ABC aka Hippodrome.... now gone :O(
Other names - Empire, Hippodrome; Kings (briefly), ABC, later: Cannon, MGM, Syndicate. In 1905 Houdini appeared here... Below find images taken over the years until the last month ( on site - don't ask was legal - didn't trespass ! ) taken by myself. The Empire of 1895 was a variety theatre and ballroom with a flat floor and a gallery around three sides and a shallow stage. In 1900 it was renamed the Hippodrome and also used as a circus. In 1910 the arena was removed and the main floor raked for cinema use, with seasonal variety. The original building was of a scale and degree of architectural pretension that would have sat comfortably in the Winter Gardens complex. It had a lively brick facade, following the bend in Church Street. Some part of this fabric may have survived the radical rebuilding of 1963, but the present building contains no visually obvious memory of the Empire/Hippodrome. The converted building did, however, retain a stage and r