But on February 24, the Art Deco cinema will show its final reel, as the bulldozers move in for a redevelopment that will transform the neighbourhood, with flats, student housing, a new cultural space, restaurants, and public spaces.
But many locals will be nostalgic at the loss of the old movie theatre, which opened 89 years ago on January 25, 1937.
Like its fellow “super cinema” The Gaumont State in Kilburn High Road, which opened the same year, it was named after the Gaumont-British Picture Corporation.
In the 1930s it was the UK’s largest film company, owning cinemas, film studios, and producing pictures such as Alfred Hitchcock’s The 39 Steps and The Lady Vanishes.
The 2,742-seat Gaumont Palace, Regent’s Park, was the height of luxury – with a Compton organ on a platform which emerged through an archway at the side of the stage, a cafe and restaurant for patrons, and full facilities for live performances with 12 dressing rooms for artists.
Extra police were drafted in to control the crowds as comedian Will Hay and actress Lilli Palmer arrived for the grand opening, to a fanfare of trumpets and searchlights – their presence along with the Mayor of St Pancras was captured by a cameraman.
The opening movies were Paul Robeson in Show Boat and James Dunn in The Two Fisted Gentleman plus there was a live performance by the GB Revels.
Soon after opening it was renamed the Gaumont Camden Town and over the years, the likes of Bob Hope and Mantovani played on its stage.
In the 1960s it housed the Rank Organisation’s projectionist training school, but by then, the rise of television ownership had led to a decline in cinema audiences and the venue started to host a Sunday afternoon bingo club.
In 1964 it became an Odeon and alterations were made to create a Top Rank Bingo Club in the former stalls which had a separate entrance on Arlington Road, while a new 1,198 seat cinema opened in what had been the balcony in 1968.
The cinema closed in September 1979 and reopened as the Gate Cinema with just 434 seats.
Throughout the 80s it changed its name again to the Parkway Kings Cinema and 90-seat Parkway Regency, which closed in February 1987 with the film The Fly before reopening again.
During the 90s it stood in as a Hamburg cinema for the Beatles film Backbeat and its next milestone came in 1997, when Odeon Theatres took the building back and created a five-screen multiplex cinema complete with a new ‘Odeon-Fanatical About Film’ signage.
But the writing was on the wall for the building when The Mecca Bingo Club in the former cinema stalls closed in November 2024 in preparation to become a base for the immersive Secret Cinema experience.
When they pulled out of the deal, Odeon Cinemas Group announced that the cinema would close.
The Camden Xchange development won planning permission in mid December and the final film has yet to be announced.
The latest big screen adaptation of Wuthering Heights starring Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi is among the big releases in the second half of February.
Considering the first major screen adaptation of Emily Bronte’s novel starring Laurence Olivier screened in 1939 – it could bring the Odeon back almost full circle to its heyday.
