During the 1930s, with cinema the most popular form of mass entertainment in the UK, the Odeon chain expanded throughout the country, the majority designed by architect Harry Weedon. His designs were all variations of a distinctive ‘Moderne’, diffusion Art Deco style, influenced by his interest in the work of Eric Mendelsohn and Hans Poelzig: channelling a bit of Weimar Berlin to the high streets of provincial England. The example in Chester was toned down, cloaked in sober brick, rather than slick, glazed tiling. But it still must have provided a powerful shock-of-the-new when built, its ribbed, abstracted tower bookending one corner of the elongated square, off which the town hall and cathedral sit.
Source: A new chapter for Chester: Bennetts’ Storyhouse | Building | Architects Journal