Hippodrome Casino

Right in the middle of London’s famous West End is a building, which has had a great influence on London’s colourful past. We are of course talking about the much-celebrated – Hippodrome, which was built in 1900 and has housed everything imaginable within the entertainment industry ever since, from being a circus building in the 1920s to a huge discotheque in the 80s and 90s. Yet another change is taking place within the famous walls of the Hippodrome and this time it’s being transformed into the United Kingdom’s biggest and best casino.

Leicester Square

Most people who have either been to London or know of the city have heard of Leicester Square; London’s second biggest tourist attraction. This is where you find the Hippodrome, every day almost a quarter of a million people walk past the building and the nearest underground station – Leicester Square Station – is being used by over 40 million people every year. Amongst all these people passing by not many are aware of what’s going on in the old building. From the outside it looks a bit shabby, but before you know it the building will shine like it did before and once again be the focal point for anyone wanting a fun filled night out in London.

Stars in their eyes

The Hippodrome was built by the highly respected Victorian architect, Frank Matcham, for 250.000 pounds in 1900. When it first emerged it was London’s circus venue numero uno and housed a 455.000 litre pool for swimming elephants and diving dwarfs and if that didn’t take one’s fancy in terms of being entertained, one could always visit the polar bear cages, also situated within this massive building. When circus was no longer the thing to do, the Hippodrome was turned into a revue, where all the greatest stars of the era performed. England’s first showing of the Swan Lake ballet was staged here and a 12-year old Julie Andrews – best known from the musical The Sound of Music - made her debut here in October 1947.

Talk of the Town

In 1957 was the building taken over by Charles Forte, who decided to reconstruct its interior. He installed a false roof and decided to change the building’s name from the Hippodrome to the ‘Talk of the Town’. It was no longer a revue but rather a cabaret and once again the most famous faces of the era popped by to strut their stuff, amongst these were Frank Sinatra, Judy Garland, Sammy Davis Junior and Shirley Bassey. This went down for years until cabaret became something of a corny way of being entertained and that’s when Peter Stringfellow – England’s equivalent to Hugh Hefner – decided to take over. It was 1983 and cocaine and neon lights were all the rage, thus the ‘Talk of the Town’ was transformed into an enormous three floor discotheque. For 22 years the discotheque changed owners numerous times, until 2005 when the place lost its alcohol licence due to noise, fights and general rowdiness outside the building every night. Understandably the neighbours in the surrounding area had had enough and the Talk of the Town had generated a bad reputation.

New times

Suffice to say there’s no disco without an alcohol licence and since 2005 the building has been in some sort of hibernation mode and no one seemed to know what to do with it until a few years ago when a couple of investors had a great idea. They decided that the traditional Hippodrome casino needs to revisit the grandeur of its glory days and what better way to do that than to make it into a fabulous casino of the 21st century with everything that entails.

A huge casino

Reconstruction of the building’s interior started in July 2009 and should be done by September 2011, right in time for the Olympics in the summer of 2012. According to the chairman of the Hippodrome Casino, Simon Thomas, the casino will be open 24 hours a day, house 30 game tables, 150 slot machines, a card room, a so-called high stakes room, a restaurant and five bars. Furthermore the rooms for gambling will be shared into categories for different types of players, for amateurs who won’t have to feel intimidated by professionals, and for professionals who will be left alone playing serious poker with serious poker faces without being bothered by a bunch of fun loving amateurs.

Physical restoration of the building takes two years and architectural features include a Minstrel’s Gallery, Flemish Renaissance plasterwork or nate mosaics and balustrades. Entering the building we can find a 200-cover Michelin star restaurant that is looking over the 60-foot high atrium. The restaurant has been subcontracted to Gordon Ramsey Holdings. Further to the restaurant there is a bar, and on the top floor an impressive smoking area. The vast casino floor will be specious enough to have the industry’s newest electronic multiplayer systems along with the very popular traditional games and tables too. For the poker lovers, the basement of the building will house a Dedicated Poker room and a Sports Lounge that will be available for private parties, or events. The full cost of the entire restoration will be an estimated £15 million.

Just like old times

The people behind the brand new Hippodrome Casino want to give visitors a little extra, so they’ve decided to open a small cabaret with room for 180 people. By re-opening the cabaret they hope to give guests a glimpse of the past – into the fabulous history of the Hippodrome. This will shine through in the décor of the casino by screens depicting silhouettes of elephants, light shades and bar stools portraying famous cabaret singers and much more. There is no doubt that visiting ’The Hippodrome Casino’ will be a great and exciting experience full of ‘old school’ entertainment.