Darlington Hippodrome

When built, this theatre curiously carried two names - Hippodrome on the Borough Road frontage and Palace Theatre on the Parkgate/Borough Road corner. It became the Civic Theatre in 1966, having been acquired by the local authority some years earlier. The principal front is practically as built, red brick with terra cotta dressings in a carefree Baroque manner, the entrance pavilion symmetrical, with Ionic pilasters at first floor level, carrying a scrolly gable and semi-circular lunette with exaggerated voussoirs. Over the gable, a pyramidal roof with iron cresting. At the rear, the 1990s extensions are in plain brick with light brick dressings and a corner tower, like a bastion. The auditorium has two balconies with delicate plaster ornament and a single pedimented box on either side at first balcony level. Circular ceiling set in a square with elaborate plaster ornament in the corners. Rectangular proscenium with a thin spirally enriched roll moulding and a central cartouche. Ante-proscenium walls and above the proscenium decorated with wide bolection mouldings in a square panelled design. The reopening of the long-isolated gallery and the extensions greatly improved this well preserved theatre. A £4.5m grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) has been received as part of a £11.7m restoration and refurbishment project that will result in a new entrance, promenade gallery and vaulted function room in the former water tower. There will be increased seating capacity and better disabled access together with improved back stage facilities for touring companies that will enable larger shows to be accommodated. The theatre closed in May 2016 for building works to begin and will reopen in autumn 2017 under the name Darlington Hippodrome. A further £1.5m grant has been awarded by Arts Council England (ACE) to Theatre Hullabaloo to support a £2.9m project to create an adjacent flagship 150 seat children’s studio theatre venue, The Hullaballoon.