Athena's stunning art deco City View Lounge

The 1936 Athena is a cabaret and events venue now, once Leicester's main Odeon cinema, it has been beautifully restored with love and respect for the building.

This superb lounge overlooks my-often-blipped Orton Square. Todays visit to the buildings interior today was for the Cultural Quarter Heritage Cluster Project, which is looking at the rise, fall, regeneration and the present meaning of the St Georges area now know as The Cultural Quarter.

There is something special about the way the listed vertical windows frame the city outside, as if bringing it closer and framing these surrounding buildings like a family portrait on the wall. Conversely looking out from Curve, its super landscape windows make the city seem a little further away, less personal more dramatic. Also inside Athena I was deeply beguiled by the sheer robustness of the building, lovely dramatic curved walls with art deco carved brick work provide a strong sense of an enduring solidity and purpose. Loved my visit today.

And as if it couldn't get any better I saw some pictures of the buildings construction from way back in 1935 captured on beautiful 35mm black and white!

And finally some 35mm magic from the Isle of Harris.