Manchester Hippodrome Oxford Street Manchester

Opened on Boxing Day, 26 December 1904, and built for Oswald Stoll and Moss Empires as a hippodrome variety theatre which could stage music hall, circus or water spectaculars. Costing £45,000 with a capacity of 3,000, it was built in the Arabesque style throughout. The auditorium 60 feet wide at the front increased to 100 feet wide at the gallery. The principal entrance on Oxford Street was approached by marble steps through a front colonnade. Internally, stairs balustrades and walls were also of marble. In the roof above the auditorium a sliding panel 30 feet wide could be moved to ventilate the theatre. The circus ring 42 feet in diameter was covered by a four-ton mat. Below this was a circular tank holding 70,000 gallons of water, heated by its own furnace. A false floor in the tank could be raised and lowered by means of a hydraulic ram. Under the auditorium were stables for 100 horses and cages for the big cats. The theatre was replaced by the Gaumont Cinema in 1935. George Formby was so fond of the theatre that a reproduction of the proscenium arch was incorporated on his headstone. 

THE MANCHESTER HIPPODROME: APPLICATION FOR THEATRICAL LICENCE -The Manchester Watch Committee held a special meeting yesterday to hear applications for the grant of licences for the Public performance of stage plays. Mr. F. Brocklehurst applied on behalf of Mr Oswald Stoll for a licence for the Manchester Hippodrome, Oxford-street. Mr. Stoll, he said was the actual and responsible manager of the Hippodrome Theatre, which was at the corner of Bridgewater Street and Oxford Street. The site had been well chosen for the purposes of a theatre of this kind. The building had been designed by F. Matcham of London, who had designed many others of similar kind, and it embodied every improvement which his experience had shown to be desirable. The cost was about £45,000. The safety of the public had been a matter of the first concern on the part of the proprietors. The theatre was fireproof, and the members of the staff would be trained in fire-drill. The place was built of brick, Stone, terra-cotta, concrete, and steel. Special attention had been paid to the staircases, the galleries, the floors, and the partitions which the public would have to use. necessary draperies of the building would be treated with non-inflammable solution, and the floors, stage, and arena were of solid teak which was accepted generally as fireproof. The building would be unique in England, inasmuch as every seat would be of the " tip-up " kind, whether in the stalls or gallery. He was informed by the architect that the method of heating was the safest that had yet been discovered. The building would be lighted by electricity, with gas laid on as a stand-by. Fourteen exits would be provided, and the architect calculated that the place could be emptied in two and a half minutes. There would be accommodation for about 3,000 persons. He understood that a great many more could have been accommodated had the proprietors so desired, but the holding capacity of the building had been deliberately limited for the sake of comfort. The lowest price for admission would be sixpence. It was desired to open the Hippodrome on Boxing-day, December 26, and the application was made thus early in order that, if acceded to, it might come before the City Council at their next meeting. [Manchester Guardian 25 November 1904 page 12]

The Manchester Hippodrome which has just been erected in Oxford Street from designs by Mr F Mitcham and Company includes a restaurant and a large shop with offices over. The arena is 42 feet in diameter and contains 70,000 gallons of water below the floor, which is lowered and raised by a hydraulic ram. [British Architect 13 January 1905 Page 35]

In the early 1930s an account was given in the local press of the water tank at the Hippodrome: It must be about nineteen years since the big tank and circus ring at the Hippodrome, soon to be brought into use again, fulfilled its proper purpose. Today sixty or seventy members of the audience, and all the orchestra, usually sit over one half of the tank, and the other half is covered by the nearer part of the stage. It is an ingenious machine, which was ingeniously designed and equipped by Mr Matcham when the theatre was built, thirty years ago for Sir Oswald Stoll. The tank is round, with a diameter of forty feet, and it is seven feet deep, lined with glazed brick, and has a false floor on a hydraulic ram. The ram lifts the floor above water level for circus turns. But before any of this happens the top of the tank must be cleared. The back half of the stage is lifted by machinery, and the front half, which has its own motor, slides under it. Then the ring matting can be rolled out by its machine. The tank has its own furnace for its water, and it takes about three days to heat the water adequately. When it was decided to use the tank again after all these years everything was found to work exactly; but Mr Wilby and his engineers had one great labour over the floor. It had been repaired without reference to its movements, and the staff had to go round exploring with chisels to find where to cut through new wood.  One of the tank's last uses was in 'Kultur', which had a scene showing the drowning of Overmans by Belgians. The water, thousands of gallons of it, in tanks high over the stage, washed the invaders away. It did fine service in a scene called 'The Sands of Dee' and in 'Mexico' and 'Redskins' it received diving horses and natives of various colours. The revue called 'Say When' also used it. The tank has two side canals wherein boats can be loaded. Once the tank is filled the stage staff can bring the apparatus into work in five minutes or thereabouts. This means lifting or dropping the tank's false floor and moving the stage floor; and all this is controlled from a switch box under the stage.

Reference    British Architect 13 January 1905 Page 35
Reference    Manchester Guardian 25 November 1904 page 12