Tucked away on Seaside Road, a few streets from the sea, stands Eastbourne’s oldest theatre — and one of its great survivors. The Royal Hippodrome has hosted Houdini and Chaplin, been bombed, threatened with demolition and written off more than once, yet still raises its curtain today, saved by the town itself. Here’s its remarkable story.
A theatre for the new town, 1883
In the early 1880s, booming Eastbourne had no proper theatre — and the Duke of Devonshire showed no urgency to build one. So a group of local businessmen took matters into their own hands, engaging one of the leading theatre architects of the age: C. J. Phipps, designer of some thirty theatres including London’s Savoy. Built for around £9,000 without a penny of public money, the New Theatre Royal and Opera House opened on Seaside Road on 2 August 1883, with the famous comic actor J. L. Toole on stage and the street outside reportedly thronged with carriages. Inside, audiences found a jewel-box auditorium of stalls, twin horseshoe balconies and boxes, decorated in cream and gold with peacock-blue upholstery — modelled partly on Phipps’s Savoy — and the venture carried a Royal Patent granted by the Prince of Wales. The D’Oyly Carte companies soon arrived with Gilbert and Sullivan, and the theatre was such a hit that the Duke promptly changed his mind and built the Devonshire Park Theatre the very next year.
The music hall years
After two decades as a “legitimate” playhouse, the theatre was refurbished and relaunched in December 1904 as the Eastbourne Hippodrome, licensed as a music hall. Variety was now the order of the day — comedians, singers, circus turns, illusionists and the newfangled moving pictures — with waiters serving drinks to patrons at their seats, much to the annoyance of local publicans. The roll-call of stars who trod its boards reads like a history of British entertainment: Marie Lloyd, Vesta Tilley, Little Tich, Fred Karno, Harry Lauder, George Robey, a young Charlie Chaplin, Gracie Fields, Flanagan and Allen and Max Miller among them.
Did you know? When the great escapologist Harry Houdini played the Hippodrome in 1905, he reportedly staged one of his signature stunts in town — escaping from the cells at Eastbourne police station.
Bombs and big names
The theatre closed for part of the Second World War — though not before a young Hylda Baker appeared in early 1942 — and in 1943 it came within a whisker of destruction when an air raid obliterated the garage nearby, part of Eastbourne’s ordeal as one of the most-bombed towns on the south coast. The blast stripped away much of the auditorium’s ornate plasterwork, which wouldn’t be fully restored for half a century. Yet the post-war years brought a golden parade of talent under summer-season lights: Vera Lynn, Peter Sellers, Harry Secombe, Ken Dodd, Tommy Trinder — and Bruce Forsyth, who was appearing at the Hippodrome when he got the career-making call to compere Sunday Night at the London Palladium. Eastbourne Borough Council bought the building in 1958 after a plan to turn it into a television studio fell through.
Decline, demolition threats and rescue
The late 20th century was unkind. Audiences dwindled, 1970s alterations stripped out the balcony plasterwork and boxes, and by the 1990s there was talk of demolition. That’s when the town fought back: local supporters raised a restoration fund, the boarded-up proscenium arch was restored, boxes were reinstated — and in 2001 the building was Grade II listed, securing its future. Along the way the old place kept collecting stories: Paul McCartney and Wings used it as a rehearsal space in 1979, and it starred in the opening sequence of a 1990 French and Saunders episode. From 2014 the theatre passed into the hands of a Community Interest Company run for the town’s benefit, and in 2023 its devoted operators, local couple Alex and Debbie Adams, bought it from the council outright — completing one of Eastbourne’s happiest heritage rescues.
The Hippodrome today
Today the Royal Hippodrome is thriving: beautifully refurbished, community-run and busy year-round with musicals, tribute shows, comedy, pantomime and one of the longest-running summer seasons in the country — still playing in an auditorium that remains recognisably the one Phipps built in 1883. It even embraces its legends, running popular ghost tours around its haunted corners (the resident spirit “Emily” features in our haunted Eastbourne guide), and opens its doors for Heritage Open Days tours. For what’s playing now, see our what’s on in Eastbourne guide.
The Royal Hippodrome: FAQs
How old is the Royal Hippodrome Theatre?
It opened on 2 August 1883 as the New Theatre Royal and Opera House, making it Eastbourne’s oldest theatre — over 140 years old and still going strong.
Who designed the Royal Hippodrome?
C. J. Phipps, one of the great Victorian theatre architects, whose thirty-odd theatres included London’s Savoy. The Eastbourne auditorium’s cream-and-gold scheme was partly modelled on it.
Which famous stars performed at the Hippodrome?
An extraordinary list: Harry Houdini, Marie Lloyd, Charlie Chaplin, Gracie Fields and Max Miller in the music hall era; Vera Lynn, Peter Sellers, Ken Dodd and Bruce Forsyth after the war. Paul McCartney and Wings rehearsed there in 1979.
Who owns the Royal Hippodrome now?
It’s community-owned in spirit and practice — run as a Community Interest Company and bought outright from the council in 2023 by its operators, local couple Alex and Debbie Adams.
More stage & stories: the theatres of Devonshire Park, the ghosts of haunted Eastbourne, and the famous people of Eastbourne.