'Name and shame' bid to save Odeon in Bradford (From Bradford Telegraph and Argus)

Boycotting new business and development? Shaming compaines that want to set up shop in the failing town centre? Are you for real? Talk about up one's self.
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It is no wonder that folk like me, ie too young to really appreciate what The Odeon means to some, have absoulute no sympathy. To give out this statements is pathetic and cheap.
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I hope it gets knocked down as a matter of urgency and I hope you find that toy that fell from your pram.
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Pathetic indivuduals.

I suspect Langtree are somewhat half-heartedly going through the motions here.

Part of their scheme is for hotel use. However, since that planning permission went in, the Jury's has opened opposite the Odeon, the Premier Inn on Vicar Lane has opened, the Travelodge on Valley Road has opened too. Where will the demand for this hotel be?

Similarly the planning permission includes a residential element. Surely Bradford does not need any more city centre apartments.

As for the commercial use, from next March there will be a large, modern empty office across the road at Aldermanbury.

The landscape has changed massively since the planning application went in. I suspect it highly unlikely that Langtree have any chance of delivering this scheme.

flashdonut wrote:
Boycotting new business and development? Shaming compaines that want to set up shop in the failing town centre? Are you for real? Talk about up one's self.
.
It is no wonder that folk like me, ie too young to really appreciate what The Odeon means to some, have absoulute no sympathy. To give out this statements is pathetic and cheap.
.
I hope it gets knocked down as a matter of urgency and I hope you find that toy that fell from your pram.
.
Pathetic indivuduals.

I agree, this city needs to progress not temain tied to the past

Lets be honest a Langtree hole will look better than what is there now - get rid and quick.

Aphid P Critchley wrote:
I suspect Langtree are somewhat half-heartedly going through the motions here.

Part of their scheme is for hotel use. However, since that planning permission went in, the Jury's has opened opposite the Odeon, the Premier Inn on Vicar Lane has opened, the Travelodge on Valley Road has opened too. Where will the demand for this hotel be?

Similarly the planning permission includes a residential element. Surely Bradford does not need any more city centre apartments.

As for the commercial use, from next March there will be a large, modern empty office across the road at Aldermanbury.

The landscape has changed massively since the planning application went in. I suspect it highly unlikely that Langtree have any chance of delivering this scheme.

I'm also amazed that there could possibly be the demand for another hotel. I'm constantly receiving e-mails with cheap offers for Jury's Inn. Sometimes even as low as £30 a night- that's almost half the rate of all their other hotels.

As for office space I stand on the Interchange platform regularly and stare at the 'Offices to Let' on the Interchange offices and wonder why there'd be demand for another new one.

Oh look, 13 minutes after the story goes up and a pro demolition comment is posted suggesting this campaign will have no support.

It's fairly easy to see that:
a) there is plenty of empty office space in the city already, such as Thomas Cook, over the road, for example

b) there are plenty of empty new apartments in the city already, the Gatehouse for example

c) more empty offices and apartments would do nothing for the city, whereas the proposed John Peel Centre - already supported by the T&A and by people and businesses in Bradford - would.

People in Bradford aren't as stupid as you think.

Here we go again.
There is no need for another hotel, no need for more city centre apartments, no need for a clapped-out derelict wreck of a building blighting the city centre.
Knock it down, tidy up the site and extend the city park into that area with plenty of trees and comfortable benches, perhaps a childrens' play area and a small kiosk selling tea, coffee, cold drinks and ice cream.
Another possibility would be a large TV screen and a nice grassy slope for people to sit on whilst they watch the TV.

"City of Film"?
Put your money where your mouth is. Bradford should respect its cinematic heritage, not demolish it. The locals and the tourists will thank you for it.

Boycotting companies wanting to invest in Bradford! Was this Baldricks from Blackadders cunning plan?

Ask yourself this:
If the Odeon building had been kept clean, free of weeds, and presentable, all these years, do you think people would want to tear it down?
Why wasn't it?

Yammer wrote:
Ask yourself this:
If the Odeon building had been kept clean, free of weeds, and presentable, all these years, do you think people would want to tear it down?
Why wasn't it?

Beacause it served it's purpose and was left to rot. Just as many old buildings do. Hardly politics.

The original Wembley Stadium had a lot more clout for saving its features than the Odeon, and even that didn't happen.

The very best that 'save the Odeon' campaigners can hope for is that elements of the Odeon are saved such as its domes, which for the majority of these savers won't be anything like enough and they'll continue to bang a pointless drum.

Do they have a developer and financial backer who is prepared to bring the building back to life as a whole?

Langtree have a plan, IF they can produce the financial backing and a 50% pre-let to get this moving, then leave them to it, instead of holding up progression any further with stupid talk of boycotting those who chose to get involved!

