Former Odeon Cinema building up for sale for £5 million

The former Odeon Cinema building, in Westover Road, has been put on the market for £5.25 million. 

Outline planning permission was given back in 2020 to developers Libra Homes to convert and extend the building to house 64 flats as well as include commercial space fronting Westover Road and 66 car parking spaces. 

The site, along with the ABC cinema building in the same road, was bought by Libra Homes for more than £6 million in 2017, following construction of the BH2 complex where the cinema is now at. 

A CGI of the proposed conversion of the former Odeon cinema building in Westover Road, Bournemouth (Image: Libra Homes)

In 2017 two planning applications were submitted for the Odeon plot, the first for 101 flats and the second for 84. 

Both were refused by Bournemouth Council due to concerns about their scale.

Read more: Serious safety concerns at old Odeon cinemas in Bournemouth

Libra Homes submitted a reserved planning application earlier this month including minor alterations to the initial plan, with a reduction in the commercial floorspace to accommodate a larger residential reception area. 

The Daily Echo has approached Libra Homes for a comment on where the development stands and why the building land is being sold. 

The Odeon Cinema in better times (Image: Daily Echo)

First built in 1929, the former Odeon Cinema building was initially called The Regent Cinema and could seat 2,300 people and an additional 300 people in its restaurant. 

In 1949 the cinema was renamed to the Gaumont before becoming an Odeon Cinema in the 1980s. 

The screens showed their final film in February 2017 when Odeon moved into the brand new BH2 multiplex, which was billed as Odeon’s most “innovative cinema in the UK.” 

In 2019, ‘urban explorers’ filmed and exposed the dilapidated state of the building for a YouTube video. 

Nathan Scullard, who posted video footage to his YouTube channel Tazer Urbex, surveyed the cinema’s foyer and found that it was “way worse” than the abandoned neighbouring ABC cinema. 

“It looks pretty trashed. Look at the stairs. It’s falling to pieces,” he said. 

Dorset and Wiltshire Fire and Rescue Service last year showed concerns about people gaining unauthorised access to the two former cinema buildings, adding it is a fire risk.