LIKE the fleapit in the 1957 Peter Sellars comedy The Smallest Show on Earth’, Hereford’s Odeon struggles on against the odds. It has the dubious distinction of being the smallest of all the mighty cinema chain’s venues and the only one still without air-conditioning. And as any parent who has planned to take the family to a popular blockbuster will know, an un-numbered pre-booked ticket to the Hereford Odeon merely confers the priviledge to queue on the pavement until the doors open!
ESG / Stanhope publicity has airily talked about a multiplex cinema coming to the Grid site, but as with so much else about this £multi-million pipe dream it’s just talk. The IOC campaign believes that the urgent relocation of the Odeon into a new purpose- designed twin- or triple-screened cinema on a site on Lower Widemarsh Street would free up the cinema’s present Commercial Road site for redevelopment into a true Transport Hub.
With a block of new buildings fronting the main road containing restaurants, bars and cafes, the back land could become a proper covered bus station with toilets, information and ticketing desks. This would replace the present muddled and uncoordinated trio of bus assembly points at St Peters Square, Hereford Station and Commercial Road. A high-level weather-protected travelator (like those at Manchester Airport and the NEC) might even provide an umbilical link for travellers changing from train to bus.
The importance of bus passengers, pedestrians and cyclists to the economic vitality of a city centre should not be under-estimated. The charity Sustrans publish an excellent information sheet on the subject of retail customers and how they travel to shop in city centres. It is well worth a read and turns some conventional wisdom on its head. http://www.sustrans.org.uk/assets/files/Info%20sheets/ff39.pdf
Sorry but a two or three screen cinema? That is simply not good enough and not a big enough step for what’s required in Hereford, I am sick and tired of having to go to the multiplexes in Worcester and Gloucester to see the latest films in a comfortable cinema with the modern screen,s sound etc and a 2 or 3 screen cinema is not good enough and does not go nearly far enough for Hereford. We need to be looking at much more than that, it should be 8 screens not a measily 2 or 3 – that size may be fine for a small town like Brecon but not for Hereford, not counting the benefits that having a proper multiplex can bring such as more visitors and the money they will spend in the city before/after a film e.g. restaurant. To relocate the Odeon to a 2 or 3 screen cinema is in my opinion and many other people I know frankly ridiculous and ranks of small town syndrome.
The It’s Our City campaign seems pained to say that you are not a bunch of nimbys, but I’m sorry to say if this is an example of your “vision” for Hereford then it’s a short sighted one that isn’t going to provide much in the way of quality or quantity for the city. At the very least we deserve a proper multiplex cinema, not a half hearted limp wristed pathetic substitute 2 or 3 screen effort – those behind this campaign will have to do more than this before I would consider giving my support to them
I wonder if turning the Odeon into a transport hub would displace established & thriving businesses in the way that the Cattle Market & Link Rd plans would? I am thinking of the Peter Prosser hair salon, Washhouse, the music shop and I don’t know how Planet Buffet is doing. I think there’s a pub next to the music shop, too.
A proper transport hub which was proposed at the railway station is the best option so that train passenger can jump straight on to buses it no good walking to the back of the Odeon there need to be a proper interchange this will also regenerate the train station.