The Hulme Hippodrome, Manchester
History
The Hulme Hippodrome, originally known as the Grand Junction Theatre and Floral Hall, opened in Hulme, Manchester, on 7 October 1901. It and the nearby Playhouse Theatre, built at the same time, were part of the theatrical empire of W. H. Broadhead. The two venues were connected by an arcade, at the centre of which was Broadhead’s company headquarters.
Initially the theatre staged mainly dramatic productions, while the original Hippodrome presented variety performances, but in 1905 the names and functions of the theatres were interchanged: the Hippodrome became 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 1986 it was used as a bingo hall. Since then most of the building has remained empty, and it has been placed on Manchester City Council’s Buildings at Risk Register.
The building was bought by Gilbert Deya Ministries in 1999, and they hold services in part of the ground floor, led by pastor John Ezedom.
Visit
After recently having been approached by 'The Big Issue' who wanted to use one of my photos for a feature in their magazine about Britain's old theatres, it got me wondering what the latest was with the work to repair and re-open the old Hippodrome in Hulme, so I decided to pay a visit as I was at a bit of a lose end on my Birthday weekend.
Sadly things do not seem to have progressed very far, if anything, another winter has really taken its toll on the place, the one staircase up to the old projector room is now that damp there are big holes in it and it feels very very unsafe to venture up, also it seems as though some of the ornate plaster decoration on the walls has now started to fall off and now sits in big piles of rubble, leaving more exposed brick walls than I remember from the first visit.
I fear that the building is now too-far gone to be economically viable for being repaired, which would be a real shame as there are very few of these buildings left.
As this was my 2nd visit I decided to focus more on detail shots rather than 'big' shots of the place.
1] - The Article in 'The Big Issue' which featured one of my photos from the first visit, click HERE if you want to read the article.
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[3] - The downstairs area now seems to be packed full of 'Jumble Sale items', everything from old printers to random collections of chairs.
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[8] - Exposed brick work where the plaster has fallen off after another winter exposed to the elements.
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Visited with explorer62
Full Gallery HERE