I won't go as far as to say I'll say bad things about any company who wants to invest and trade in Bradford, but I am in favour of saving our Odeon and, as has been pointed out here, there are offices and shops to let in there hundreds in the city centre. How about redeveloping / revamping some of them before we tear down part of our heritage?

Bradford is a sea of 'To Let' signs. The City Park has failed miserably in increasing footfall, as shown by your dramatic photograph from the Jubilee Celebrations with three people watching the entertainment the public purse paid for. All the Hotels in the City are struggling because nobody wants to come to Bradford (apart from those visiting the City's media museum). From where I stand there are two strong reasons to support saving our Odeon:

Firstly the commercial reason, what this City needs is more retail and leisure facilities to bring people into the City to spend money. When these people flock to our City to spend their hard earned in our new leisure facilities we may then need more hotels. You only have to look at the success of Leeds with it's O2 Arena, what a perfect venue the Odeon would make for such a venue. The Odeon building is also perfectly placed in the heart of the redeveloped City Park area, away from the run down area of St. Georges Hall and 'Wastefield'. As for vacant office space you only have to walk around town to see the number of existing offices available in this ghost town. With the sad departure of Thomas Cook from the City, this number is only set to increase.

The second main reason is to preserve some of our heritage, stop all our city's looking the same, keep an identity and a connection to the past. This is what makes a City special and somewhere that is a pleasant and interesting place to visit, like York, Durham, London or Chester. You only have to look at the visitor numbers and you can see that city's that preserve their connection to the past are much higher footfall rates than City's such as Coventry that has lost a lot of it's old buildings (not all through it's own fault of course). Retaining this Heritage bolsters visitor numbers and then feeds the commercial heart of the City. When replacing a building one should ask 'will the replacement building be of equal design quality and craftsmanship as the one that it replaces' and in this case I definitely disagree. Once a building is lost from a City it cannot be replaced, it is sad to think that most of the architecture of our grandparents era has now been lost and replaced two or three times over whilst the heart and soul (the people) of the City lie wounded.

£700,000 of public money has been spent over the last three months to ensure that the building remains watertight after ten years of neglect, to demolish a building after spending this amount of public money on it in itself is scandalous. Replacing the Odeon with a new faceless glass office building for councillors to no doubt occupy is a needless and shameless act which will not only make Bradford an 'unforgettable city' but also ensure it's continuing commercial demise.

Its easy to be critical of those that call for a boycott but given the lies and spin led by the Council and its partners over the years then what would you do.
Bradford has no need for new offices - it needs businesses first - nor does it have a retail requirement until we know if Westfield will ever happen.
Ripping down one of the few remaining parts of our heritage for private profit is borderline criminal.
Councillors are once again pitifully out of their depth here. You have a new hotel across the road, nobody in their right mind would call a flat an apartment in Bradford and, sadly, a newish office block is about to become empty.
For more see www.idlelord.com re Odeon article and as for Morrisons rumours that would be business suicide on their part. Not a lot left to be proud of Bradford...dont leave it to the ear-ringed "leader" of the asylum!

mattshaw, you said exactly what I was about to put into words (and a lot better too)

I went round Bradford a couple of months ago taking photos of empty offices and shops. I took 130 photos and still didn't get round them all. Grade A office space at the bottom of Leeds road, opposite the Gatehaus, which has an unopened retail space underneath it.

Bradford does need investment, but the New Victoria Place development is NOT the answer.

Channel 4's Restoration Man (and official advisor to David Cameron) George Clarke said:

"The work of the campaigners in Bradford who are determined to save the beautiful Odeon Cinema building is invaluable. We need many more individuals like them country-wide. People who are prepared to pick up the baton and help preserve some of our country's architectural treasures. Historically we have seen the lives of some iconic buildings cut short and then lived to regret it. There have also been success stories and we mustn't forget these. Imagine for example if Sir John Betjeman hadn't campaigned to save St Pancras. What a tragedy that would have been. I feel that losing this building, although smaller and more humble, would be prove to be a similar loss not only for the people of Bradford but also the Nation as a whole. Campaigns like this aren't about conservationists getting together and wanting to preserve a building just for the sake of it. Yes buildings like the Odeon celebrate our past but they can also be recycled, transformed and converted into something new for the future. The fact it's not listed is completely irrelevant. In my opinion Bradford has a moral duty to put a smile back on the face of a much loved building. It's a good building and it should never be lost."

Ask yourselves how committed and confident are a developer who hadn't thought to register the domain names newvictoriaplace.com or .co.uk. Step number one on any marketing plan, costs less than a tenner

Bradford's most famous artist, David Hockney recently said....

“They should not pull anything more down in Bradford, especially that splendid building that could be used for many imaginative things. I support you in this. All the best in your campaign.”

Ask yourselves where these decision makers and developers actually live? - not Bradford!

