Playhouse Theatre, Manchester

The Playhouse Theatre, as of 2024 a community arts centre called the Niamos Centre, is a theatre in Hulme, Manchester, England. It is a grade II listed building. Originally built as the Hulme Hippodrome in 1902 with a name swap in 1906, the building has also been known as the Grand Junction Theatre, Junction Picture Theatre, The Playhouse, and the Nia Centre. Between 1955 and 1986 it was used as studios by the BBC and known as the BBC Playhouse.

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Hulme Hippodrome

The Hulme Hippodrome in Manchester, England, is a shuttered Grade II listed building, a proscenium arch theatre with two galleries and a side hall. It was originally known as the Grand Junction Theatre and Floral Hall, and opened on 7 October 1901 on the former main road of Preston Street, Hulme, (now Clopton Walk) and with stage access is from Warwick Street. The Hulme Hippodrome theatre is located in the same building and shares a party wall with its small sibling theatre, The Playhouse. The Hippodrome was a music hall and variety theatre, a repertory theatre in the 1940s, and hired on Sundays for recording BBC programmes with live audiences between 1950 and 1956. In the 1960s and 1970s it was a bingo hall, and from 2003 used by a disgraced church. The theatre has been closed since 2018 and a campaign group exists to bring it back into use as a community resource, where the current owner is seeking permission to build apartments. Its local name in memoirs and records is 'Hulme Hipp'. Its national heritage significance includes being the venue for live recording the first three series of BBC programmes by the comedians Morecambe and Wise.

Hulme

Hulme () is an inner city area and electoral ward of Manchester, in Greater Manchester, England, immediately south of Manchester city centre. It has a significant industrial heritage. Historically in Lancashire, the name Hulme is derived from the Old Norse word for a small island, or land surrounded by water or marsh, indicating that it may have been first settled by Norse invaders in the period of the Danelaw.

Hulme Community Garden Centre

Hulme Community Garden Centre (HCGC) is a garden and community centre in Hulme, Manchester, England. It was featured in a 2017 episode of the TV show Gardener's World.

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This is Camp X-Ray

This is Camp X-Ray is an art installation created by the artist Jai Redman, a member of the Ultimate Holding Company (UHC) art collective. The installation was a full-scale replica of part of the United States military Guantanamo Bay detainment camp, and featured actors performing the roles of guards and prisoners in cells and interrogation rooms, as well as demonstration of known interrogation techniques. This is Camp X-Ray was constructed in the Hulme area of the city of Manchester and was operational from Friday 10 October to Saturday 18 October 2003. Costing approximately £3000, the Arts Council England covered half the cost. Due to the political nature of the project, the installation received a few complaints including from Conservative party MP Andrew Rosindell, and David Lee the editor of the arts newspaper The Jackdaw. Lee said "This is simply a reconstruction, it is bald documentary and has nothing to do with art. The Arts Council supports this kind of stuff rather than supporting good art. It is both corrupt and corrupting." A DVD video documenting the live installation, entitled This is Camp X-Ray: Manchester Responds To Injustice With Art, by Damien Mahoney was released in December 2004. The DVD includes an interview with the sisters of Jamal Udeen Al-Harith, a Manchester resident who was detained in the real Camp X-Ray for two and a half years without charge. Al-Harith later traveled to Syria, joined the Islamic State, and was confirmed to have carried out a suicide car bombing at an Iraqi army base near Mosul in February 2017.