The Odeon Cinema - An Art Deco Building in Loughborough

Since 2011 this cinema in Loughborough has been The Odeon but it has been many other names since the original building was built in 1914. It is a great example of an art deco frontage somewhat spirit by the lower and very recent shopfront style signage.

It didn't look like this when it was opened in 1914 as The Empire Picture House operating both as a variety and picture house. The Art Deco refit came about in 1936 and was designed by architect Archibold Hurley Robinson. It opened as The New Empire on 30th March 1936 screening Will Hay in “Boys Will be Boys”.

Its catalogue of names down the years include: Empire Picture House, New Empire Super Cinema, Essoldo, Classic, Curzon Cinema, Reel Cinema and now The Odeon.

Paul Conneally
September 2016
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The Globe - Leicester

The Globe, Silver Street, Leicester, UK

"The Globe has been synonymous with serving fine ales and food since 1720, where quality ales were brewed using spring water drawn from its own well beneath the pub, which still exists today.

Prior to becoming a public house, the Globe had several interesting uses, including a cattle merchants and accommodation for women awaiting impending execution at the hands of the noose man in nearby Gallowtree Gate.

This may go some way to explaining the reported hauntings within the premises, which includes the ghost of a woman on the stairs, two disagreeing brothers that argue over the bar and a young boy in the cellar who turns off the beer!"

Text: Everards Brewery

Photo: Paul Conneally
October 2015

Jesus On Jarrom Street

Jesus On Jarrom Street
Paul Conneally
Leicester 2015

Soar Valley Netball Centre

Soar Valley Netball Centre - Leicester UK

The Soar Valley Netball Centre is the first of its kind in the Leicestershire region and offers two high-quality covered courts with spectator areas that can be used all year round.

Paul Conneally
June 11 2015

The Good Shepherd

The Good Shepherd
Paul Conneally
Loughborough
March 30 2015

Brutal Beauty - Lee Circle Car Park - Leicester

The brutalist rotunda double helix concrete Lee Circle car park in Leicester, is a beast of a building.

Today, in the late September sun, it purrs more than roars and takes on a kind of beauty that I haven't clocked before.

Only one of its spiral roadways, the Blue route, is now in operation and it is rarely full.

Drivers choose to park the other side of the city centre, nearer or even in, the modern Highcross shopping complex.

lengthening shadows

the pigeon's coo melds

with a car alarm

Paul Conneally

Leicester

2014

Sheltered - RIP ROBBO

Sheltered

We pass the old tram shelter

every time we go to the match

Just like us this tram shelter

has never seen a tram in Leicester

Donated to the city in 1934

by hosiery magnate Robert Rowley

It never served its purpose

the tramline never built

Over the years it's been a place

for couples to canoodle

Teenagers to huddle

spray paint messages

Windows smashed it offers

no respite from the wind

Plans have been submitted

to turn it into a coffee bar

Council officers think it's maybe

a good way to make money

More than a disused building

this is a landmark

Leave it be

Kill

Kill

Paul Conneally

Nice 2014

A Stranger's Hand

Salle Jacky Mathevet, Lorgues, France

cinema

a stranger's hand

on my thigh

Paul Conneally

Jesus on Jarrom Street

three pints happy 

we leave The Font 

on Gateway Street

head towards 

The Sir Robert Peel

and turn right

against red bricks

behind a black spiked fence

hangs Jesus 

stadium bound

fans genuflect and

ask for a win

Paul Conneally

Leicester 2013

The photograph is St Andrew's Church, Jarrom Street, Leicester. The church was designed by the architect Sir George Gilbert Scott who also designed London's St Pancras Station.

Almost Diwali

Leicester Town Hall from 10 Bishop Street - Paul Conneally

I'm waiting outside the Christian Book Shop on Bishop Street for Tony Nelson. Tony's the chair of Leicester's Holocaust Memorial Day committee and I'm meeting him for the first time before he takes me to the committee meeting itself.

Even with the building work going on in Town Hall Square the Town Hall still exudes a faded civic pride. A flag flying from its highest point.

An African woman stops in front of me, looks from a piece of paper to me, to the paper and back again.

"Are you for the nature group? I'm looking for the nature group"

"No" I tell her "I'm waiting for the holocaust committee" and help her look for a white door, she doesn't have a number.

almost Diwali
somewhere in the scaffolding
a builder's whistle

Paul Conneally
October 31 2013

Working From Memory

the public toilet 

has become a Pizza place

earlier still it was
the village ‘lock up’ 

a jail

older men

working from memory

that turn up looking 

for cottage lust make do now

with a Margherita

Paul Conneally

2013

LOCATION: Quorn, Charnwood, Leicestershire, UK