I would like the Odeon to be saved, but once it has gone (assuming NVP happens) - not sure boycotting businesses that are investing in Bradford and create jobs will achieve owt. Unless I'm missing the point?

Mattshaw - David Hockney currently lives In Bridlington!

He might want to consider putting his money where his mouth is, and at least choose to live here and use his contacts to progress the Odeon cause rather than just talk about it!

This city is a very special city in its own way and we need to maintain it and make it a global city so we can attract the footfolk from all over,it has a lot to offer in many ways but the council dsn't seem to have a vision for it,it seems.

mattshaw, your article must go viral. if something can be saved, save it.

Good ! Langtree's plan would be another nail in Bradford's coffin. Everything possible should be done to make sure it never happens and the people of Bradford get what they truly deserve and have asked repeatedly for namely A RESTORED ODEON with mixed use occupancy that can be accessed by ALL the community.

@Avro, maybe if David Hockney had confidence in the way his City was being run and the loyalty of the City's media (his comment was recently reported on page 21 of the T&A I believe) he may well still live here.

The Council were quite happy to use a title to one of David's works as their regeneration slogan but unfortunately failed to regenerate, no wonder he has moved - like most other Bradford folk he is no doubt fed up of being lied to.

David's commitment to the area is most notable not only with comment to support our campaign but with his continuing support to exhibiting at the Salts Mill Gallery (A World Heritage Centre), a case in point.

Maybe you should consider attacking other notable celebrities and Bradfordian's that have not come out to even support the campaign or show how proud they are of their roots.

mattshaw wrote:
Bradford is a sea of 'To Let' signs. The City Park has failed miserably in increasing footfall, as shown by your dramatic photograph from the Jubilee Celebrations with three people watching the entertainment the public purse paid for. All the Hotels in the City are struggling because nobody wants to come to Bradford (apart from those visiting the City's media museum). From where I stand there are two strong reasons to support saving our Odeon:

Firstly the commercial reason, what this City needs is more retail and leisure facilities to bring people into the City to spend money. When these people flock to our City to spend their hard earned in our new leisure facilities we may then need more hotels. You only have to look at the success of Leeds with it's O2 Arena, what a perfect venue the Odeon would make for such a venue. The Odeon building is also perfectly placed in the heart of the redeveloped City Park area, away from the run down area of St. Georges Hall and 'Wastefield'. As for vacant office space you only have to walk around town to see the number of existing offices available in this ghost town. With the sad departure of Thomas Cook from the City, this number is only set to increase.

The second main reason is to preserve some of our heritage, stop all our city's looking the same, keep an identity and a connection to the past. This is what makes a City special and somewhere that is a pleasant and interesting place to visit, like York, Durham, London or Chester. You only have to look at the visitor numbers and you can see that city's that preserve their connection to the past are much higher footfall rates than City's such as Coventry that has lost a lot of it's old buildings (not all through it's own fault of course). Retaining this Heritage bolsters visitor numbers and then feeds the commercial heart of the City. When replacing a building one should ask 'will the replacement building be of equal design quality and craftsmanship as the one that it replaces' and in this case I definitely disagree. Once a building is lost from a City it cannot be replaced, it is sad to think that most of the architecture of our grandparents era has now been lost and replaced two or three times over whilst the heart and soul (the people) of the City lie wounded.

£700,000 of public money has been spent over the last three months to ensure that the building remains watertight after ten years of neglect, to demolish a building after spending this amount of public money on it in itself is scandalous. Replacing the Odeon with a new faceless glass office building for councillors to no doubt occupy is a needless and shameless act which will not only make Bradford an 'unforgettable city' but also ensure it's continuing commercial demise.

Just one little thing. The Hotels in BFD are full.
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I don't know why. That's not the debate. But there's a big demand, hence the new ones.

flashdonut wrote:

mattshaw wrote:
Bradford is a sea of 'To Let' signs. The City Park has failed miserably in increasing footfall, as shown by your dramatic photograph from the Jubilee Celebrations with three people watching the entertainment the public purse paid for. All the Hotels in the City are struggling because nobody wants to come to Bradford (apart from those visiting the City's media museum). From where I stand there are two strong reasons to support saving our Odeon:

Firstly the commercial reason, what this City needs is more retail and leisure facilities to bring people into the City to spend money. When these people flock to our City to spend their hard earned in our new leisure facilities we may then need more hotels. You only have to look at the success of Leeds with it's O2 Arena, what a perfect venue the Odeon would make for such a venue. The Odeon building is also perfectly placed in the heart of the redeveloped City Park area, away from the run down area of St. Georges Hall and 'Wastefield'. As for vacant office space you only have to walk around town to see the number of existing offices available in this ghost town. With the sad departure of Thomas Cook from the City, this number is only set to increase.

