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.

Venue: Playhouse Theatre
Town: Manchester, GB

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. The building was originally known as the Hippodrome (named 1902-1905) and opened on 6 October 1902. The theatre and its larger conjoined Grand Junction Theatre (named 1901-c.1905), were part of the theatrical empire of W. H. Broadhead. The two theatres were reportedly connected by an arcade, though most other researchers dispute this. The combined building of both theatres was the Broadhead's company headquarters for their circuit of 17 theatres across the North West of England. One researcher suggests that "aqua shows" with a water stage being installed were being considered during construction in 1901 "but did not come to fruition" (p273). There are also a few community stories that the smaller theatre was built in the same year as the larger theatre and not a year later as most accounts report, and that in that first year experiments were held including with animal performances, but the only document found to date to support these stories is one potentially speculative architectural drawing showing entrances for "horses" to a circular performance area. The theatre originally seated 1,500 and was used for variety acts, while the larger Grand Junction next door concentrated on staging dramatic productions. Fairly quickly in c.1905 the names and the contents of the two theatres were swapped for commercial reasons: this theatre the (former) Hippodrome became the Grand Junction Theatre and continued with dramatic works, while its more popular variety performances were transferred to use the bigger auditorium next door in the (