Former Hippodrome Theatre

The Former Hippodrome Theatre, built in 1905 by architect J W Start, was originally known as the Grand Theatre and incorporates a reconstruction of an 1889 theatre designed by Frank Matcham. The building features red brick with stone and stucco dressings and has slated roofs. It is three storeys high with an attic and showcases an asymmetrical Edwardian Baroque facade, consisting of four equal-width bays on the east side and one double-width bay on the west. The ground floor was altered around 1960.

On the first floor, there is one west bay window, three central pedimented windows, and one east roundel. The second floor includes one segmental-headed west window, three central round-arched windows, and one east roundel. The first floor has brick pilaster divisions with stone rustication blocks, while the second floor features paired stone pilasters, each topped with an entablature that is broken forward. The central attic has a segmental pediment with three rounded openings and the lettering "Grand Theatre."

Inside, the theatre is decorated in a Neoclassical style with gilt and painted plaster. The first and second floor galleries have a bowed horseshoe gallery front. There are first-floor boxes on either side of the proscenium, supported by piers and ogee-headed arches, and the second floor has round-headed arches. The flat proscenium and distinctive ceiling, possibly designed by Hoffmann of Vienna, features an outer ribbed shell section and an inner shell with a cartouche coat of arms flanked by two reclining muses. The theatre is included in the listing due to the significance of its surviving auditorium and galleries.