The second main reason is to preserve some of our heritage, stop all our city's looking the same, keep an identity and a connection to the past. This is what makes a City special and somewhere that is a pleasant and interesting place to visit, like York, Durham, London or Chester. You only have to look at the visitor numbers and you can see that city's that preserve their connection to the past are much higher footfall rates than City's such as Coventry that has lost a lot of it's old buildings (not all through it's own fault of course). Retaining this Heritage bolsters visitor numbers and then feeds the commercial heart of the City. When replacing a building one should ask 'will the replacement building be of equal design quality and craftsmanship as the one that it replaces' and in this case I definitely disagree. Once a building is lost from a City it cannot be replaced, it is sad to think that most of the architecture of our grandparents era has now been lost and replaced two or three times over whilst the heart and soul (the people) of the City lie wounded.

£700,000 of public money has been spent over the last three months to ensure that the building remains watertight after ten years of neglect, to demolish a building after spending this amount of public money on it in itself is scandalous. Replacing the Odeon with a new faceless glass office building for councillors to no doubt occupy is a needless and shameless act which will not only make Bradford an 'unforgettable city' but also ensure it's continuing commercial demise.

Just one little thing. The Hotels in BFD are full.
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I don't know why. That's not the debate. But there's a big demand, hence the new ones.

Hotels in Bradford are full? Where have you heard that?

I've just checked availability and 'booked' five rooms for tonight at the Jurys in, no problem.

Knock it down.

flashdonut wrote:

mattshaw wrote:
Bradford is a sea of 'To Let' signs. The City Park has failed miserably in increasing footfall, as shown by your dramatic photograph from the Jubilee Celebrations with three people watching the entertainment the public purse paid for. All the Hotels in the City are struggling because nobody wants to come to Bradford (apart from those visiting the City's media museum). From where I stand there are two strong reasons to support saving our Odeon:

Firstly the commercial reason, what this City needs is more retail and leisure facilities to bring people into the City to spend money. When these people flock to our City to spend their hard earned in our new leisure facilities we may then need more hotels. You only have to look at the success of Leeds with it's O2 Arena, what a perfect venue the Odeon would make for such a venue. The Odeon building is also perfectly placed in the heart of the redeveloped City Park area, away from the run down area of St. Georges Hall and 'Wastefield'. As for vacant office space you only have to walk around town to see the number of existing offices available in this ghost town. With the sad departure of Thomas Cook from the City, this number is only set to increase.

The second main reason is to preserve some of our heritage, stop all our city's looking the same, keep an identity and a connection to the past. This is what makes a City special and somewhere that is a pleasant and interesting place to visit, like York, Durham, London or Chester. You only have to look at the visitor numbers and you can see that city's that preserve their connection to the past are much higher footfall rates than City's such as Coventry that has lost a lot of it's old buildings (not all through it's own fault of course). Retaining this Heritage bolsters visitor numbers and then feeds the commercial heart of the City. When replacing a building one should ask 'will the replacement building be of equal design quality and craftsmanship as the one that it replaces' and in this case I definitely disagree. Once a building is lost from a City it cannot be replaced, it is sad to think that most of the architecture of our grandparents era has now been lost and replaced two or three times over whilst the heart and soul (the people) of the City lie wounded.

£700,000 of public money has been spent over the last three months to ensure that the building remains watertight after ten years of neglect, to demolish a building after spending this amount of public money on it in itself is scandalous. Replacing the Odeon with a new faceless glass office building for councillors to no doubt occupy is a needless and shameless act which will not only make Bradford an 'unforgettable city' but also ensure it's continuing commercial demise.

Just one little thing. The Hotels in BFD are full.
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I don't know why. That's not the debate. But there's a big demand, hence the new ones.

Probably filled with homeless immigrants being paid for by us, they do a lot of cheap promotions to try and entice custom though.
It seems to me that the only answer to this would be a vote.

mattshaw wrote:
@Avro, maybe if David Hockney had confidence in the way his City was being run and the loyalty of the City's media (his comment was recently reported on page 21 of the T&A I believe) he may well still live here.

The Council were quite happy to use a title to one of David's works as their regeneration slogan but unfortunately failed to regenerate, no wonder he has moved - like most other Bradford folk he is no doubt fed up of being lied to.

David's commitment to the area is most notable not only with comment to support our campaign but with his continuing support to exhibiting at the Salts Mill Gallery (A World Heritage Centre), a case in point.

Maybe you should consider attacking other notable celebrities and Bradfordian's that have not come out to even support the campaign or show how proud they are of their roots.

Not according to this article, but there again don't believe everything you read in the papers!
http://www.thetelegr
aphandargus.co.uk/ne
ws/8367470.Jobs_at_r
isk_as_hotel_group_c
alls_in_administrato
rs/

The people supporting the demolition of the odeon wouldn't happen to be the people set to benefit would it? Because Bradford certainly won't. We have lost so many buildings, let's not allow the corrupt jokers in 'charge' to lose us another.

