Jump to content

Hulme Hippodrome: Difference between revisions

Edit links
Coordinates: 53°27′52″N 2°14′59″W / 53.464321°N 2.249587°W / 53.464321; -2.249587
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Browse history interactively
← Previous editNext edit →
Content deleted Content added
VisualWikitext
roof drainage
new book on BBC Variety history
Line 58: Line 58:
Between 1942 and 1949 the theatre was known as the ''Second Manchester Repertory Theatre'' before it reverted in 1950 to being Hulme Hippodrome. There were at least two 'war plays' written by Zelda Davees, a local resident and an actor: ''Wearing the Pants'' (1941), and ''Without Them We Perish'' (1944) by the ''Frank H Fortescue's Famous Players''.
Between 1942 and 1949 the theatre was known as the ''Second Manchester Repertory Theatre'' before it reverted in 1950 to being Hulme Hippodrome. There were at least two 'war plays' written by Zelda Davees, a local resident and an actor: ''Wearing the Pants'' (1941), and ''Without Them We Perish'' (1944) by the ''Frank H Fortescue's Famous Players''.


'''1950s - BBC Radio ''Variety Fanfare'''''
'''1950s - BBC Radio including ''Variety Fanfare'''''


From 1950 until shortly after 1955 when the BBC bought the conjoined Playhouse theatre for use as a permanent studio, the BBC 'rented' the Hulme Hippodrome auditorium on Sunday evenings when there were no public performances, to make sound recordings of variety acts for radio programmes such as [https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/044b66194cdd4caabf439f300b7a2c0d Variety Fanfare].<ref>{{Cite news |date=25 November 1955 |title="BBC BUYS HULME PLAYHOUSE For Use as Studio" |work=Manchester Guardian}}</ref> Produced by [[Ronnie Taylor (scriptwriter)|Ronnie Taylor]] between 1950 and 1952 for the BBC Light Programme, ''Variety Fanfare'' was the first national radio outlet for many Northern comedians including [[Ken Dodd]], [[Morecambe and Wise]], [[Bob Monkhouse]], Ken Platt, and Al Read, with [[Frankie Vaughan]] as the warm-up artist. <ref name=":1">{{Cite book |last=Barfe |first=Louis |title=Sunshine and Laughter: The story of Morecambe and Wise |publisher=Apollo Books |year=2021 |pages=51}}</ref>
From 1950 until shortly after 1955 when the BBC bought the conjoined Playhouse theatre for use as a permanent studio, the BBC 'rented' the Hulme Hippodrome auditorium on Sunday evenings when there were no public performances, to make sound recordings of variety acts for radio programmes such as [https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/044b66194cdd4caabf439f300b7a2c0d Variety Fanfare].<ref>{{Cite news |date=25 November 1955 |title="BBC BUYS HULME PLAYHOUSE For Use as Studio" |work=Manchester Guardian}}</ref> Produced by [[Ronnie Taylor (scriptwriter)|Ronnie Taylor]] between 1950 and 1952 for the BBC Light Programme, ''Variety Fanfare'' was the first national radio outlet for many Northern comedians including [[Ken Dodd]], [[Morecambe and Wise]], [[Bob Monkhouse]], Ken Platt, and Al Read, with [[Frankie Vaughan]] as the warm-up artist. <ref name=":1">{{Cite book |last=Barfe |first=Louis |title=Sunshine and Laughter: The story of Morecambe and Wise |publisher=Apollo Books |year=2021 |pages=51}}</ref>


From a book on the history of the BBC's Variety Department, the:
⚫
As the programme engineer Peter Pilbeam later explained for a book interview:


* "studio and rehearsal facilities remained little short of deplorable with outdated fittings and equipment" and "Geoff Lawrence, who worked in Variety [Department] in Manchester, remembered the 'good, healthy, constructive and positive atmosphere .. [with] a friendly rivalry about it.' He continued, 'We had a pretty good regional head of programmes who talked our language ... and we were allowed that delightful freedom to experiment'."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Dibbs |first=Martin |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1053888128 |title=Radio fun and the BBC variety department, 1922-67 : comedy and popular music on air |date=2019 |isbn=978-3-319-95609-1 |location=Cham, Switzerland |oclc=1053888128}}</ref>
⚫
* ‘We had a permanent [[Outside broadcasting|outside broadcast]] control room in the circle, which was in fact a garden shed. No sound insulation whatsoever, it was an impossible place get a decent balance out of anything. We heard more through the walls than we did from the loudspeaker. We did some good stuff there, though.’<ref name=":1" />

