF THE MEDIEVAL ODEON

by Hattie Ellis (Salisbury)

The Medieval wool hall, house of John Halle, merchant and 4 times mayor, is now an Odeon. You enter a Victorian fake-Tudor frontage, into a galleried hall where pelts and skeins once hung. It was done up by Pugin and has been a cinema since the 1930s.

The ‘foyer’ has stained glass and stone fireplaces made for dogs and roasts. Upstairs, I see a popcorn seller in a baseball hat and imagine him a bloke doing a job. But the sweets and hot dogs fade as he talks and we travel through time.

Off we go, slipping into the false nights of Screens 1 to 5. As people watch The Young Victoria, the flickering darkness shows a 15th century dining hall. He tells me of the original tiny box office, 1930s silver screen, disused changing rooms.

The handyman has taken him into every corner, behind false walls. The people of Salisbury have saved the building but now there are leaks. Quiet damage lies behind this layered, much facaded house that shows actors in perfection many meters high.

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What Hattie Ellis says about BEHIND THE SCENES OF THE MEDIEVAL ODEON:

Salisbury has history on every corner and often in unexpected places, such as the cinema, a modern five-screen Odeon that had many centuries in its fabric. It is the oldest cinema building in Britain, being first a Medieval wool hall, then done up by the Victorian architect and Wiltshire resident Pugin, famous for his work on the Houses of Parliament. Since the 1930s, it has been the city’s cinema (and also at one time a theatre as well). Sam, the genial and curious popcorn seller, showed me round in a thrilling version of hidden tourism.