On Saturday, the Odeon Uncovered exhibition opens at Thornton ’s South Square Arts Centre for three weeks.

Although conceived and curated by supporters of the Bradford Odeon Rescue Group (BORG), this is primarily an exhibition of memories and affection for the 1930s cinema building, now undergoing £700,000-worth of repairs and maintenance behind thick plastic sheeting.

Beryl Robinson, from Queensbury , came up with the idea of the exhibition. Her connection with South Square goes back to the mid-1980s when the arts centre, in converted stone workers’ cottages, was opened.

“I had a pottery business there, The Pot Hole, for about 15 years,” she said.

Beryl, 70, is a former mill-hand who, weary of knotting threads eight hours a day, changed course at the age of 33 and went to Bradford Art College, where she had the same tutor, Frank Johnson, as David Hockney .

“I saw the lovely artwork of the Odeon and thought it deserved the proper respect of a gallery experience. I am really proud of Bradford people and the way they are responding to this building. Wherever we go, people want to help,” she added.

Beryl said a firm in Little Germany supplied the cardboard for a 12ft-by-6ft cut-out of the Odeon, and added that a woman had offered to dress up as a cinema usherette and give away ice creams in Odeon wrappers, at her own expense, at the Saturday opening.

Images of the 82-year-old Odeon include a lego-style structure made by children and paintings showing the wrapped building against a moody inky-blue sky, and a more geometrical picture by retired BT engineer Chris Hyland.

Chris, who paints as a hobby and regularly visits South Square and Cartwright Hall, said: “I came across Beryl and I thought I needed to contribute something, so I came up with a painting.”

He also penned a Bob Dylan-style song, Their Minds They Need a-Changin’, with lines such as: ‘We are the city of film/Not the city of fools/Remember it’s the people/That decree who will rule’.

He sang it a capella on Bradford Community Broadcasting last week. It may feature in the exhibition, along with a film of the 2007 Odeon Hug when more than 1,000 people circled the building and joined hands.

Chris could have asked Mark Nicholson to sing it. At weekends, the former Grattan warehouse manager and BORG member becomes Mark Memphis, an Elvis Presley tribute act.

He was asked to help organise the exhibition after attending the project’s first meeting. The show, however, has no connection with the Odeon history he has been compiling and writing for the last five years: The People’s Palace: The Story Of Bradford’s New Vic/Gaumont/Odeon.

He said; “I was asked by cinema historian Allen Eyles to write a feature for the magazine Picture House published by the Cinema Theatre Association.”

Published in 2008, the article includes drawings and photographs, including the interior of the building since closure in July 2000.

“While I was putting that together I realised the true story of the building hadn’t been told. For me, the true story is what it has meant to people throughout its history.

“It has meant different things to people throughout its various incarnations as the New Victoria, the Gaumont and then the Odeon. It was a window into a more glamorous world, from catching a glimpse of Dusty Springfield dash out to a car in Thornton Road, to sitting in Odeon 2 watching Star Wars.

“I’ve spoken to people who worked there and to patrons. I would be interested in hearing from other people who want to share their memories and anecdotes.”

Beryl said: “It’s a beautiful Art Deco building. It’s a little bit of our heritage that we want to hold on to.”