History
There's a lot of history for this place, so you may want to bare with me on this one!
The Hulme hippodrome is a grade II listed building. It was originally known as the Grand Junction Theatre and Floral Hall. It opened on 7th October 1901. The Hippodrome and the smaller playhouse theatre, in the same building, built at the same time, were part of the theatrical empire of W.H.Broadhead. The two venues were reportedly connected to an arcade (although researches question this feature existed), and the extensive building was Broadheads headquarters. The architect was J.J.Alley.
Initially the theatre staged mainly dramatic productions, while the playhouse presented variety performances, but in 1905 the names and functions of the two adjacent theatres were interchanged: the Hippodrome became known as the Grand Junction, and the variety performances were transferred to the new Hippodrome.
The Hippodrome was last used as a theatre in the 1960s. From the mid 1970s until its closure in 1988 it was used as a bingo hall. Since then most of the building has remained empty, and it has been placed on Manchesters 'at risk register', and in 2006 was added to the Theatre Trust's newly created Theatres at Risk register.
The building was bought by Gilbert Deya Ministries in 2003, and services were held in what was the Floral Hall on the ground floor. The church spend £200k on the building and in 2013 leased it to another charity 'Youth Village' they then decided to sell the building.
The Friends of Hulme Hippodrome group had hoped to get the building listed in 2016 as an asset of community value, which would have given the community group six months to raise the money needed to buy the building from the owner before it went out to general market. The application, however, was turned down by Manchester City Council.
The adjacent Playhouse Theatre, a portion of the entire building, was sold at auction on 18 May 2017 at the Macron Stadium, Bolton, for £325,000 - it was known as the Nia Centre and currently is tenanted by and known as Niamos, a community interest company.
In 2017, squatters occupied the building, intending to bring it back into community use. They reported cleaning it up after years of neglect, though other accounts differ. In September 2019, the building was named on the Victorian Society's list of the top ten most endangered buildings in England and Wales. In February 2021, a campaign called Save Hulme Hippodrome was created by a group from the local area with the goal of bringing the hippodrome into community ownership with the hopes of restoring it and using it as a community centre, and the campaign became a limited company in March 2021.
Explore
Couldn't believe our luck when turning up at this place! What a spectacular building it is inside and out! Plenty to explore throughout this place, and will take a good hour of your time if not more! Plenty of cool featured are still intact including am old popcorn machine. Lots of evidence of squatters throughout the building and was glad we didn't run into anyone while inside. If you do decide to explore take care on the upper seating level for not only dodgy flooring, but there's many pigeon babies you wouldn't see if u aren't treading carefully.
Im sorry the pictures aren't the best quality it was extremely hard getting clear photos due to the amount of dust! Can anyone inform me as to what the black glass things are as I'm pretty clueless?
Anyway here goes...
There's a lot of history for this place, so you may want to bare with me on this one!
The Hulme hippodrome is a grade II listed building. It was originally known as the Grand Junction Theatre and Floral Hall. It opened on 7th October 1901. The Hippodrome and the smaller playhouse theatre, in the same building, built at the same time, were part of the theatrical empire of W.H.Broadhead. The two venues were reportedly connected to an arcade (although researches question this feature existed), and the extensive building was Broadheads headquarters. The architect was J.J.Alley.
Initially the theatre staged mainly dramatic productions, while the playhouse presented variety performances, but in 1905 the names and functions of the two adjacent theatres were interchanged: the Hippodrome became known as the Grand Junction, and the variety performances were transferred to the new Hippodrome.
The Hippodrome was last used as a theatre in the 1960s. From the mid 1970s until its closure in 1988 it was used as a bingo hall. Since then most of the building has remained empty, and it has been placed on Manchesters 'at risk register', and in 2006 was added to the Theatre Trust's newly created Theatres at Risk register.
The building was bought by Gilbert Deya Ministries in 2003, and services were held in what was the Floral Hall on the ground floor. The church spend £200k on the building and in 2013 leased it to another charity 'Youth Village' they then decided to sell the building.
The Friends of Hulme Hippodrome group had hoped to get the building listed in 2016 as an asset of community value, which would have given the community group six months to raise the money needed to buy the building from the owner before it went out to general market. The application, however, was turned down by Manchester City Council.
The adjacent Playhouse Theatre, a portion of the entire building, was sold at auction on 18 May 2017 at the Macron Stadium, Bolton, for £325,000 - it was known as the Nia Centre and currently is tenanted by and known as Niamos, a community interest company.
In 2017, squatters occupied the building, intending to bring it back into community use. They reported cleaning it up after years of neglect, though other accounts differ. In September 2019, the building was named on the Victorian Society's list of the top ten most endangered buildings in England and Wales. In February 2021, a campaign called Save Hulme Hippodrome was created by a group from the local area with the goal of bringing the hippodrome into community ownership with the hopes of restoring it and using it as a community centre, and the campaign became a limited company in March 2021.
Explore
Couldn't believe our luck when turning up at this place! What a spectacular building it is inside and out! Plenty to explore throughout this place, and will take a good hour of your time if not more! Plenty of cool featured are still intact including am old popcorn machine. Lots of evidence of squatters throughout the building and was glad we didn't run into anyone while inside. If you do decide to explore take care on the upper seating level for not only dodgy flooring, but there's many pigeon babies you wouldn't see if u aren't treading carefully.
Im sorry the pictures aren't the best quality it was extremely hard getting clear photos due to the amount of dust! Can anyone inform me as to what the black glass things are as I'm pretty clueless?
Anyway here goes...
