Let it bees...soho cinema with Beatles link saved
A COLONY of rare bees has saved an Art Deco landmark in London’s West End once owned by The Beatles manager Brian Epstein from developers.
The iconic Odeon Cinema in Shaftesbury Avenue had been earmarked to become a hotel.
But planners ruled its conversion would devastate a nearby colony of buff-tailed and hairyfooted bumble bees.
Conservationists feared 10 different bee species in nearby Phoenix Garden would be starved of sunlight by a proposed roof terrace on the old cinema.
The gardens were described as “an oasis of calm in the West End” and an appeal heard the bee colony depends on sunlight but that a two-storey roof extension would block out the sun.
The property firm Capitalstart,
which runs the Thai Square restaurant chain, had wanted to turn the cinema into a 10-storey, 94-bedroom luxury hotel with four cinema screens, health spa and roof terrace bar.
A spokesman for the Covent Garden Community Association, which opposed the application, told the hearing: “The garden is a patchwork of shade and sun as a result of neighbouring buildings and we manage the garden to maximise the areas of sunlight to provide habitat.with the present elevation of the Odeon, these facilities receive adequate sunlight.
“With the proposed increase of 10 metres in height, it will be completely overshadowed except for a brief window in high summer.”
The Grade Ii-listed 1931 building was owned in the 1960s by Mr Epstein and hosted concerts by The Beatles, The Who and The Rolling Stones before becoming a cinema. Camden Council refused to grant building consent in 2019 which resulted in an appeal that was rejected by planning inspector Tom Gilbert-wooldridge.
In his verdict Mr Gilbertwooldridge said the cinema and its frieze had become awest End landmark.
He said Historic England described it as “one of the largest and most important works of public sculpture of its time”.