Building Name

Empire (later Hippodrome) Church Street Blackpool

Date
1895
Street
Church Street
District/Town
Blackpool
County/Country
Lancashire, England
Work
New Build

Blackpool Hippodrome originated as the Empire music hall-cum-ballroom with a flat floor, gallery round three sides and shallow stage built to the designs of J. D. Harker and opened  on 4 July 1895. Re-named th Hippodrome, it was converted to a circus in 1900, probably as a result of the popularity of the Tower Circus but it lasted in this form for only 10 years before the arena was removed and the main floor raked for cinema use with seasonal variety.

After use as a TV theatre for live variety shows in the 1950s and early 1960s the theatre was almost totally rebuilt in 1963, leaving very little of the original Hippodrome. The outer walls follow the footprint of the old theatre and are probably three quarters the height of the original. Designed by C.J. Foster (chief architect for ABC).it consisted of stalls and a deep single balcony with a combined capacity of 1934. The ceiling was lit by hundreds of small individual lamps set in gold moulded panels concealing ventilation and sound. After many years of theatre usage the auditorium was split into three cinemas. The cinema closed in 1998.