I wouldn't entrust a dog kennel to Bradford council, let alone part of our history. What a joke, a sea of empty buildings and we need more? Same goes for empty hotels.

Booking.com reveals 16 out of 20 hotels available for 1 double room this evening.

It's about time we let the fight for the Odeon finish.Yes it was a good building in it's hayday! but we need to move on.All this trying to save it is costing us valueable time and money, when something in it's place could bring energy to Bradford and of course more job's.I am not a young person who could not care less, but am in my sixties and i think it is for the best.

mattshaw wrote:
@Avro, maybe if David Hockney had confidence in the way his City was being run and the loyalty of the City's media (his comment was recently reported on page 21 of the T&A I believe) he may well still live here. The Council were quite happy to use a title to one of David's works as their regeneration slogan but unfortunately failed to regenerate, no wonder he has moved - like most other Bradford folk he is no doubt fed up of being lied to. David's commitment to the area is most notable not only with comment to support our campaign but with his continuing support to exhibiting at the Salts Mill Gallery (A World Heritage Centre), a case in point. Maybe you should consider attacking other notable celebrities and Bradfordian's that have not come out to even support the campaign or show how proud they are of their roots.

Hockney has indeed supported Salts Mill, and what a success story it has been. But its not Bradford central, and where the majority of Saltaire choose to distance themselves from Bradford for very good reason, which is likely the same reason why Hockney no longer lives here!

Maybe you should consider that other "notable celebrities and Bradfordian's" have not come out in support because they don't support it!

@avro I have a list of celebrity support as long as my arm, several of which are from Bradford with signed confirmation of this.

flower1950 wrote:
It's about time we let the fight for the Odeon finish.Yes it was a good building in it's hayday! but we need to move on.All this trying to save it is costing us valueable time and money, when something in it's place could bring energy to Bradford and of course more job's.I am not a young person who could not care less, but am in my sixties and i think it is for the best.

Such as what? in case you hadn't noticed, we have a huge hole in our city from the last time our council tried to bring 'energy and jobs' to our city. All that would happen would be a few people make some money then swan off to live elsewhere.

Bradford could have an alternative strategy: instead of just being another identikit town with the usual suspects, it could have some identity? It only takes a little imagination.

I certainly don't trust a bunch who can't even allow the big screen on for the football, and would prefer to drive people willing to spend money elsewhere.

In fact, I can't believe anyone defending the council here is a Bradford resident after what they have done to our city.

New Victoria Place won't bring any significant investment or jobs into Bradford, at best it will simply cause some existing Bradford businesses to leave their current offices empty and move instead, as seen with Provident.
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It might also bring in a few minimum wage hotel staff jobs, in the process, it'll take us one step further, to one of the existing hotels going into liquidation.
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Would anyone suggest replacing the Alhambra with some flats or a hotel? Not likely, it was in terrible condition before it was saved, we should from that episode in history that the Odeon can be restored and put to a commercially successful use.

Yes Clowny, the council proposed demolition of the Alhambra in about 1983 IIRC.

What if THAT had happened?

RL Ron wrote:
Yes Clowny, the council proposed demolition of the Alhambra in about 1983 IIRC.

What if THAT had happened?

I also believe, I'm happy to corrected if wrong, that the Alhambra is now so successful it actually subsidies St. George's Hall which about breaks even or makes a small loss.

mattshaw wrote:
Channel 4's Restoration Man (and official advisor to David Cameron) George Clarke said:

"The work of the campaigners in Bradford who are determined to save the beautiful Odeon Cinema building is invaluable. We need many more individuals like them country-wide. People who are prepared to pick up the baton and help preserve some of our country's architectural treasures. Historically we have seen the lives of some iconic buildings cut short and then lived to regret it. There have also been success stories and we mustn't forget these. Imagine for example if Sir John Betjeman hadn't campaigned to save St Pancras. What a tragedy that would have been. I feel that losing this building, although smaller and more humble, would be prove to be a similar loss not only for the people of Bradford but also the Nation as a whole. Campaigns like this aren't about conservationists getting together and wanting to preserve a building just for the sake of it. Yes buildings like the Odeon celebrate our past but they can also be recycled, transformed and converted into something new for the future. The fact it's not listed is completely irrelevant. In my opinion Bradford has a moral duty to put a smile back on the face of a much loved building. It's a good building and it should never be lost."

