The Open Guide to London: the free London guide

The Odeon Leicester Square is officially the biggest screen in London and, as such, forms the centrepiece of the Leicester Square area. It’s the venue of choice for Gala Premieres and the like, and it’s often worth hanging around the area of an evening if celeb spotting is your thing.

As you’d expect with a screen this size, the sound system is exceptional, and with certain films it really puts other cinemas to shame.

The seats could use an inch or two more leg-room, but they are sufficiently tall and make up for the leg-room deficiency by virtue of their faux-leopard-skin upholstery, which one can only assume was done for kitschy ‘Comedy Value’.

Sight lines, at any rate, are excellent, owing to the height of the screen.

The bar and concession facilities are of the standard you’d expect from any normal cinema. The bar area is spacious and has the added attraction of a balcony from which you can wave at the Great Unwashed below.

Sadly, however, the balcony is very rarely open to us mere mortal types, though you might try asking them nicely.

In short, the Odeon Leicester Square provides everything you could want from the Big Screen Experience. One thing though, and the reason it loses the coveted fifth star: ten pounds is Way Too Expensive, very big screen or no very big screen.