⚫
As the BBC's programme engineer Peter Pilbeam explained for another book in an interview about recording inside Hulme Hippodrome for BBC radio:

⚫
* "We had a permanent [[Outside broadcasting|outside broadcast]] control room in the circle, which was in fact a garden shed. No sound insulation whatsoever, it was an impossible place get a decent balance out of anything. We heard more through the walls than we did from the loudspeaker. We did some good stuff there, though."<ref name=":1" />


Morecambe and Wise also played at least three acts to regular paying audiences at Hulme Hippodrome, one time as second billing to the ventriloquist [[Dennis Spicer]].
Morecambe and Wise also played at least three acts to regular paying audiences at Hulme Hippodrome, one time as second billing to the ventriloquist [[Dennis Spicer]].

Revision as of 15:05, 24 September 2022

This article is about the theatre called the Hulme Hippodrome from 1905 onwards. For the earlier Hulme Hippodrome, see Playhouse Theatre, Manchester.

Hulme Hippodrome, M15 5EU
Grand Junction Theatre
Second Manchester Repertory Theatre
Exterior of Hulme Hippodrome, 2021
AddressWarwick Street, Hulme
Manchester M15 5EU
United Kingdom
Construction
Opened1901
ArchitectJ. J. Alley

The Hulme Hippodrome, a Grade II listed building, a proscenium arch theatre with two galleries, was originally known as the Grand Junction Theatre and Floral Hall and opened in Preston Street, Hulme, Manchester, on 7 October 1901. Preston Street is now a footpath, the road being removed in the 1960s, and there are doors on to the remaining boundary road of Warwick Street.

The Hippodrome and the conjoined smaller Playhouse Theatre in the same building were built at roughly the same time and they were part of the circuit of 17 theatres owned by W. H. Broadhead (1848-1931) located mostly in working class urban areas across North West England. The two venues were reportedly connected by an arcade (some researchers question this feature existed). The extensive building was Broadhead's company headquarters.[1] Various architectural drawings for the building exist in archives, not all of which correspond with the eventual constructed form of the building. The architect was J.J. Alley.[2] The ornate interior plasterwork was by Messrs Alberti, of Oxford Street, Manchester.[3] The initial seating capacity was 3,300 and unusually for a theatre the audience sat on straight benches, except for seven rows of individual tip-up seats in the centre block of the Circle. Benches were preferred by theatre managers to squeeze in extra paying patrons for the popular shows.[3]

The Floral Hall was originally a full-height Edwardian atrium with a glass apex roof for customers to promenade indoors while waiting for the auditorium doors to open. Over the years it has been extensively modified, including new floors and ceilings, but with original features reportedly retained behind the later fixtures.[3]

The footprint is 1685 square metres (18,135 square feet); two and three storeys (10.2m height) plus a basement. The whole building (both theatres) is 2506 square metres (26,975 square feet). The size of the building means that during heavy rain (8mm/hr) 20,000 litres of water (4,300 gallons) needs to be channelled and drained off the roof space per hour.

There were local stories of a 'secret tunnel' for artists to escape the crowds outside by going from the Hulme Hippodrome to nearby lodgings in the Junction Hotel, a pub with rooms. Some stories were that this tunnel reached further to the city centre. More recent reports indicate that there probably was a Victorian storm drain at sub-basement level with an unconfirmed doorway from the Hulme Hippodrome basement toilets, and the internal height of this drain and their form as a neighbourhood network might have led to the idea of them as a means of escape.

