Patrick Comerford
My flights between Luton and Dublin this week were both delayed for quite some time this week, and it can be grim experiences sitting around airports for hours, trying to rebook missed coach connections and idling on phones yet trying to keep them charged because Ryanair now demands that all boarding passes must be on phones.
Luton Airport is small and much easier to get through, and unlike many airports the coffee shops stay open until late in the night, which mean that, although airports are never pleasant places in which to spend lost hours, Luton is a good airport to leave from and to arrive back at.
I saw little of Luton early on Thursday morning or in the late hours of Thursday night and the early hours of Friday morning, but I have enjoyed my visits to Luton in Bedfordshire in recent weeks, looking for Saint Mary’s Church, the art deco buildings on George Street.
George Street, as an entire street in the heart of Luton, has been added to the Heritage at Risk Register by Historic England because it is at risk of being lost as a result of neglect, decay or inappropriate development.
The street, running from Saint Mary’s and Market Hill to Luton’s art deco Town Hall, has 36 Grade II listed buildings. It is the historic heart of Luton and was once the centre of the hat-making industry, but Historic England warns that many of its buildings are ‘now in poor condition’ and the street lacks purpose.
Historic England says George Street lacks ‘a clear function and purpose’ and is ‘hampered by the physical barrier of the ring road’. It says revitalising George Street and helping it evolve to meet the needs of a contemporary town centre is critical to the future of this characterful street, and to revitalising the heritage of Luton’s town centre.
At one end of the street, 27 George Street is at the corner of Chapel Lane and is an attractive arts and crafts building. George Pigott was a butcher there in 1871, but the Pigott family probably had a butcher’s shop at No 27 since at least 1839. The Pigotts were still there in 1898, but Boots the chemists were there by 1903.
A plaque on the Chapel Street return frontage indicates that the present building was built in 1915. The other date indicates that something was established there in 1874 but it cannot refer to the Pigotts or to later tenants, including Boots, founded in 1849, or Hepworths, founded in 1864.
Boots continued to occupy the corner-site building until at least 1960, but the premises were vacant by 1965. J Hepworth tailors had moved there by 1968 and they were still there in 1975. The estate agents Taylors are on the corner site today [2026] , with Mano coffee shop next door.
Back on George Street, one of the most eye-catching delights in the past two years or so is the way the long-derelict ABC Savoy Cinema has been covered in a colourful 1930s-inspired mural by the artist Sarah Hodgkins. The dilapidated building at the heart of the George Street Conservation Area has stood empty and neglected for about quarter of a century. But once it was a stylish venue which the entertainment for generations of people in Luton.
The 1,892-seat cinema opened as the Savoy on 17 October 1938. The building was designed for Associated British Cinemas (ABC) by the architect William Riddell Glen (1885-1950) and built on land leased from the then Luton Corporation. The Art Deco styling was very fashionable at the time and echoed much of the architecture of surrounding buildings, including the Town Hall at the far end of George Street.
The interior was decorated in shades of pink and green, with plush pink carpets and staff sporting a smart green uniform. The Savoy changed its name to the ABC in 1961. It closed in April 1971, was gutted and rebuilt and reopened as a three-screen multiplex in September 1971. It was renamed the Cannon in April 1986. When a new 10-screen Cineworld multiplex opened a short walk down the street in 1998, the Cannon was renamed ABC, and continued for another two years until the three-screen cinema closed its doors for the last time on 23 November 2000.
The mural at the front of the former cinema includes elements suggested by local residents, with references to Vauxhall Motors, the film ‘Blinded by the Light’, and local singer and songwriter Myles Smith, who was recognised at the BRIT Awards last year (2025).
While the site awaits development, the mural artist Sarah Hodgkins of Charlotte Designs was commissioned to make the cinema frontage more attractive and create a much needed focal point for the area. The aim was to make a sympathetic and colourful façade for the building that complements the wider environment of the town centre, brightening the area and enabling increased footfall and placemaking.
Art Deco emerged as a new style in the 1920s and 1930s. It originated in France and captured the prosperity and glamour of post-World War I modernism and advancements, with its classical influences, geometric motifs, and streamlined architectural styles. Many of the Art Deco values and themes fitted neatly into the requirements for the ABC Cinema in Luton.
The artist Sarah Hodgkins painted the scene in March 2025. She is an award-winning mural artist, with over 20 years of practice and more than 750 hand-painted murals completed for businesses, councils, hospitals, schools and private individuals. She is based in Northamptonshire and works throughout the UK under the name Charlotte Designs, the business she founded in 2005. She talked to the local community about what they would like to see and what themes would be of interest to them. Her design features a city street with a park in the background, and there are stylised clouds and an aeroplane.
The centre section is essentially the front of a 1930s cinema, with Art Deco architecture and steps down. There are two posters on either side of the doors, one shows a poster for ‘Blinded by the Light’, a film made in Luton in 2019 and featuring many scenes on George Street; the other is a poster by Myles Smith, a Luton based artist.
The section along George Street West is more of an evening scene, representing the use of the area as both a daytime and evening hub. It shows a jazz band and dancers, a nod to both the Jazz age and to the Luton carnival. The mural also includes a nod to the new Luton Town Football Club stadium. The upper section features a sunrise image, a symbol of hope that featured widely in Art Deco art. The sunrise image is flanked by traditional Art Deco styling and proudly has Luton as its main feature text. The fascias are purposefully simple in their design so they do not overshadow the upper and lower murals. They complement the mural’s style and colour palette and show both former names of the cinema, the Savoy and ABC Cinema. Both these elements were printed and installed by The Treacle Factory.
However, behind the new façade, the building remains empty and forlorn since the ABC Savoy closed over 25 years ago, awaiting longer-term development. The age of the building means that there is asbestos internally, which requires specialist removal, a time-consuming and expensive process.
Before leaving Luton that afternoon, I sat in Mano Coffee at 25 George Street, next door to Traynor’s estate agents in the former arts and crafts shop of Pigott’s and Boots on the corner of Chapel Lane. But there is more to discover about the architectural heritage of Luton, and more to say in the days to come, hopefully, about Saint Mary’s Church, the 900-year-old parish church in the centre of Luton.
