NHER 34307 (Building record) - The Hippodrome, St George's Road

December 1978. Listed, Grade II*.
Listing Description excerpt:
"Circus. Purpose built in 1903 by RS Cockrill. Concrete, faced with brick and with terracotta tiling to the east facade. Roof clad with late 20th-century composition decking. Slightly curved façade in three wide bays. Each bay has a wide semicircular arch over a central entrance and, right and left, timber and tiled booking office fascias. Flanking each bay are square towers, those to the extreme corners with arched rusticated bases, the centre pair each on an arch carried by a pair of entactic columns with stylised spear-head foliage capitals. Art Nouveau relief foliage patterns in the arch side panels. The side towers rise to a flat roof with a segmental parapet over a cornice. The centre towers develop upper angle vanes rising into a circular drum with square openings under rusticated arches. The drum above with relief mouldings of Art Nouveau foliage patterns. Each centre tower finished with a shallow dome. The main cornice has a frieze of carved owls. Segmental arch between centre towers.
INTERIOR: central circus survives and is only one of three in the world which converts into a pool. Seating and balconies renewed. Also important as one of only two surviving circus buildings in England (cf. The Tower, Blackpool)."
Information from (S1).
Please consult the National Heritage List for England (S1) for the current listing details.
E. Rose (NLA) 22 March 1999. Amended by P. Watkins (HES), 14 March 2022.