The former Saville Theatre, most recently the Odeon, on Shaftesbury Avenue is under attack again. Built in 1931, it is an unspoilt Deco gem that only just managed to escape the Blitz.
The Odeon when it was built as the Saville Theatre in 1931.
In 2019 a developer tried to gut the building and add 2-3 glass floors on top so that it could be turned into a hotel with a small cinema in its 2 basements. After a lot of local objections, Camden refused the scheme. But the developer took it to appeal. CGCA was very involved in the long battle that ensued across 2020-21, with volunteers taking weeks off work and many local people appearing as witnesses.
In the end the building was saved. The planning inspector’s report is here. His reasons were mainly damage to the appearance of the building and views from the conservation areas, but also damage to its character as it was no longer going to be used mainly as a place of entertainment.
Drawing of the proposed frontage on Shaftesbury Avenue – a 100% increase in height, from 17 to 34 metres.
Then another developer, Yoo Capital, bought the building at a higher price.
To get a return on their £30 million investment they are proposing to gut it, keep only the front and parts of the other outer walls, and turn it into a 200+ bedroom hotel with an even higher extension on top.
They submitted initial proposals in 2024, which they have revised in 2025.
Wednesday 12th March 2025, 6.30pm at St. Paul’s church.
As we reported last year, the Jubilee Hall Gym on Covent Garden Piazza is under threat of closure, with plans to sell up to a commercial body.
The Jubilee Sports Hall, as it was then known, was the one space that was kept for the community after the famous ‘Battle for Covent Garden’ that saved the area from the bulldozers in the 1970s. It was granted a long lease at a peppercorn rent so that local people had a lovely, light space for exercise and enjoyment.
Its Board of Trustees is no longer made up of local people, and they are looking at it as a business which is not profitable. They run another community gym in London and two commercial gyms which subsidise the costs of Jubilee Hall. We don’t see anything wrong with this arrangement, at least in the medium-term, but they do. Many charities are run in this way, with their main mission being funded through other activities.
Like many other sports facilities, Jubilee Hall suffered financially during Covid; it has a debt to pay and maintenance costs. We have spent months trying to persuade the trustees to involve the community and to put some effort into fund raising. We also believe that the building has a lot more potential, and it has the massive advantage of paying no rent. But the current trustees refuse to allow experienced local people to join the Board, and see selling the building as the easiest way out.
Last year CGCA applied to have the building designated an Asset of Community Value, which Westminster council granted. But the Board of Trustees has now given notice that they plan to sell anyway, and the community only has until the Summer to make an offer.
Please join us at the public meeting which has been arranged to bring people together to discuss a vision for the building, and a plan to implement it.
CGCA will be speaking, as will people who were part of setting up the Jubilee Hall Trust in the first place, former trustees, and individuals who are willing to step up as new trustees.
It’s very important that as many local people as possible attend, to show that the community cares about the place and wants to see it restored to us. With the loss of the YMCA in Bloomsbury, the Jubilee Hall facility is more important than ever.
