Private members’ club and ‘apart-hotels’ form part of new application to “transform” Brighton Hippodrome

An application to transform Brighton Hippodrome and Hippodrome House into a mixed-use development including a performance space, hotel, shop, bar and private members’ club will be decided by councillors at Planning Committee on April 3.

Brighton & Hove City Council has said that councillors will “consider the historical significance of the Grade II * Listed Building and use as a performance space, alongside details of the submission and the location in the city when making their decision on the application”.

The theatre proposal

The application seeks to restore and bring the auditorium back into use as a flexible performance or events space capable of hosting both musical and theatrical performances. It could also be a venue for conferences, exhibitions, banquets, screening films, hosting lectures and weddings.

According to the plan, the “decorative plasterwork in the auditorium would be restored” with the “retention of a number of historic fixtures and fittings”. The ground floor of the venue would have a kitchen and bar areas within the auditorium.

A rehearsal performance space will be created on the mezzanine level above the stage’s fly-tower. Additional ‘apart-hotel’ bedrooms will be created on the floor above.

The circle level would give access to an enclosed roof top bar leading onto an external roof terrace.

The ground floor lobby of the auditorium would be converted to a bar/restaurant opening onto Middle Street catering for around 100 diners indoors and outside, subject to permits being granted.

The ‘apart-hotel’

The application proposes an extension at the rear and side of the theatre auditorium and infilling the rear car park to create a new three to seven storey ‘apart-hotel’ providing 62 rooms looking out onto Ship Street, with a new retail unit at ground floor level.

‘Apart-hotels’ are apartments where you can stay for a short time and that offer services like a hotel – for example tea and coffee, food and drink, towels and cleaning services. According to the plan, the “development of the ‘apart-hotel’ would help support the restoration of the performance space”.

Hippodrome House

The ground floor of Hippodrome House would be remodelled as a private members’ club with a bar, lounge areas and an outside terrace. Licencing restrictions would apply.

At mezzanine level there would be a members’ dining room, with the upper parts of the house remodelled to develop 16 ‘apart-hotel’ rooms.

Councillors will vote on the decision for the application at Planning Committee on 3 April.

Brighton Hippodrome has been reinvented a number of times. Originally built as an indoor ice rink by Lewis Kerslake in 1896/97 the building was converted to a circus four years later by renowned theatre architect Frank Matcham.

After a year, eminent theatre architect Bertie Crewe altered it again to create a variety theatre for theatre magnate Tom Barrasford by removing the circus ring, creating an orchestra pit with stage, adding a pair of boxes and re-seating the ground floor.

Major alterations were then carried out in 1915/16 by another theatre architect, J. Emblin Walker. Further alterations followed in the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s and the Hippodrome was used as a variety entertainment venue playing host to many of the most famous performers of the 20th Century until 1964.

Following a brief conversion of the building to a film and TV studio in 1966, the building reopened as a bingo hall in 1969. The building was occupied by Mecca Bingo from 1969 until it closed and fell into disuse in 2006.

According to Brighton & Hove City Council, the building has since been in a “substantial and ongoing state of deterioration with sufficient water ingress, dry rot and general decay and disrepair occurring for the building to be longstanding on Historic England‘s and the Theatres Trusts registers of ‘buildings at risk’.”