Item Type: Series

Linked To

Collection

Organisation

Sydney City Council

Creating agencies

City Architect and Building Surveyor's Department I

Related activities

Construction and maintenance of buildings and structures

Plan

Plans in this Series (11)

Box

Boxes in this Series (2)

Series

Succeeding series

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Plans of the Hippodrome

Description

Unique IDAS-0296Start dateBetween 25th September 1913 and 18th January 1915Start date qualifiercircaFormatPlanShort descriptionThis series contains the original architectural plans of the Hippodrome prepared by the City Building Surveyor's Department I, 1913-1915.DescriptionThis series contains the original architectural plans of the Hippodrome prepared in the period 1913-1915 by the City Building Surveyor's Department I (AG-0078).

The building, located in the Haymarket, has a frontage of 112 feet to Campbell and Hay Streets, and 172 feet to Parker Street and formed a portion of the block of buildings on the Sir William Manning Market site (Belmore Markets). Owned by the Council, the building was rebuilt in 1914 and 1915 from the former Belmore Markets Building (fruit and vegetable section) of reinforced concrete and was installed with an elaborate system of fire sprinklers, claimed to be advanced for the time.

The Hippodrome's stalls were arranged in the form of an amphitheatre round a water pit of 40 feet diameter and 12 feet depth, for acts of performing animals, such as seals and polar bears. On the same space a platform could be made level with the stage by means of hydraulic power to be used as a circus ring.

The building was constructed for, and leased to, Wirth Bros to be used as a hippodrome (a building with an arena for equestrian or circus acts), circus theatre, opera house, concert hall, vaudeville entertainment hall, for "photo-plays" (cinema) as required. It opened in April 1916.

The lease was transferred to Union Theatres Ltd on 20 July 1927 and the Hippodrome was remodelled as a cinema (the Capitol Theatre) and opened on Easter Saturday, 1928.

The building ceased being used as a cinema during the 1970s and was utilised for live theatre, including rock concerts, opera and ballet. A heritage conservation order was placed on the building in 1981, preventing its demolition. The last concert was performed in 1984.

During the 1990s the lease was transferred to Ipoh Garden Developments Pty Ltd. At this time the Capitol Theatre underwent a detailed restoration and reconstruction to recover the original 1928 experience. It opened again in July 1995 as a stage theatre with the production of Miss Saigon.

The plans are original tracings on linen. They have been stored flat with rest of the plans for Council-owned buildings. At some stage all of these plans, including the Hippodrome's, were numbered by the Planning Department with a large purple stamp in the left-hand corner. These numbers have been retained as the control numbers for this series.

The item numbers jump from 1065 to 1069 because the numbers were allocated to the plans of a different building.
Relationship summaryRELATED TO: Construction and maintenance of buildings and structures AY-0001 (25/09/1913 to 18/01/1915)LanguageEnglish (eng)

Plan

Plans of the Hippodrome: plan at Dress Circle Level, No 2

Plans of the Hippodrome: plan at pit stalls level, No 1

Plans of the Hippodrome: basement and foundation plan, No 4

Plan - Hippodrome elevation to Campbell Street Number 9, Haymarket, 1913

Plans of the Hippodrome: elevation to Parker Street, No 8

Plan - Hippodrome amended elevations to Parker Street and Hay Street, Haymarket, 1915

Plans of the Hippodrome: plan at gallery level; part plan pit stalls level, basement plan -

Plan - Hippodrome, elevation to Hay Street, No 7, 1913

Plans of the Hippodrome: cross section, No 6

Plans of the Hippodrome: longitudinal section, No 5

Plans of the Hippodrome: plan at Gallery level, No 3

Box

CSA028110

CSA027066

Series

Plans of the Capitol Theatre [Municipal Council of Sydney / City of Sydney]

Access

Public access statusRestricted original (digital copy available)

Identification and Arrangement

Source system ID296System of arrangementSingle number

Digitisation

Digitisation statusFully digitised

Data Quality

Authenticity & integrityThese are the original Plans of the Hippodrome held by the Municipal Council of Sydney. The record has been held in the Council’s custody and has a high level of authenticity.

Relationships

CollectionCapitol TheatreCircuses in the CityOrganisationSydney City CouncilCreating agenciesCity Architect and Building Surveyor's Department IRelated activitiesConstruction and maintenance of buildings and structures

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Plans of the Hippodrome