The last thing Bradford needs is more apathy, the people need to stand together and ask for something better.
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Why settle for another hotel and some more apartments? Where's the ambition, the heart, the soul?
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We've lost too much in Bradford already, imagine how classy Bradford city centre would look now if it still had Swan Arcade? (If you don't know what it looked like check Google).

move the occupants ( Cllrs ) out of city hall and relocate them to the Odeon, you will soon see a transformation of that site quicker than Cllr Green ( leader of the council ) can get dressed in the morning ' but by the state of him does he get dressed or sleep in his clothes'

Assuming it was restored, what then? It could never make enough money to pay for its own maintenance - it would have to be subsidised by somebody.
On a personal note, I have asked quite a lot of my friends what they want to see and all but one said it should have been knocked down years ago before it bacame such a disgrace to the city centre that they've had to hide it behind bubble-wrap!

Everyone I ask thinks the lack of shops and the state of Broadway & Market Street are the real disgrace to the city centre.

No one I know thinks more flats and hotels are the remedy.

mad matt wrote:
Assuming it was restored, what then? It could never make enough money to pay for its own maintenance - it would have to be subsidised by somebody. On a personal note, I have asked quite a lot of my friends what they want to see and all but one said it should have been knocked down years ago before it bacame such a disgrace to the city centre that they've had to hide it behind bubble-wrap!

What would the maintenance bill be then? Or are you just guessing? And what is the issue if it is subsidised by an organisation? That sounds a much better outcome than an empty offices, flats and hotel rooms on the site.

The proposed development is simply pie in the sky by 2012 standards - it was common in 2008 when the planning application was made but can you honestly see Langtree getting the necessary pre-lets to move forwards with this? Will people be queuing up to buy the flats "off plan"? I suspect any commercial tenant is going to want so many incentives, it won't be financially viable for Langtree.

Given that Langtree have 8 months to test the water (notwithstanding that the HCA actually have the power to terminate the Development contract - though they have claimed otherwise) we will still be arguing about this into 2013 (at which point we will presumably get a sob story from Langtree about "market conditions" not being right and we will find ourselves back at square one).

At least given the works that the HCA have carried out to the Odeon, it is unlikely to further detriorate.

all of bradford needs knocking down & starting again.

The building is an eyesore and surely there's better things to do with your time than fight to save a building that hasn't been used in years??

Lets inject a bit of life into the city and make it more enjoyable to visit than somewhere you only go if it's the last resort for a last minute birthday present!

Our illustrious neighbours, Leeds, have empty apartments, offices and hotels with vacancies, if they can't fill the available spaces, offices etc what chance has our poor city with it's inept leaders?

The John Peel centre for arts, music and film is the ONLY way forward.

PS, I'm not a lover of the odeon but I'm less a lover of destruction of our heritage to fund and further ineptitude.

The support for keeping this building amongst the support of Bradford business is phenomenal, evidence of the City turning Blue....

http://www.cityoffil
m.co.uk/gallery/odeo
n-save-it/

flashdonut wrote:

Yammer wrote:
Ask yourself this:
If the Odeon building had been kept clean, free of weeds, and presentable, all these years, do you think people would want to tear it down?
Why wasn't it?

Beacause it served it's purpose and was left to rot. Just as many old buildings do. Hardly politics.

Or ... a prominent building in a city centre is left to collect mildew and weeds making it an eyesore, and encouraging public disgust.
Actually, not rotting as such. Just in need of a good clean.

flashdonut wrote:
Boycotting new business and development? Shaming compaines that want to set up shop in the failing town centre? Are you for real? Talk about up one's self.
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It is no wonder that folk like me, ie too young to really appreciate what The Odeon means to some, have absoulute no sympathy. To give out this statements is pathetic and cheap.
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I hope it gets knocked down as a matter of urgency and I hope you find that toy that fell from your pram.
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Pathetic indivuduals.

Top quality comment that man: perhaps we should also have demolished Saltaire, Haworth and any other old buildings when we had a chance. After all, concrete and glass identikit hotels and apartment blocks are the future, aren't they?

It would be a real shame to see this building go; regardless of the fact that we're talking about demolishing one of the UK's few remaining 30's supercinemas, one which happens to reside in a UNESCO City of Film, it forms part of a very poorly represented period amongst the architectural story of Bradford. There is the potential to breathe new life into this building, or at least retain a substantial element of it and make it a vibrant part of the new city centre.

Recycling works, rebuilding fails! What has survived from the 60's, 70's "new builds"? NONE! Look at Saltaire, Little Germany, Lister's mills, Wool Exchange, Industrial museum, Alhambra, City hall, etc. Swan arcade & Kirkgate market - now lost, look over the border to Leeds and see what recycling of old buildings can achieve! On a seperate note, this whole fiasco regarding our Odeon and Wastefield merits a public enquiry due to the ineptness of the council and corruption from all concerned in these failures.

flashdonut wrote:

Yammer wrote:
Ask yourself this:
If the Odeon building had been kept clean, free of weeds, and presentable, all these years, do you think people would want to tear it down?
Why wasn't it?

