# A Lost London Gem - Erno Goldfinger's Elephant & Castle Odeon



## HackneyE9 (Dec 4, 2008)

Just found this on flickr:

http://flickr.com/photos/oldcinemaphotos/sets/72157604100055610/

The single-screen brutalist cinema was demolished over one weekend in 1988, just after it was announced it was to be listed on the Monday.

I think it would by now - pace Trellick, the Barbican etc - be very much back in fashion. Although whether it would have survived as a single screen is a moot point - does listing get that detailed?

Amazing photos courtesy of flickr - as far as I'm aware, there are very few of Goldfinger's Odeon. Certainly the main biography of him only has a b&w one of a wooden model for it, and then one group shot with Alexandra Fleming house.

So well done to this snapper for getting the building before it went.

Any U75 posters remember it? There was a vacant plot for 25 years next to the railway viaduct after it was knocked down, only recently filled by a bland as hell yuppie block of flats.


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## PacificOcean (Dec 4, 2008)

What an ugly building.  It's not like Elephant is short on those.

I think the Elephant was lucky it was knocked down before it was listed.

Why is it called the Coronet on some of those photos?  That was/is across the road isn't it?


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## Mitre10 (Dec 4, 2008)

Not the prettiest building ever I must say...

Mr Goldfinger had some "different" ideas didn't he.


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## marty21 (Dec 4, 2008)

i like it, might have given me a reason to visit elephant a bit more


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## ovaltina (Dec 4, 2008)

I really like that building too, but then I like lost of 70s architecture including the Trellick Tower in Ladbroke Grove as well and that was build by the same chap.


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## Belushi (Dec 4, 2008)

I do remember it, fucking eyesore, glad its gone.


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## Rollem (Dec 4, 2008)

i remember it from wandering around elephant as a kid. never went in though


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## hipipol (Dec 4, 2008)

I saw one of the Conan movies there cant remember which one, think I went two or three times in all, used to live nearby on the Pullens.
I must say it didn't make any particular impression on me at the time

NB I do recall it sat getting slowly derelict for ages - I only realised it had closed when they took the Odeon sign down


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## blossie33 (Dec 4, 2008)

I am a bit confused about this one?

It looks like what is now the Coronet club at Elephant which I went to last year so it can't have been demolished.


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## hipipol (Dec 4, 2008)

Twas opposite it on the other side of the road, they are building a block of flats there now


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## blossie33 (Dec 4, 2008)

hipipol said:


> Twas opposite it on the other side of the road, they are building a block of flats there now



Oh right, thanks


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## quimcunx (Dec 4, 2008)

I like those photos but suspect I would just find it depressing-looking if it were still there now.


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## Onket (Dec 4, 2008)

Marmite building.

I like it.


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## Bungle73 (Dec 4, 2008)

I remember going to see Superman IV (yes I know) there.  IIRC they had to delay the start of the film because so many people were waiting to see it.



blossie33 said:


> I am a bit confused about this one?
> 
> It looks like what is now the Coronet club at Elephant which I went to last year so it can't have been demolished.


Is that not a cinema anymore?  I saw Flash Gordon there, but when I went there last, in 1989, to see Star Trek V it was a right flea pit.


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## lang rabbie (Dec 4, 2008)

I'm already forwarding that hardcore brutalist pr0n link to various architectural aquaintances who are Goldfinger groupies.


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## Gingerman (Dec 4, 2008)

http://flickr.com/photos/oldcinemaphotos/2329094416/in/set-72157604100055610/
Police Academy 5, fuckin hell they really spoiled the punters back then


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## HackneyE9 (Dec 5, 2008)

lang rabbie said:


> I'm already forwarding that hardcore brutalist pr0n link to various architectural aquaintances who are Goldfinger groupies.



Cheers. 

This thread sure brought the suburban philistines out of the woodwork.


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## 1927 (Dec 9, 2008)

HackneyE9 said:


> demolished over one weekend in 1988, just after it was announced it was to be listed on the Monday.



A very similar fate to the Firestone building.

http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~garycr/2001/firestone_factory/


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## brix (Dec 9, 2008)

1927 said:


> A very similar fate to the Firestone building.



And similar to what Westminster Council are doing to Pimlico School.  It would have come up for listing last month, so they started knocking it down over the Summer.  This is them destroying the swimming pool.







