UPDATE - 27/06/15 - You may already have heard the great news that the new owner of the Brighton Hippodrome, Academy Music Group (AMG), has given us a six-month window to move forward with plans for restoration of this magnificent building.
We will now be working on developing the business proposition. You will be able to follow the ongoing progress of the project at ourhippodrome.org.uk
Thanks again for all your support. It means a lot to us—and to the Hippodrome!
Now that cinema conversion of the Hippodrome has apparently been abandoned, we call upon Brighton and Hove City Council to support plans for theatre restoration and to use all available powers and its own best endeavours to facilitate such plans.
Why is this important?
A new owner is in the process of taking over the Brighton Hippodrome site. Brighton and Hove City Council (BHCC) gave planning approval to convert the Hippodrome into an eight-screen cinema, restaurants and retail units. We are told that the scheme is not going ahead. Vue Entertainment, the company that was to have operated the cinema, is no longer involved.
This means that the magnificent Grade II* listed theatre, designed by Frank Matcham—the finest unused theatre in the country—will be left with no plan to save it other than the one being developed by Our Brighton Hippodrome (OBH).
The BHCC City Plan names the Hippodrome as one of the key venues in the city’s cultural infrastructure that should be protected and enhanced ‘for their existing use or potential for such use’. It is long past the time when BHCC should issue an urgent repairs notice to protect one of the most important buildings in the city from further deterioration.
Meanwhile, the city council should give its full support to enable OBH to complete its plans for restoration of the Hippodrome for live performance and as a major community asset. With BHCC's backing, OBH will be more able to raise the funding for restoration and will be in a stronger position to negotiate with the site’s owner.
A restored Hippodrome would add considerably to the local economy, serving the residents of the city and the county and attracting valuable tourist spending with shows that cannot currently be presented in Sussex.
A petition on 38 Degrees in favour of theatre restoration has achieved over 11,500 signatures. BHCC should acknowledge the massive public support for revival of the iconic Hippodrome for live performance—and the preference of most of the council’s own elected members for theatre restoration, if possible. It IS possible. The community can make it happen and the council should help achieve this aspiration.
Read about the project at ourhippodrome.org.uk
Contact the campaign at [email protected]
Become a member of the campaign at ourhippodrome.org.uk/join
Donate to the campaign fighting fund at ourhippodrome.org.uk/donate
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