1905 swap - Variety

Initially the larger of the two conjoined theatres staged mainly dramatic productions, while the smaller theatre presented variety performances, but due to the popularity of variety theatre in 1905 the names and functions of the two adjacent theatres were swapped over: the former Hippodrome became known as the Grand Junction, and the variety performances and name were transferred to the larger theatre, now the new Hippodrome.[1] The 1905 swap also replaced benches in the Pit and Stalls areas with individual tip-up seats, the most expensive seats, prices ranging from tuppence (1p) to nine pence (4p).[3]

The roots of variety theatre in the UK have been said in some research to be found in the vaudeville format that came from the USA.[4] It extended the previous UK format of music halls.

In 1915 Gracie Fields led in a variety revue called, Yes, I Think So, which premiered on the Broadhead circuit of theatres which included Hulme Hippodrome.[3]

George Formby appeared at the Hulme Hippodrome between 1923 and 1935, including in his own revue, Formby Seeing Life (1925) which was described in The Manchester Programme as "a distinct success. He works hard, and as the simple looking lad from Wigan gets the better of most arguments."[5]

Following the death of WH Broadhead in 1931 the theatre was sold to the Buxton Estates in 1932, reportedly to help the family pay death duties, and in 1938 it was sold on to the Brennan Circuit. A grandson of WH Broadhead, Alfred Burt-Briggs (1912-2004), wrote an unpublished memoir of the Broadhead Circuit and kept a family archive of papers relating to the 17 theatres.[3]

In August 1934 the theatre management published a celebratory advertisement in The Stage about the popularity of the play of the novel Love On The Dole by Walter Greenwood (1933), saying, "Last week at the Hippodrome, Hulme (the seventh week it has played Manchester this year)" and "Total receipts £915-1-6". [6] Wendy Hiller was the lead actor in this performance, it having transferred from the Prince's Theatre in Manchester.[5]

An extensive coverage of the variety acts performing at Hulme Hippodrome between 1920 and 1940 was compiled by Roger Rolls and self-published as a book in 2000. His father was on the staff at the Hulme Hippodrome playing the violin in the resident 'orchestra', having learnt to play to gain work after being gassed in the First World War.[5]

1940s - Repertory

On 8 July 1940 the theatre re-opened "after extensive decorating, re-seating, carpeting, re-lighting (stage and auditorium)" and being "under new management from 24 June 1940" according to a trade advertisement.[7]

Between 1942 and 1949 the theatre was known as the Second Manchester Repertory Theatre before it reverted in 1950 to being Hulme Hippodrome. There were at least two 'war plays' written by Zelda Davees, a local resident and an actor: Wearing the Pants (1941), and Without Them We Perish (1944) by the Frank H Fortescue's Famous Players.

1950s - BBC Radio including Variety Fanfare

From 1950 until shortly after 1955 when the BBC bought the conjoined Playhouse theatre for use as a permanent studio, the BBC 'rented' the Hulme Hippodrome auditorium on Sunday evenings when there were no public performances, to make sound recordings of variety acts for radio programmes such as Variety Fanfare.[8] Produced by Ronnie Taylor between 1950 and 1952 for the BBC Light Programme, Variety Fanfare was the first national radio outlet for many Northern comedians including Ken Dodd, Morecambe and Wise, Bob Monkhouse, Ken Platt, and Al Read, with Frankie Vaughan as the warm-up artist. [9]

From a book on the history of the BBC's Variety Department, the:

  • "studio and rehearsal facilities remained little short of deplorable with outdated fittings and equipment" and "Geoff Lawrence, who worked in Variety [Department] in Manchester, remembered the 'good, healthy, constructive and positive atmosphere .. [with] a friendly rivalry about it.' He continued, 'We had a pretty good regional head of programmes who talked our language ... and we were allowed that delightful freedom to experiment'."[10]

As the BBC's programme engineer Peter Pilbeam explained for another book in an interview about recording inside Hulme Hippodrome for BBC radio:

  • "We had a permanent outside broadcast control room in the circle, which was in fact a garden shed. No sound insulation whatsoever, it was an impossible place get a decent balance out of anything. We heard more through the walls than we did from the loudspeaker. We did some good stuff there, though."[9]

Morecambe and Wise also played at least three acts to regular paying audiences at Hulme Hippodrome, one time as second billing to the ventriloquist Dennis Spicer.

