Boscombe Hippodrome Royal Ballrooms

Boscombe Hippodrome, now known as the Royal Ballrooms, is a theatre built between 1893 and 1895 by Lawson and Donkin for Archibald Beckett. It was altered around 1908. The building is constructed of red brick with stone dressings and has slate roofs. It was part of a larger development that included the Royal Arcade and the now-demolished Salisbury Hotel.

Behind shops on Christchurch Road, the layout includes a foyer, stairs, and a billiard hall above the shops, and a large auditorium with two U-shaped balconies, the lower of which has a promenade running behind a Dutch Renaissance style design. The south front, facing Christchurch Road, is two storeys in height. The ground floor houses shops with later applied fascias, and a central theatre entrance with a canopy. Above the shops are 2 bays to the left with 3-light mullion-transom windows with segmental heads, carved stone panels, and small attic windows, topped by Dutch gables with urns and balustrade parapets. The three bays to the right feature three tall mullion-transom windows with round heads, the central one being foiled.

The interior is an unusual auditorium with the character of an earlier music hall. The stalls are surrounded by a shallow U-shaped balcony supported on iron columns with a semi-circular end and straight sides, featuring an openwork iron balustrade with acanthus leaf decoration. Tall iron columns rise from the front of the balcony to support the ceiling, adorned with decorated openwork iron spandrels. A wide promenade runs around the back of the balcony. Above the promenade is a second, shallower balcony set back behind the arcade. Original bench seating remains in the balconies, but the stall seats have been removed. Originally, the balconies ran straight up to the proscenium wall, but around 1908, paired boxes were installed on either side with Baroque plasterwork, and the proscenium was rebuilt. From the front foyer, staircases with cast-iron balusters provide access to the balconies and the large billiard hall above the shops.