The cinema occupies the centre of the eastern side of Leicester Square in London, featuring a black polished granite facade and 120 feet (37 m) high tower displaying its name.

[6] The Odeon cinema building was completed by Sir Robert McAlpine in 1937[7] to the design of Harry Weedon and Andrew Mather on the site of Nevill's Victorian Turkish baths and the adjoining Alhambra Theatre a large music hall dating from the 1850s.

[1] The interior was an art-deco auditorium, with a ribbed ceiling and sidewalls, featuring concealed strip lighting in coves, and two bas relief sculptures of naked nymphs were positioned on the front splay walls, as if leaping towards the screen.

A modernisation in 1967 removed many of the original features, with all of the ribbed plasterwork from the balcony to the proscenium replaced by smooth finishes.

Mark Nice was later promoted to the position of Odeon company engineer with Toni Purvis and Michael Mannix assuming the role of Operations Manager Digital.

The cinema has an operating Compton organ, its console lit from within by coloured lighting, and a safety curtain detailed in 1930s art-deco motifs.

Five screens, each seating between fifty and sixty patrons, were added in April 1990 in what was once an alleyway running alongside the main house.

[15] In 2018 Odeon undertook a full refurbishment at a projected cost of £10–15 million, which saw the building retained as a single-screen cinema with stalls and circle levels, with the stated intention to maintain its character.

[16] The cinema closed on 10 January 2018 with an anticipated reopening in time for the BFI London Film Festival in October—which it failed to meet.