Harry Weedon

Harold William "Harry" Weedon (1887 – 17 June 1970) was an English architect. Although he designed a large number of buildings during a long career, he is best known for his role overseeing the Art Deco designs of the Odeon Cinemas for Oscar Deutsch in the 1930s. Influenced by the work of Erich Mendelsohn and Hans Poelzig – the Odeons "taught Britain to love modern architecture" and form "a body of work which, with London Underground stations, denotes the Thirties like nothing else".

Life

Education and early career Weedon was born in Handsworth, Birmingham, the son of a commercial traveller, and educated at King Edward's School in the city. He studied architecture at the Birmingham School of Art from 1904, before being articled to the architectural practice of Robert Atkinson. In 1912 at the age of 24 he was made an associate of the Royal Institute of British Architects and went into partnership with Harold Seymore Scott, with whom he designed a cinema in Birchfield, completed in 1913, and several upmarket houses in Warwickshire.

The outbreak of World War I saw building work dry up, however, and in 1914 he volunteered as a pilot in the Royal Flying Corps, serving until 1917. On his demobilisation he set about re-establishing his architectural practice, but an affair with the wife of a neighbour resulted in a scandalous double divorce that destroyed his reputation, and he spent the following years in Leamington Spa working as a manager in the catering industry. Deutsch saw in Clavering's simple and original Art Deco design the making of the house style he sought to distinguish the Odeon chain from his rivals. The cinema was quickly bought for the Odeon group and Weedon was appointed to oversee all of the group's designs.

Between Weedon's appointment in 1934 and the outbreak of World War II in 1939 the Weedon office was to design or act as consultant architect to over 250 of Deutsch's cinemas. Not all of these were designed by the practice itself: of the thirty-six Odeons that opened in 1936 only eight were Weedon designs. Even those that were designed by the Weedon practice were not designed by Weedon himself – Weedon's role has been likened to that of an executive producer, creating the house style and maintaining consistent quality.

Clavering himself designed three more Odeons for Weedon after Kingstanding – in Sutton Coldfield, Colwyn Bay and Scarborough, "one masterpiece after the other" considered "the finest expressions of the Odeon circuit style". Later in 1935 however Clavering stunned Weedon by resigning to take up a job with the Office of Works. Weedon approached Clavering's former tutor who recommended Robert Bullivant as Clavering's replacement.

Weedon had a love of shooting and was involved in the Solihull Home Guard Rifle Club after the war. The club was formed in 1944 and Harry Weedon donated a three-quarter acre disused sand pit to the club in 1952. This became the location for the club and it still operates today as the Solihull Rifle and Pistol Club.