'Stay out' plea to TikTok trespasses as security fence installed around former Kettering Odeon cinema

A new site fence has been installed on land in Pegasus Court to contain the demolished restaurants and the soon-to-be flattened Hobson’s Choice pub and eight-screen Odeon cinema.

Recently, social media posts showing the complex had been shared revealing the vandalised interiors, including ripped screens and broken fittings.

A spokesman for Northants Police said: “We had a couple of reports relating to TikTok live content from within the building on the evening of April 4 into April 5 – officers attended shortly before midnight on April 4 and spoke to three people.”

Trespass is a civil matter – not criminal – and no offences had been identified by the officers.

The cinema has also featured on ‘urbex’ sites by urban explorers.

Site owners Rockmount Kettering Limited have been granted planning permission to demolish the building to ground slab level and a concrete level surface installed.

A spokesperson from Rockmount said: “The former Odeon has been secured and boarded up, and security patrols are guarding the site. Since discovering this trespassing, we have doubled the number of patrols and re-secured the entrances. We hope to start demolition in May this year.”

“In the meantime, I would ask the public to stay out of boarded up buildings. It is an active demolition site that is being stripped out, with broken furniture and electrical equipment. Breaking in is not only trespassing, but is also very dangerous.”

Kettering cinema goers were left without any local big-screen entertainment when the movie theatre closed its doors for the last time at the end of January.

Odeon owners said the facility was ‘not a viable or feasible proposition’.

Demolition of restaurants at the Pegasus Court site has already begun with the unit that housed Frankie & Benny’s and Mazza already razed to the ground. Works to remove Hobson’s Choice and the Odeon are expect to be completed by the end of May.