Two reasons have been suggested for this unusual feature: during the cleaning of the auditorium during the day the owners could save money on gas lighting; and that if the theatre didn't work financially it would be easy to reuse the building as a factory or warehouse with a full number of windows.

[12] The heating system was a coal-fired boiler and brick chimney feeding hot water radiators, where the metal pipes were reportedly 10cm (four inches) in diameter; and the emergency lights were powered by a bank of batteries running at 48 volts.

[23] Research[24] has been done into some of the notable black performers who appeared at Hulme Hippodrome in the variety era, including Harry Scott and Eddie Whaley, Cassie Walmer, Will Garland, Chris Gill, and Ike Hatch.

From images of a publicity bill, during the "second house" on 17 February 1909 he was challenged to escape from a bespoke restraint made locally by Harry Foster, a saddler based at 4 Upper Jackson Street, Hulme - "horses carefully measured and neatly fitted".

[43] In his memoir, Randle Cutts could remember from his childhood seeing billboards for Duggie Wakefield, Billy Nelson, Chuck O'Neil and Jack Butler as a comedy troupe called The Boys from Manchester appearing at the Hipp.

[35] In 2016 Cicely Peover, 90, wrote about her memories of 'Hulme Hipp' from the 1930s when as a child where she would go to the: On 8 July 1940 the theatre re-opened "after extensive decorating, re-seating, carpeting, re-lighting (stage and auditorium)" and being "under new management from 24 June 1940" according to a trade advertisement.

There were at least two 'war plays' written by Zelda Davees, a local resident and a former rep actor: Wearing the Pants (1941); and Without Them We Perish (1944) based on the Manchester air raid and performed by the Frank H Fortescue's Famous Players.

This change followed a short closure for an internal refurbishment reportedly paid for by Dorothy Squires ('Dot', married to Roger Moore) and Billy Dainty, although others[53][3] attribute the funding to James Brennan, who had added The Playhouse to his property portfolio in 1950.

[58] The earliest known radio outside broadcasts from Hulme Hippodrome are from February 1950: starting with a long-running series Variety Fanfare; plus The Norman Evans Show later in the year; and a 30-minute excerpt of a performance of the Hipp's seasonal Cinderella pantomime, transmitted on 5 January 1951 starring Frank Randle and Josef Locke.

Based on a set of self-published books by Mike Craig, Look Back With Laughter (1996) the article said: In his autobiography published in 1985, Al Read says, "From the beginning I recorded my [monthly] radio shows at the Paris Pullman cinema, Regent Street."

[91] Don Estelle, the actor and singer, was born in Crumpsall, Manchester, and he first performed in front of a live theatre audience when singing the same song 12 times a week in the show The Backyard Kids at the Hulme Hippodrome in the early 1950s.

It was while working there that Arthur Lowe suggested he contact Jimmy Perry and David Croft, which got him a minor part in 1969 in the 10-year series of Dad's Army as a delivery worker and later the role of Gerald, a deputy ARP Warden.

[93] From an archived draft report to the Watch Committee dated 19 January 1960 the permission that had been given in 1935, allowing alcohol sales for the first time, was for a single bar "on the first-floor balcony to the Floral Hall" with a drinking area of 25 m2, which shortly afterwards had an approved increase of 45 m2; a total of 70 m2.

[104] On 11 April 1962 there is a press report concerning the state of the houses around Hulme Hippodrome, saying it was "the biggest area to be recommended for slum clearance in Manchester since the war", leading to 1,280 homes being demolished by around 1965 and many of the old roads being 'stopped up' and removed.

In 2024 Simon Jenkins wrote about his memories from the slum clearances in Hulme and his days there as a young reporter: In early 1966 Mecca are in discussions with Manchester City Council for planning permission to create a new 'Gaming Room' which will be the first floor of the Floral Hall, but apparently this type of conversion didn't happen until 1987 by new owners.

[13] In an interview in 2018, Mark Kermode said: Similarly, in his book on dance music the journalist and film-maker Ed Gillett said in forthright terms: From a newspaper article in 2017, Beverley Gallier, partner of the late music mogul Alan Wise, a key figure in the birth of The Haçienda and Factory Records, said: From research interviews with people associated with this group of companies working in the 1980s, there were accounts of two armed robberies for cash in the pool and snooker hall where staff were threatened[13] including one in June 1987 where one woman was coshed and £5,000 stolen.

[133] From correspondence with Len Grant, a Manchester-based photographer specialising in documenting its regeneration: in 1994 he took a series of internal images of the auditorium which are now held in Manchester's Central Library, and it was on his own initiative rather than as a specific commission.

From details in the Land Register the building was then bought from Brooks Wilkinson Ltd on 26 August 2003 for £250,000[13] by the Gilbert Deya Ministries (GDM) a controversial religious charity, being an unincorporated trust founded on 1 September 1995.

The year following their purchase of the Hippodrome (3 February 2004) the charity gained planning permission and listed building consent from Manchester City Council for two mobile phone antennas disguised as flagpoles to be added at the top of the Warwick Street side wall.

An evangelical church blending Christianity with some African cultures with a reported saying of "My Jesus kills witches",[138] their services were held on the ground floor of the Floral Hall, adjacent to the main auditorium.

[147] This combined signage became an iconic cultural reference for many people in Hulme, for example forming a permanent wall display in the Lass O'Gowrie pub (M1 7DB) and with a local psychedelic rock band naming themselves after the sign.

Around 2015 Manchester City Council issued the Gilbert Deya Ministries charity a Section 215 Notice (Town and Country Planning Act 1990) to make various external improvements to the Hulme Hippodrome building, as stated in residents postings in Facebook at the time.

Also, in 1967 the BBC acquired a large site nearby (1.5 km) on Oxford Road in Manchester and started to build New Broadcasting House, a major TV studios complex for the north of England that operated from 1976 to 2012.

[170] There are reports that the three young musicians, at this point working as guitarists without a drummer, could not afford lodgings for the night so they had to return to Liverpool before they could be called back to the stage for the final votes which were based on the level of audience applause.

The property developer attempted to sell Hulme Hippodrome at an online auction on 10 February 2021, being advertised as potentially suitable for redevelopment into apartments (contrary to the Planning Act as a listed building) with a guide price of £950,000.

With a reported sale price by solicitors to the Land Registry of £450,000 this suggests that around £75,000 had been withdrawn between November 2020 and February 2021, payments which will have included the 12 Specific Financial Charges registered by Manchester City Council for works undertaken to keep the building safe between June 2007 and October 2019.

On 2 November 2022 the Greater Manchester Police service disrupted the installation of equipment in the basement intended for a cannabis farm, along with dangerous digging sideways under the pavement in Warwick Street to access high voltage cables.

[108] There have been a number of similar interventions by Manchester City Council since that date including re-securing forced entrances by covering them with sheets of perforated steel, charges which will be reimbursed by the proceeds of the next sale.

On 14 June 2024 an application was made to the Land Registry to change the named owner of the property from the private developer to the HHM 20 Ltd company (number 12917823) with a service address of Harson Estates Ltd, 291a Northborough Road, London SW16 4TR.

The campaign group has worked with first degree architecture, drama and event management students, with a postgraduate heritage researcher, and with university teaching staff on a funded oral histories project with former residents of Hulme who were mass-displaced from the area in the 1960s.