New Hippodrome Theatre
Ellison Street,
Accrington,
BB5
Ellison Street,
Accrington,
BB5
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The original Hippodrome Theatre on Ellison Street was a wooden building which opened in 1903, and burnt down in June 1908. It was quickly rebuilt and opened in December 1908 as the New Hippodrome Theatre. Built in brick and stone, to the plans of noted theatre architect Bertie Crewe. It was operated by the Weisker Brothers of Liverpool as a music hall, with Bioscope shows as part of the variety performances.
The New Hippodrome Theatre had a 28 feet wide proscenium, a stage 24 feet deep, and 6 dressing rooms. A new company was formed to operate the theatre in July 1910, retaining the mix of variety & films. In 1912, it became a live theatre, as other cinemas began to open in the town. However, it reverted back to screening films only from April 1913. On 29th August 1929, it became the first cinema in Accrington to screen a sound film “The Donovan Affair”. It continued as a cinema until at least 1940.
Reverting back to live entertainment, it continued to present revues, variety and in later years nude revues until it was closed in 1955. The building stood unused until the late-1960’s, when it was demolished. Today the site is a yard for Jewson’s Builders Merchants.
Contributed by
Ken Roe
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Recent comments (view all 2 comments)
There are two pictures of this theatre towards the bottom of this webpage: View link
A tragic accident happened in the derelict building in the early 1960’s (1962 or 1963 I think), where a lad fell through the roof of the building and was badly injured.