The plans for a new cinema on Magdalen Street has been proposed through a licensing application that has been submitted to the Oxford City Council. The proposed cinema will, if approved, replace the Odeon on the street that closed in 2023.
The original cinema first opened in 1924 and was built by the theatre conductor business Frank Matcham & Company. It was later bought by Odeon in 2000, before closing in 2023.
Alejandro Whyatt, who runs a cinema in Burnham-on-Crouch, has proposed to transform the vacant site of the original, into a new cinema multiplex with two screens capable of hosting over 700 people and a café. He registered a new company named Roxy Movies (The Oxford Cinema) Limited in January and has applied for the proposed venue to be open every day each week from 8:30am to 11:30pm.
This new cinema proposal follows the closure of the Odeon on George Street last month, which had been operating as a cinema since 1936. The council plans to replace it with a £37 million “aparthotel” containing 145 rooms, a bar and a café, which a spokesperson said would likely take three years to complete.
The council stated that Odeon did not wish to renew its lease of the location and argued that the building’s demolition and replacement with a hotel area would increase tourism, although the plan faced 97 formal objections from local residents.
As a result of its removal, the only remaining cinemas in Oxford currently are the Curzon in Westgate, Phoenix Picturehouse in Jericho, Ultimate Picture Palace on Cowley Road and Vue on Grenoble Road.
There are fears, moreover, that a proposed redevelopment project, ‘Ozone Leisure Park Reimagined’, will cause the Vue to be reduced to contain only three or four screens. The proposal for the Park contains new labs, offices and community facilities.
The planned new cinema on Magdalen Street may therefore compensate for the increasingly reduced opportunities for public film-viewing in the city. Oxford City Council has yet to either approve or reject the proposal.