Beacause it served it's purpose and was left to rot. Just as many old buildings do. Hardly politics.

I blame the property speculators for that sort of thing. That's why there are so many empty houses and shops in the area, just being left to rot. Quite often the land is worth more than the building.

It's not "rotting"! That's just what the planners and developers (and the T&A) want you to think.

mad matt wrote:
Assuming it was restored, what then? It could never make enough money to pay for its own maintenance - it would have to be subsidised by somebody. On a personal note, I have asked quite a lot of my friends what they want to see and all but one said it should have been knocked down years ago before it bacame such a disgrace to the city centre that they've had to hide it behind bubble-wrap!

Wrong..it would sub itself. I posted a few months back that when I worked for O2 it was even proposed to Bradford Council to transform the building into an academy as the location and building is excellent for this purpose. The business models were built and submitted and O2 would have stumped up 95% of the regeneration of this building but is was rejected by the council following numerous meetings.

An O2 or John Peel venue would be amazing, and could also possibly be used for other functions during the day - an exhibition space? This would not compete with The Alhambra and produce a venue with sufficient sound and accoustics to better St Georges which could be converted into the new Bradford Library! Leeds, Sheffield and Manchester all have multiple concert venues of differing capacity and are commercial.

bradfordrich wrote:

flashdonut wrote:
Boycotting new business and development? Shaming compaines that want to set up shop in the failing town centre? Are you for real? Talk about up one's self.
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It is no wonder that folk like me, ie too young to really appreciate what The Odeon means to some, have absoulute no sympathy. To give out this statements is pathetic and cheap.
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I hope it gets knocked down as a matter of urgency and I hope you find that toy that fell from your pram.
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Pathetic indivuduals.

I agree, this city needs to progress not temain tied to the past

How come that Leeds has progressed then by tying itself to its past, and retaining its historical buildings such as Kirkgate Market, The Corn Exchange, and the Victorian quarter with its arcades? These places bring in many shoppers and tourists to the city centre. If Bradford council had not been so short sighted in the past and demolished our Kirkgate Market, and Swan Arcade, etc., then it would have made Bradford a much nicer place for people to want to visit. The Odeon can be resurrected for a great idea such as The John Peel centre, especially with his connections to Bradford, but it cannot be if it is torn down. If that goes, what next? City Hall? Maybe that might not be such a bad idea, getting rid of our expensive and vandalist councillors hidey-hole.

Just for clarification: Leeds WANTED to demolish their market and arcades but, luckily for them, ran out of the cash to do it.

it's all about vision, how will restoring or knocking down this historic architectural building be seen in the future. Will it be like the old N&P concrete building in Centernary square or like restoring Victoria Mills and most of Saltaire.

The odeon needs to be demolished asap. Lets move on and put a bloody structure of some sort as this charade has gone on for far too long..

Looks to me like they are already doing something behind the bubble wrap!!! Shame on them if they have already started. It has been a disgrace of the city councel since day one to let it get this far. Disgusted.

Lets all get a grip - Not one person has come forward with any money to save the Odeon.

Even those wanting it to become the John Peel Media Centre don't have any financial backers.

George Galloway as even failed to get funding from Saudia Arabia.

It's alright saying we should save it, but the fact remains that their is no other credible plans for that building than the one already on the table.

Reality001 wrote:
Lets all get a grip - Not one person has come forward with any money to save the Odeon.

Even those wanting it to become the John Peel Media Centre don't have any financial backers.

George Galloway as even failed to get funding from Saudia Arabia.

It's alright saying we should save it, but the fact remains that their is no other credible plans for that building than the one already on the table.

Wrong, alternative bid can’t be put in yet as Yorkshire Forward signed the Langtree agreement, once that falls through then we’ll see who can put their money where their mouth is, whether that's Galloway or BORG or another interested party only time will tell.

Kink wrote:
Ask yourselves how committed and confident are a developer who hadn't thought to register the domain names newvictoriaplace.com or .co.uk. Step number one on any marketing plan, costs less than a tenner

In fairness they haven't registered any of them - wish I had a few quid spare I would do them myself!

RL Ron wrote:

flower1950 wrote: It's about time we let the fight for the Odeon finish.Yes it was a good building in it's hayday! but we need to move on.All this trying to save it is costing us valueable time and money, when something in it's place could bring energy to Bradford and of course more job's.I am not a young person who could not care less, but am in my sixties and i think it is for the best.

Such as what? in case you hadn't noticed, we have a huge hole in our city from the last time our council tried to bring 'energy and jobs' to our city. All that would happen would be a few people make some money then swan off to live elsewhere. Bradford could have an alternative strategy: instead of just being another identikit town with the usual suspects, it could have some identity? It only takes a little imagination. I certainly don't trust a bunch who can't even allow the big screen on for the football, and would prefer to drive people willing to spend money elsewhere. In fact, I can't believe anyone defending the council here is a Bradford resident after what they have done to our city.

