19 August 2026

Ninety-one years of the Odeon — and thirty seconds to help save it

More than 2,300 residents have signed the petition to save Kingstanding’s listed Odeon. Here’s why it matters — and what you can do in half a minute.

Ninety-one years, that building has stood at the top of Kings Road. Your nan courted in the back row. Your grandad queued round the block for Flash Gordon with a penny in his pocket. Whole generations of Kingstanding grew up under that tower — first at the pictures, then over a bingo card.

It isn’t just our building, either. When it opened in July 1935 — around 1,300 seats, designed by J. Cecil Clavering and Robert Bullivant of Harry Weedon and Partners — it became the template for every Odeon that followed. Historic England says the famous Odeon house style was first adopted right here, at our cinema. It was listed Grade II in 1980 on architectural merit, at just forty-five years old. There are grander buildings in Birmingham. There are very few more important ones.

The films ended in 1962, and the bingo carried it on for another sixty years — Top Rank, then Mecca — until the hall closed in June 2026. Since then it has stood empty: fire-damaged, boarded, and now being marketed for sale. Buildings like this don’t die of old age. They die of empty years, one winter at a time.

Kingstanding hasn’t rolled over. More than 2,300 residents have signed our petition calling on Birmingham City Council to secure the Odeon and work with the community to bring it back into use — as the gathering place it has been for ninety-one years, not another hole in the high street.

And while the campaign grows, we’re saving something else: the memories. Our Voices of Kingstanding archive holds residents’ stories of the Odeon — the Saturday matinees, the first dates, the usherettes, the bingo years — told in their own words. If you have a story or a photograph, we’d love to keep it safe.

So here’s the ask. Sign the petition. Share it with your street. It takes thirty seconds — your grandad queued longer for the pictures.