New plans reveal Peterborough's £60 million Odeon Cinema in Queensgate Shopping Centre will have eight screens and IMAX facility

New plans show that Peterborough’s £60 million cinema will feature eight screens with the main auditorium offering an IMAX experience.

Audience capacity will range from slightly over 200 people for the main screen to just 39 viewers for the smallest venue.

It has also been revealed that the cinema, which has stood empty for two years, is expected to open in November this year.

The layout of the cinema, which sits on the roof of the Queensgate Shopping Centre, is revealed in documents attached to a premises licence application submitted to Peterborough City Council.

According to the plans by architects McFarlane Latter, the main screen will be an IMAX venue that will provide seating for up to 203 people. This is screen one and will occupy the largest proportion of space given over to the cinema facility.

The entrance to the cinema will be from the second floor of the shopping centre and will lead into a foyer, which in traditional style, will feature a box office, a coffee/lounge area, concessions, Oscar’s Bar and a Pick n Mix offer.

The foyer will lead into a corridor which will provide access to all the screens.

The smallest is screen two that has seating for 39 people. Screen three has 73 seats and the neighbouring screens four and five have 79 seats each. Screen six has 73 seats while screen seven has 83 seats. There is seating for 41 people in screen eight.

Also, off the same corridor are male and female toilets and separate Changing Places facilities.

The premises licence application has been submitted by law firm John Gaunt and Partners and requests permission to sell alcohol between 10am and midnight each day, show ‘films, plays, live and recorded music, performance of dance and anything similar’ between 9am and 3am each day and serve late night refreshment to 3.30am.

When plans to create a cinema at the Queensgate Shopping Centre were first unveiled in 2015, the intention was to create a 10 screen IMAX cinema. It is not clear when it was decided the cinema would only have eight screens.