I am not defending the council at all, it has gone on for far too long now and the longer it is left the worse things will get.Have you not noticed that it is falling down and will cost an awfull lot of money to restore. We will never be able to recoup it all back and even if it opened as a theatre again the prices to cover the work would be extortionate and unless you have forgotten, MONEY IS TIGHT,at least for a lot of people.

@flower - cheaper to restore and refurbish than to knock down and rebuild with an oversized greenhouse!

flashdonut wrote:

mattshaw wrote:
Bradford is a sea of 'To Let' signs. The City Park has failed miserably in increasing footfall, as shown by your dramatic photograph from the Jubilee Celebrations with three people watching the entertainment the public purse paid for. All the Hotels in the City are struggling because nobody wants to come to Bradford (apart from those visiting the City's media museum). From where I stand there are two strong reasons to support saving our Odeon:

Firstly the commercial reason, what this City needs is more retail and leisure facilities to bring people into the City to spend money. When these people flock to our City to spend their hard earned in our new leisure facilities we may then need more hotels. You only have to look at the success of Leeds with it's O2 Arena, what a perfect venue the Odeon would make for such a venue. The Odeon building is also perfectly placed in the heart of the redeveloped City Park area, away from the run down area of St. Georges Hall and 'Wastefield'. As for vacant office space you only have to walk around town to see the number of existing offices available in this ghost town. With the sad departure of Thomas Cook from the City, this number is only set to increase.

The second main reason is to preserve some of our heritage, stop all our city's looking the same, keep an identity and a connection to the past. This is what makes a City special and somewhere that is a pleasant and interesting place to visit, like York, Durham, London or Chester. You only have to look at the visitor numbers and you can see that city's that preserve their connection to the past are much higher footfall rates than City's such as Coventry that has lost a lot of it's old buildings (not all through it's own fault of course). Retaining this Heritage bolsters visitor numbers and then feeds the commercial heart of the City. When replacing a building one should ask 'will the replacement building be of equal design quality and craftsmanship as the one that it replaces' and in this case I definitely disagree. Once a building is lost from a City it cannot be replaced, it is sad to think that most of the architecture of our grandparents era has now been lost and replaced two or three times over whilst the heart and soul (the people) of the City lie wounded.

£700,000 of public money has been spent over the last three months to ensure that the building remains watertight after ten years of neglect, to demolish a building after spending this amount of public money on it in itself is scandalous. Replacing the Odeon with a new faceless glass office building for councillors to no doubt occupy is a needless and shameless act which will not only make Bradford an 'unforgettable city' but also ensure it's continuing commercial demise.

Just one little thing. The Hotels in BFD are full.
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I don't know why. That's not the debate. But there's a big demand, hence the new ones.

Are you joking ? Is this why the biggest one has just gone into receivership ? Nearly every hotel in Bradford is empty and desperately crying out for customers.

Andy2010 wrote:

mad matt wrote: Assuming it was restored, what then? It could never make enough money to pay for its own maintenance - it would have to be subsidised by somebody. On a personal note, I have asked quite a lot of my friends what they want to see and all but one said it should have been knocked down years ago before it bacame such a disgrace to the city centre that they've had to hide it behind bubble-wrap!

Wrong..it would sub itself. I posted a few months back that when I worked for O2 it was even proposed to Bradford Council to transform the building into an academy as the location and building is excellent for this purpose. The business models were built and submitted and O2 would have stumped up 95% of the regeneration of this building but is was rejected by the council following numerous meetings.

I had heard this rumour before.
So who were the councillors involved in backhealing this wonderfull proposal by O2.
The ones with the finger in the pie if Langtree came off.
Corruption everywhere it would seem.
Funny how Labour say it has been official policy to save it since 2001.
And now the Tories and Libs want to save it.
And just how many voted(if any or at all)for the scheme in the alleged competition to get the public to suggedt what was put in its place.
You coukld not make it up and I guess Maud Marshall and her idiotic team ofg regenerators made up most of this farce.
Nobody wants it replaced with more bland rubbish.
But those with corrupt influence have already done their worst.
dreadfull carve up.
But it will not happen.

Why can't we join together as one voice and save the Odeon. It worked for the Roundhouse in London which was in a very similar position in 1993. Yet now is seen as an international showpiece of old and new coming together as one. And yet still being run as a centre of arts that is there for the community and encouraging the talent of young people.

Could the Odeon be the roundhouse of the North?

For more info http://www.roundhous
e.org.uk/about/histo
ry

The odeon frontage does look impressive but the rest of the building would be a nighmare to develope into a usable space for businesses and even if it was developed at great expense could anyone guarantee that there would be droves of potential shoppers willing to support it...not so sure based on other ventures in Bradford.