There won't be a pool in the big bland box that will replace the loveit/hate it brutalist icon.  The building that will replace it has also been described by the Commission for the Built Environment as "not fit for purpose".

All very 

Love the Goldfinger Odeon building   Wish I had seen it before it went.


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## Taxamo Welf (Dec 10, 2008)

1927 said:


> A very similar fate to the Firestone building.
> 
> http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~garycr/2001/firestone_factory/



is that not there?!!


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## HackneyE9 (Dec 10, 2008)

brix said:


> And similar to what Westminster Council are doing to Pimlico School.  It would have come up for listing last month, so they started knocking it down over the Summer.  This is them destroying the swimming pool.
> 
> 
> 
> ...



Thanks, Brix. I also am gutted about the Pimlico school. As well as loving that era of architecture it used to make me almost physically laugh out loud when I passed it as what an incongrous 'fuck off' it was to all the white stucco architecture in Pimlico.

A friend of mine was a pupil there in the 80s, and although she has the usual moans about it being freezing in winter and boiling in summer, she's distraught they've knocked it down too.


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## HackneyE9 (Dec 10, 2008)

In fact, since I see you started that thread on Berlin socialist architecture, I'm going to send you a PM. Only my fourth ever so feel suitable flattered!


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## Divisive Cotton (Dec 10, 2008)

Gingerman said:


> http://flickr.com/photos/oldcinemaphotos/2329094416/in/set-72157604100055610/
> Police Academy 5, fuckin hell they really spoiled the punters back then



 hmm, I wonder why this cinema closed down?


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## brix (Dec 10, 2008)

HackneyE9 said:


> In fact, since I see you started that thread on Berlin socialist architecture, I'm going to send you a PM. Only my fourth ever so feel suitable flattered!




Thanks for the PM - I am, indeed, suitably flatted 

It's completely gutting about Pimlico.  I taught there for several years - and I applied for the job in the first place purely because of the building.  

It did have major problems as a building but plans did exist for a total refurbishment that would have smartened it up (and fixed years of neglect by Westminster fucking Council) *AND* fixed the problems (widened narrow corridors, special glass that would have stopped the solar gain, etc).  The cost of that plan was £20 million.

Instead Westminster have chosen to destroy the building (because, in my opinion, they saw it as a symbol of comprehensive education) and spend £35 million on the new building which is bland, bland, bland.  And has been described as "not fit for purpose".

People like Richard Rogers begged them not to do it but they went ahead.

Incidentally the £35 million for the new building didn't come from them but from central government.  Had they had to put their hands into their own pockets I don't think they would have destroyed the building.  However much they hated it.

Fuckers.  I hate them


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## HackneyE9 (Dec 10, 2008)

I hadn't even realised it had a swimming pool - must be doubly heart-breaking for someone who actually worked there and loved the place.

On a similar vein, are you aware of the imminent destruction of the Robin Hood Gardens' housing estate in Poplar?


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## brix (Dec 10, 2008)

HackneyE9 said:


> I hadn't even realised it had a swimming pool - must be doubly heart-breaking for someone who actually worked there and loved the place.
> 
> On a similar vein, are you aware of the imminent destruction of the Robin Hood Gardens' housing estate in Poplar?




Yes it had a pool.  And with the 2012 Olympics coming up, what better time to raze it to the ground? 

Honestly, I can't even think about it without feeling absolutely furious!

As to Robin Hood Gardens, yes I am aware.  I was going to alert you to this thread (http://www.urban75.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=242950&highlight=robin+hood+gardens), complete with great photos from teuchter.  But then I realised that you'd posted on it so that would be pointless...


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## Stoat Boy (Dec 17, 2008)

Spent many a happy hour in that cinema as well as the one opposite. We would get a 63 bus up from Peckham. 

I suppose never really thought about what it looked like but seeing it with fresh eyes now then I guess it was an ugly building but as a kid that sort of thing just did not compute. 

Personally I am a fan of the Elephant even if its just from the POV of people watching and quite enjoy having a mooch around the second hand book shop on the ground level of the shopping centre.


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## Onket (Dec 17, 2008)

The cinema I used to go to as a kid is a Wetherspoons.


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## HackneyE9 (Dec 17, 2008)

Onket said:


> The cinema I used to go to as a kid is a Wetherspoons.



The Wetherspoons I go to as an adult used to be a cinema


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