Historian Jane Palm-Gold with head gardener Niki Barnett-Henry and manager Louise Gates
A NEW home for death-defying acrobats and a towering hotel will overshadowing to a community garden which gives people the perfect break from city life, it was claimed this week.
The Town Hall’s planning committee meets on Monday night to reach a verdict on the future of the Odeon cinema building in Shaftesbury Avenue, near Covent Garden.
The site is at the centre of a project that would see the former theatre – currently empty – partially demolished and then re-built to reach nine storeys high.
A new hotel is planned for the site, above a basement home for the world renowned circus company, Cirque du Soleil.
Swathes of conservation and history groups have joined with community and residents bodies to object to the proposals.
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They include Historic England, the 20th Century Society, the Covent Garden Community Association, the Covent Garden Area Trust, the Bloomsbury Association, The Seven Dials Trust and Phoenix Gardens.
Due to the proposed building’s height, planning chiefs accept it would cause serious overshadowing of the community-run Phoenix Garden behind the cinema – and Camden Council say the developers Yoo Capital should pay £50,000 to make up for the loss of sunlight and to help the gardens meet the cost of re-designing and replanting the communal space.
The developers would also hand over £4.2million to go towards affordable housing elsewhere, if consent is granted.
The now closed Odeon cinema in Shaftesbury Avenue was once known as the Saville Theatre and owned by Brian Epstein
The team behind Phoenix Gardens says the work would make the garden “barely useable” both during construction and afterwards, due to a huge shadow that extra five floors would cast.
The green space is known as a treasured oasis in the middle of one of the busiest part of the city and provided the backdrop for the Dame Emma Thompson’s melancholic film, Last Christmas.
In a letter to the council, the Phoenix Community Garden said: “The overshadowing jeopardises the gardens’ delicate biodiversity balance, denying direct sunlight and disrupting habitats.”
And yesterday (Wednesday), its manager Louise Gates, said: “The loss of light and the damage to the biodiversity isn’t something you can just fix by throwing £50,000 at it. and we don’t want to be forced into radically changing our garden because of a development that will completely steal our sunlight.”
She added: “This is the only garden left of what was once six in the area. It deserves to be respected and protected, not destroyed because someone wants to create hotel bedrooms.|
Ms Gates warned that plants would no longer grow there, while bees and birds would be deterred from returning.
The cinema was built as a theatre in 1931 and includes a famous frieze by sculptor Gilbert Bayes, called Drama Through The Ages.
It was known as the Saville Theatre, and was owned in the 1960s by Beatles’ manager Brian Epstein and its walls bore witness to live performance by rock’n’ roll greats likes of Chuck Berry and Little Richard.
An attempt to redevelop the building was thrown out in 2021.
On that occasion,there was a plan to build a similar rooftop extension to house a 94-bed hotel.
It was turned down by the council, and then a Whitehall planning inspector dismissed an appeal.
The Odeon closed last year.
Conservation group Historic England say the new plans would “cause a high level of harm of a rare and serious nature.”
In its objection, they added: “This scheme would seriously damage the architectural and historic integrity of the building…the extension would radically and harmfully change the clear and considered geometry of the building. It would be over bearing and seriously damage the strength and clarity of the existing building.”
Officers said they considered the new height of the building would harm the listed building and other nearby landmarks, but this was balanced by the advantages of having a new hotel and theatre.
The project would mean a significant demolition of the interior, digging out new deep level basements and taking down the entire back wall of the current building.
The officers’ report added that the rebuild would have “some noticeable impacts” to daylight and sunlight of surrounding buildings, and then added that there would also be “some major adverse impacts” to homes on Shaftesbury Avenue and at Phoenix Street.
The planning report highlighted 221 objections against 88 letters of support with officers recommending the plan is given the green light.
Officers said plans had been revised to lessen the impact of the nine storeys and while “the level of harm would still be at the high end of less than substantial, the proposed heritage and public benefits delivered by this scheme are considered sufficient to outweigh harm.”
Lloyd Lee, managing partner of Yoo Capital, “The Saville Theatre is a cherished part of our cultural heritage, having welcomed generations of audiences and some of the world’s most iconic performers. We are proud to be taking the next step in its story, with plans to reinvigorate this historic venue.
“Our vision is to return the Saville to its rightful place at the heart of the West End, not only as a world-class stage for live performance but as a vibrant asset in the local community. This is about honouring the past while creating new opportunities for creativity, engagement, and shared experiences for years to come.”