"In 1963 the Odeon cinema further along The Parade closed and in 1964 the Gaumont took the Odeon name." all very confusing.... any way it was one of those! Then of ocurse there was the Essoldo.... and was there a Carlton? Cinemas have such funny names eh..
Ooh - a trip down memory lane. I can certainly remember the Essoldo - in King Street, near the Robert Peel pub - both probably long gone. From memory, the Empire was in Market Street - probably long gone too - more than likely it's now the hotel that norway frequents when he comes for matches. Then there was the Palace near the top of Clarendon Road - where I lost my - ahem - won't go into that in the interests of decency. I believe it is still there - obviously a site of historical significance.
Picture houses have quite a history in Watford. There was the Electric Coliseum in St. Albans Road opened in 1912 and later known as the Plaza. Known as a fleapit it went bust, then came back a little later as the New Coliseum. The Empire at the bottom of Market Street was built in 1913 and clung to silent movies long after they had gone out of fashion. With an organist and orchestra it was good value at 9d in the stalls. In King Street the Regal/Essoldo started out as the Central Hall Picture House in 1913. It advertised itself as the "house that satisfies and the warmest place in Watford". It closed for a while before reopening as the Regal with talkies. There was another one called the Bohemian Cinema which lasted for just one month before the Met railway bought it to build a station in the High Street. Nothing came of that scheme. The Super Cinema, later the Carlton in Clarendon Road had in a previous existence been a roller skating rink. The first cinema in Watford to have tip up seats and the first one to show talkies. Up by the Pond the Plaza, later the Odeon was built in 1929 with 2,000 tip up seats, by far the largest in town. It was hugely popular to go to one of these places and see things outside of your normal life. No TV of course, so for a modest entrance fee a couple of hours of entertainment.
My youth was Birmingham rather than Watford. One of us paid to go in for Saturday morning pictures and let the rest of us in through one of the emergency exits. We were eventually rumbled of course and the slowest runner got a thick ear for his trouble...
Don't forget the North Watford Odeon in the St Albans Road (opposite the Bushey Mill Lane turnoff), which later became a Waitrose.