In 2009 Doreen Wise rediscovered a collection of recordings (tapes and acetate discs) at home from some of these radio sessions, excerpts of which were rebroadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2010.[11]

In December 1955 the connecting doorways in the party wall between the conjoined theatres was bricked up when the BBC bought the Playhouse Theatre from James Brennan to use as a full-time radio and TV recording studio, using it for 30 years until around 1986.[12]

1950s - Variety and Rock and Roll

In 1950 the theatre was used again for variety performances following a short closure for an internal refurbishment reportedly paid for by Dorothy Squires ('Dot', married to Roger Moore) and Billy Dainty, though others attribute the funding to James Brennan, who had added The Playhouse to his property portfolio in 1950.

On 17 September 1953 Shirley Bassey appeared with other singers in the touring show, Memories of Jolson. This was said to be her first professional tour as a singer. She next appeared in May 1954 in Harlem Jazz, where a newspaper review said, "Shirley Bassey sings old and new blues tunes with real zip".[13]

In the later 1950s the theatre was used at times for Rock and Roll performances, sometimes within a wider variety programme. For example, from a poster, Art Baxter and His Rock and Roll Sinners were playing within an 11-acts programme on 11 February 1957, and appearing again on 8 April 1957.

1950s - Coronation Street actors

The TV programme Coronation Street started on ITV (Granada) in 1960, and at least three of its initial actors had worked previously in the 1950s at Hulme Hippodrome and other theatres. Violet Carson (as Ena Sharples) had previously played the piano at Hulme Hippodrome. Jill Summers (as Phyllis Pearce) had appeared as a comedian with a stage role as a railway porter in uniform and with a trolley and two suitcases as props, telling stories and jokes. Bill Waddington (as Percy Sugden) had appeared in pantomime as The Old Woman who Lived in a Shoe.

1960s - Mecca Bingo

The Hippodrome was last used as a variety theatre in 1960; from 1960 to 1962 it was owned by Bill Benny, a retired professional wrestler, and used for 'adult' entertainment; and in 1962 he sold it to Mecca Entertainments for use as a bingo hall, being initially renamed Mecca Bingo Preston Street and later the Mecca Social Club with its reported closure in 1988.

On 11 April 1962 there is a press report concerning the state of the houses around Hulme Hippodrome, saying it was "the biggest area to be recommended for slum clearance in Manchester since the war", leading to 1,280 homes being demolished by around 1965 and many of the old roads being 'stopped up' and removed. This urban renewal displaced many families who were the theatre's local audiences, before new residents returned to live in Hulme.[14]

The 1962 purchase led to some internal changes, in particular the sloping auditorium had a wooden 'false' floor built to create a level surface for the change in layout from rows of theatre seating to a grid pattern of bingo tables and chairs. This new floor was almost level to the stage height. The stage was also 'boxed in' to make it smaller. These wooden constructions have since been removed.

1988 - Going Dark

Since around 1988 much of the building including the auditorium has remained empty, and it has been placed on Manchester City Council's Buildings At Risk Register, and in 2006 was added to the Theatre Trust's newly-created Theatres At Risk Register.[2]

2003 - Church services

The building was bought by the controversial Gilbert Deya Ministries (a charity which has been investigated twice) for £152,615 on 26 August 2003, and services were held in part of the ground floor of the former atrium adjacent to the main auditorium, known as the Floral Hall.[15] The church reportedly spent £200,000 on the building and in 2013 leased the upstairs room of the Floral Hall to a community youth group, Youth Village, before some charity trustees allegedly tried to transfer the building to a property developer on 11 January 2021, a transaction that wasn't accepted by the Land Registry.[16]

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. A council spokesman said: "There would also be a significant cost to bring the building back into use—into the millions—and without a [business] plan in place it would be unfair for us to assume they could turn the building around."[16]

2017 to date

[ The conjoined Playhouse Theatre, in the southern portion of the building, was sold at auction on 18 May 2017 at the Macron Stadium, Bolton, for £325,000 - it was known as the NIA Centre (1991-1997) and currently is tenanted by and known as Niamos, a community interest company (CIC).[17][18] ]

