The old Odeon on Parkway reopens as Plaza Camden, with film, live events and a cafe. First shows Friday 23 October: a Talking Heads and Videodrome double bill.

The old Odeon on Parkway is open again. Eight months after the cinema closed, the building has been relaunched as Plaza Camden, a venue for film, live performance, art and food.

Its first public events are on Friday 23 October. A travelling cinema club, Midweek Cinema, is making the building its new home, and opens with a double bill. (Plaza Camden, Midweek Cinema)

The venue says the Odeon closed in February 2026. It describes the new Plaza as “a legendary London landmark reimagined for music, film, live performance, art, food and everything in between”. (Plaza Camden)

What is on this week

The opening night on Friday 23 October is a double bill:

  • 7.30pm: Stop Making Sense (1984), the Talking Heads concert film
  • 9pm: a 20-minute interval
  • 9.20pm: Videodrome (1983), David Cronenberg’s horror film, shown in 4K

The evening finishes at 10.45pm. Tickets are sold online through Ticket Tailor. (Midweek Cinema, Ticket Tailor) Midweek Cinema says it will announce the rest of its programme soon.

The Underground Rebel Bingo Club also starts at Plaza on 23 October. The venue describes it as a “visual, immersive, interactive” show with bars and DJs between games. Tickets are on Eventbrite. (Plaza Camden, Rebel Bingo)

What the building will be

Plaza Camden says it will have a larger performance and cinema space, a smaller events space and an independent cafe on the ground floor. (Plaza Camden, Facilities)

Its own launch post lists:

  • classic film screenings and Q&As with filmmakers
  • theatre, comedy and live entertainment
  • DJ events and art
  • a daytime cafe where people can meet or work
  • a planned free Sunday morning film club for Camden children

(Plaza Camden, The Lights Are Back On)

Co-founder Paul Saunders said: “We are opening Camden’s living room, not another late-night bar.”

The founders are Paul Saunders, Lee Bennett and Ivor Wilkins. The venue says it is owned and run by Camden Plaza Ltd. Room capacities, accessibility details and food menus have not been published yet; the venue says they will be added once confirmed. (Plaza Camden, About)

Nearly 90 years of the building

The building opened in 1937 as the Gaumont Palace Regent’s Park. According to the venue’s history, it had a single auditorium of 2,742 seats, a cafe and a four-manual Compton organ. The opening film was Show Boat, starring Paul Robeson.

It became the Odeon Parkway in 1964, with a bingo club in the old stalls and cinema upstairs. It was later the Gate Cinema, Parkway Kings and Parkway Regency. It stood in for a Hamburg cinema in the 1994 Beatles film Backbeat. From 1997 it was a five-screen Odeon. (Plaza Camden, About)

The licence and the longer-term plan

Camden’s licensing register now lists the premises at 14 Parkway, NW1 7AA, as “Plaza Camden”. Its premises licence is in force, held by Camden Vision Limited. The register records that the site is inside the Camden Town cumulative impact area. (Camden open data, Licensing Register)

There is also a planning permission for the site. Camden’s Planning Committee approved application 2025/4055/P on 27 May 2026, according to the Mayor of London’s planning datahub. It covers:

  • demolition of the existing buildings, keeping and adapting the Parkway frontage
  • a leisure or cultural space at basement and ground floor
  • 26 homes for social rent
  • purpose-built student accommodation
  • shops on the ground floor

(Camden planning record 2025/4055/P)

Plaza Camden has not said how long it expects to run in the building, or how it fits with that permission.

What it means for you

From Friday there is a cinema screen on Parkway again, for the first time since February. The building is a short walk from Camden Town station.

Events are listed on Plaza Camden’s own site, and the venue says details will be added as they are confirmed. For more of what is on across the borough this month, see what’s on in Camden.