I am just going through a backlog of unifinish projects that need finishing and this is one of those projects. But, I doubt it will ever get finished now, since the theatre has been converted to a mosque. So may as well wang up a report...
Le Debut
Backstory
I visited here with @albino-jay but our plans to visit here spanned the centuries (well, maybe six months or so before we got in). Enticed by the promise of projectors we were getting in at some point, there were no doubts about that. We'd checked it out a couple of times and found a potential way in. But then one day things changed and it all looked very promising, but not as we had been planning...
Pretty sure Albino messaged me and said he'd seen scaffolding all up around the theatre, so we rocked up on a bank holiday Monday to check it out. We got up fairly early. Earlier, it happens, that eastern europeans start working on converting theaters into mosques on a bank holiday Monday. We had a shufty about and flew up the scaffold to the roof. We didn't fly. If we did, we wouldn't need scaffold. It's a figure of speech.
Happily for us there was a hatch on the ceiling as there so often is on old theatres and it was open, so we popped inside for a mooch. Depending on what way you look at this, we'd either timed it perfectly or badly, because just as we dropped into the upper echelons of the theater, the work crew turned up to carry on with the conversion. We could hear them working away downstairs, so we made our way around like invisible ninjas (we weren't invisible - we were clocked several times by the workers, they just thought we were meant to be there at first) taking photos of the best bits.
Histories
Designed by architects Campbell and Horsley, the theatre, built in 1902, is Edwardian and is built in decorative terracotta and has a richly decorated auditorium. It was closed as a cinema in 1992 and was possibly going to be knocked down in 2000 for a housing development. The theatre was purchased by the Hyde Islamic Resource Centre in 2016, despite objections from a local group and the theatres trust, who campaigned unsuccessfully against a change in use. Most recently (October 2020 - last month) the theatres trust lost another objection for alterations to the exterior and interior to transform the theatre into a cultural centre.
The Photos
Projectors - completed it mate.
Erm, gas lamps?
The bar. Edwardians were partial to black currant cordial.
La Fin
We didn't get to cover the lowest levels, because when the builders figured out we weren't meant to be there, they kicked us out. However, we got to cover the main parts and the projectors.
It was somewhere we meant to go back to and did try once or twice, but on those occasions, even though it was shortly after these images were taken, it was in use as a mosque.
Le Debut
Backstory
Pretty sure Albino messaged me and said he'd seen scaffolding all up around the theatre, so we rocked up on a bank holiday Monday to check it out. We got up fairly early. Earlier, it happens, that eastern europeans start working on converting theaters into mosques on a bank holiday Monday. We had a shufty about and flew up the scaffold to the roof. We didn't fly. If we did, we wouldn't need scaffold. It's a figure of speech.
Happily for us there was a hatch on the ceiling as there so often is on old theatres and it was open, so we popped inside for a mooch. Depending on what way you look at this, we'd either timed it perfectly or badly, because just as we dropped into the upper echelons of the theater, the work crew turned up to carry on with the conversion. We could hear them working away downstairs, so we made our way around like invisible ninjas (we weren't invisible - we were clocked several times by the workers, they just thought we were meant to be there at first) taking photos of the best bits.
Histories
The Photos
Projectors - completed it mate.
Erm, gas lamps?
The bar. Edwardians were partial to black currant cordial.
La Fin
It was somewhere we meant to go back to and did try once or twice, but on those occasions, even though it was shortly after these images were taken, it was in use as a mosque.