Squatters occupied the Hulme Hippodrome from around June 2017 to February 2018, and used the venue for music gigs until the Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service issued a Prohibition Notice on 9 February 2018 against any further events on the basis of inadequate means of escape for the audience. The squatters occupied the building saying they intended to bring it back into community use, and reportedly cleaning it up after years of neglect, though other accounts differ.[19]

In September 2019, the building was named on the Victorian Society's list of the top ten most endangered buildings in England and Wales.[20]

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 resource[21] and the campaign organisation became a limited company in March 2021.

On 14 February 2022 Manchester City Council served a Section 215 improvements notice (Planning Act) on all the alleged owners for 11 types of external remedial works, which was appealed by one of the alleged owners at Manchester Magistrates Court on 29 July 2022 and the Notice remains in abeyance pending a full hearing scheduled for January 2023.

See also

References

  1. ^ a b Rudyard, Nigel; Wyke, Terry (1994), Manchester Theatres, Bibliography of North West England, p. 37, ISBN 978-0-947969-18-9
  2. ^ a b "Hulme Hippodrome", The Theatres Trust, retrieved 1 October 2010
  3. ^ a b c d e f Garlick, Victoria (2014). Quick, Clean, Smart & Bright. PhD thesis, University of Manchester.
  4. ^ Stanley, Bob (2022). Let's Do It: The birth of pop. Faber.
  5. ^ a b c Rolls, Roger (2000). Variety at Hulme Hippodrome, Manchester, 1920-1940. self-published.
  6. ^ "Advertisement". The Stage. 16 August 1934.
  7. ^ "advertisement". The Stage. 16 May 1940.
  8. ^ ""BBC BUYS HULME PLAYHOUSE For Use as Studio"". Manchester Guardian. 25 November 1955.
  9. ^ a b Barfe, Louis (2021). Sunshine and Laughter: The story of Morecambe and Wise. Apollo Books. p. 51.
  10. ^ Dibbs, Martin (2019). Radio fun and the BBC variety department, 1922-67 : comedy and popular music on air. Cham, Switzerland. ISBN 978-3-319-95609-1. OCLC 1053888128.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  11. ^ "news item". Sunday Telegraph. 2 May 2010.
  12. ^ Land Registry, Title Entry [accessed 14 Feb 2022].
  13. ^ "Theatre Review". Manchester Evening News. 4 May 1954.
  14. ^ "1,280 Houses to be Cleared". The Manchester Guardian. 11 April 1962. p. 18.
  15. ^ "Gilbert Deya Ministries: list of UK pastors", Gilbert Deya Ministries, archived from the original on 9 June 2013, retrieved 22 May 2013
  16. ^ a b Abbit, Beth (4 August 2016). "Campaigners hoping to bring Hulme Hippodrome back into use say they won't give up their fight". Manchester Evening News. Retrieved 12 April 2017.
  17. ^ Smithers, Dominic (31 March 2017). "The former Hulme Hippodrome is going up for auction...and it could be yours for £300,000". Manchester Evening News. Retrieved 12 April 2017.
  18. ^ "For Sale By Auction: Nia Centre The Playhouse Theatre, Chichester Rd Hulme Manchester, Lancashire, M15 5JJ". auctionhouse.co.uk. Auction House. Archived from the original on 7 June 2017. Retrieved 18 January 2018. See also lot details.
  19. ^ Abbit, Beth (4 September 2017). "Inside Hulme Hippodrome: How squatters have given the building a new lease of life". Manchester Evening News. Retrieved 18 January 2018.
  20. ^ "Colliery and tunnel on Victorian Society 'at risk' list". BBC News. Retrieved 13 September 2019.
  21. ^ "Crowdfunder launched after Hulme Hippodrome pulled out of auction at the last minute". Manchester Evening News. 12 February 2021. Retrieved 11 March 2021.


53°27′52″N 2°14′59″W / 53.464321°N 2.249587°W / 53.464321; -2.249587

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Hulme_Hippodrome&oldid=1112077606"