I’m sure many will have seen recent images on socials of an excavator ripping away at the stage end of the Hippodrome over the last couple of days. This council ordered demolition began immediately following the ‘Grade II’ listed building’s third fire in just about as many weeks.
I think just about every man and his dog have been in here over the years, so I thought I’d stick a few pictures up that’ve been sitting on a hard drive doing nothing as a tribute to the grand old gal.
I first moved to Derby in 2015 and one of my first memories of the place was one of its multitude of disastrous fires in April or May of that year which closed the surrounding roads of Green Lane and Macklin Street. I don’t think I actually went inside until 2018 at the earliest and by this point it was pretty much a ruin, with all the seating stripped and the foyer and stalls bar area burned out.
The most recent pictures I have are from May 2023 when I had a brief mooch while waiting for my car’s MOT to be done.
The life of the building is a familiar one - opened to the public in 1914 and passed through a life of theatre, cinema and finally bingo. It was closed by operator Walkers in 2006 and was purchased by a private buyer. A long tale of woe ensued.
Remains of the stage and proscenium with a chunk of fancy plasterwork and tattered safety curtain.
Upper circle - this is now roofless
A bit of a ropey climb gives access to the concrete shell of the former projector room
And the roof
Burned out shell of the foyer and what was presumably an office upstairs
Bingo stuff
These were under some junk in an old dressing room
A poster from the 40s I found under some old seating
Remnants of plasterwork on the stage
Down in the stalls, it's a sorry sight!
The first of this years’ arson attacks happened in mid April, with a second in early May.
Front page news in the Derby Telegraph 13th of May…
I think just about every man and his dog have been in here over the years, so I thought I’d stick a few pictures up that’ve been sitting on a hard drive doing nothing as a tribute to the grand old gal.
I first moved to Derby in 2015 and one of my first memories of the place was one of its multitude of disastrous fires in April or May of that year which closed the surrounding roads of Green Lane and Macklin Street. I don’t think I actually went inside until 2018 at the earliest and by this point it was pretty much a ruin, with all the seating stripped and the foyer and stalls bar area burned out.
The most recent pictures I have are from May 2023 when I had a brief mooch while waiting for my car’s MOT to be done.
The life of the building is a familiar one - opened to the public in 1914 and passed through a life of theatre, cinema and finally bingo. It was closed by operator Walkers in 2006 and was purchased by a private buyer. A long tale of woe ensued.
Remains of the stage and proscenium with a chunk of fancy plasterwork and tattered safety curtain.
Upper circle - this is now roofless
A bit of a ropey climb gives access to the concrete shell of the former projector room
And the roof
Burned out shell of the foyer and what was presumably an office upstairs
Bingo stuff
These were under some junk in an old dressing room
A poster from the 40s I found under some old seating
Remnants of plasterwork on the stage
Down in the stalls, it's a sorry sight!
The first of this years’ arson attacks happened in mid April, with a second in early May.
Front page news in the Derby Telegraph 13th of May…
On the 16th of May there was a third arson attack. It was a sunny Friday evening so I went into town to watch the show. The fire had just about gone out when I arrived, so I sat there and watched Mr Fire and Rescue sawing away at parts of the roof and throwing them into the auditorium below.
The following morning, emergency demolition began...
Would be nice to see people's old, unposted or lost pictures, I'm sure there are many sitting on old hard drives...
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