Community engagement with Save Hulme Hippodrome campaign
How a grant from our Resilient Theatres: Resilient Communities programme has supported Save Hulme Hippodrome to increase its community engagement.
About Hulme Hippdrome
Hulme Hippodrome is a splendid Grade II listed music hall with huge social and architectural significance, not least for its place in the history of working-class entertainment.
It has sadly fallen into a state of disrepair and is in private ownership. The theatre has been our Theatres at Risk Register since the list began in 2006, but local efforts to save it has galvanised since early 2021 when the group Save Hulme Hippodrome (SHH) formed.
In 2024 SHH received a £7,500 grant through our Resilient Theatres: Resilient Communities programme to work with consultants to carry out a series of community conversations with a focus on the future use of the building and raising the profile of the Save Hulme Hippodrome campaign.
Reaching out to Hulme’s community
The project focused on six days of “community conversations” that included a variety of different delivery methods to ensure broad engagement including in-depth sessions with creative practitioners, drop-in visits, and both in-person and digital surveys.
It targeted key audiences identified by SHH, including local young adults, families with children, and community groups not previously engaged with SHH.
The project concentrated on the local area around the building, engaging with schools, community organisations and a housing association. An experienced consultant facilitated bespoke engagement opportunities, leveraging local contacts to introduce SHH to diverse participants and organisations through flexible, accessible methods.
Creative facilitation was central to the approach, reflecting the building's legacy and enhancing engagement. Two sessions led by creative practitioners used poetry, spoken word, drawing, and collage to foster deeper connection and reflection. Visual imagery, including historical posters and renovation drafts, along with SHH’s existing publicity materials, were used to provoke discussion and feedback. Activities encouraged participants to engage with the building’s future, raise awareness of SHH’s efforts, and promote active involvement in securing its future.
In total there were 163 participants including pupils, parents and teachers from a local school, a tenants’ group, Manchester Youth Justice service and NIAMOS, the group who run the neighbouring Hulme Playhouse.
Unanimous support for saving Hulme Hippodrome
The consensus was clear: the building should be saved, renovated, and developed for local communities, while retaining an element of creative and live performance. There is a keenness for it to become a cultural hub run by and for the local people of Hulme and the surrounding areas. Not one person wanted to see it demolished or used for commercial or housing ventures.
Many people felt it would be an excellent venue to provide a safe, welcoming and supportive space for local young people. A place where different groups could meet, share, develop new skills and assist in the production of events and live performances.
The reopening the Hippodrome was also seen as a way to reduce anti-social behaviour in the area. It was suggested by a number of people that it should include spaces for hyper local services and start up studios and businesses set up by local people. Affordability and access for local working-class people was seen as key.
Next steps
At the end of the project, SHH received a database of organisations who took part, people interested in volunteering and sharing personal stories about the Hippodrome. The report was shared with all project participants and contacts, the Manchester City Council cultural team and local councillors. A meeting was held with Directors from Niamos, the arts organisation who run events in the adjoining Playhouse theatre.
This work has provided clear evidence of local support for the building, which SHH is using in conversations with local decision-makers in the hope of bring about a change in the building’s fortunes.
SHH continues to engage with local residents and explore potential partnerships with local organisations, who share its vision. For example, with Venture Arts (a visual arts organisation working with learning disabled artists in the community) to explore ideas to raise the profile of the campaign, possibly through an exhibition or engagement event.
Some local organisations working with young people, for example, Rekindle School and the Youth Justice Service have indicated a strong interest in working with SHH, to develop and pilot ideas for its future use if the ownership of the building can be secured.
There is still a long way to go before Hulme Hippodrome can be the thriving hub its community dreams of, but this project proved that there is the local need and desire for such a venue and that there is still so much love for Hulme Hippodrome.
Final words...
...go to this wonderful poem by a Year 6 student who attended the workshops:
If I could design the Hippodrome I'd make it's alone
It's not going to be rotten,
Makes it feel forgotten
I'll place an art room making it large
But don't worry it's free of charge
The abandoned will still be known
Making it feel like home
Hippo's history is no longer a mystery
I hope my oration will unite the nation