Events

The lights are back on at Parkway.

Great buildings have great stories. This one has had several.

In 1964, the Gaumont became the ODEON Parkway. Its stalls were later transformed into a bingo club, while cinema continued above. Over the following decades, it reinvented itself as the Gate Cinema, Parkway Kings and Parkway Regency, each bringing a different chapter to Camden’s entertainment history. It even had its own moment on the big screen, standing in for a Hamburg cinema in the 1994 Beatles film Backbeat. From 1997, the building returned to life as a five-screen ODEON, remaining part of Camden’s everyday landscape until its closure in February 2026. Through all those changes, something of the original picture palace remained.

The Legend

In 1937, the Gaumont Palace Regent’s Park opened its doors at 14 The Parkway.

One of London’s great super-cinemas, it was built on a spectacular scale. A single sweeping auditorium seating 2,742 people, a café, private dressing rooms for live performers and a four-manual Compton organ that rose beside the stage.

Opening night featured Show Boat, starring Paul Robeson.

Nearly ninety years later, the building is preparing for another remarkable chapter.

Many Lives

Great buildings have great stories. This one has had several.

In 1964, the Gaumont became the ODEON Parkway. Its stalls were later transformed into a bingo club, while cinema continued above.

Over the following decades, it reinvented itself as the Gate Cinema, Parkway Kings and Parkway Regency, each bringing a different chapter to Camden’s entertainment history.

It even had its own moment on the big screen, standing in for a Hamburg cinema in the 1994 Beatles film Backbeat.

From 1997, the building returned to life as a five-screen ODEON, remaining part of Camden’s everyday landscape until its closure in February 2026.

Through all those changes, something of the original picture palace remained.

Good Neighbours

We live here too. Plaza Camden is committed to being a managed, responsible venue with culture at its heart and respect for the neighbourhood around it.

The People

Behind Plaza Camden are founders Paul Saunders, Lee Bennett and Ivor Wilkins, bringing together decades of experience across music, hospitality, events and art.

Owned and operated by Camden Plaza Ltd, Plaza Camden has been created with a shared ambition: to return this extraordinary building to the heart of Camden life.

Not simply somewhere to visit for a special occasion, but somewhere to discover, enjoy and return to.

A place that belongs to the neighbourhood as much as to the people who bring it to life.

The Reawakening

We haven’t forgotten what made this building special.

The scale, the architecture, the sweeping lines and the extraordinary sense of occasion are still here.

But a new chapter calls for new ideas.

Through light, design, sound and a fresh cultural programme, we’re bringing a historic picture palace into a new era. Somewhere its past can be celebrated while its future is shaped by the people who walk through the doors.

Built for entertainment in 1937. Reimagined for Camden in 2026.

The lights are back on.

And this is just the beginning.